CRU Food & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Alpharetta

I really didn’t plan on writing a review after having my birthday dinner here this past weekend, but being yelled at by the server was an alarming experience and I just felt the need to. To start, two people in my group had called to ask if we could make reservations for a Friday night for a larger party (9 people) and both times they were told no, they do not take reservations on a Friday night. So, some people showed up early to get our names on a list so we could get a table. When we got a table and everyone showed up, our server came around to take our orders. she was never very friendly but that’s okay. As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry since 16, trust me, I understand. We were sitting on the rooftop patio and we had checked the weather before showing up. it was supposed to be nice. However, rain clouds started to move in and it was drizzling a little. We asked if the umbrellas could be moved so that we weren’t getting rained on as we were eating our appetizers and were waiting on our dinner. Our server tried to move the umbrellas (which are very heavy, likely for good reason). One member in our group asked the server if he could help her, since they were clearly heavy and she told him no because it was a liability problem. I would like to point out that only one person heard her say this and the rest of the party was entirely unaware of the situation. After moving the umbrellas around a bit the table wasn’t entirely covered and some people were still being rained on. Anyways, the slight rain continued and one of the server assistants tried to move the umbrellas to help us out a little. The one guy in our group asked if he was sure he didn’t need help since the umbrellas are so heavy and the staff member accepted his help. We moved the umbrellas a little (we are talking a couple of inches in to cover the table). We go on eating and having a good time until our server comes up to drop off food and starts yelling at the one guy in our group. Im talking completely raised voice, cursing, and claiming that he had given her side eye all night (which is entirely untrue). I was shocked to say the least. I asked to speak to the manager because this was clearly such an issue and she yelled at us that she had been yelled at by management for our mistake. When we spoke to the manager, he was very nice and accommodating. We told him we were sorry and that most of the party hadn’t heard the issue about moving umbrellas and liability. He said it was okay and they were just unprepared because such a large party usually has a reservation…. yep. I clarified that we had called multiple times to make a reservation and were told they didn’t take reservations on a weekend. I was clearly upset and had to walk away while two other girls continued to speak to the manager. In the end my meal, appetizers, and wine flight was comped, which was very nice and i had told them it was entirely unnecessary. We were never able to order another glass of wine, which most of us would have liked to. We had been told earlier in the night that we had used up all of the wine glasses at the upstairs bar and she couldn’t get more from down stairs. I don’t know. it seemed weird since they were supposedly at half capacity but ok; Clearly not the biggest issue we had that night. Our server also never apologized directly to the guy who she had yelled at but she did apologize (kind of) to the table only after I told her I was sorry for getting her in trouble. This whole night really made me wonder how Cru trains their staff and what kind of standards they have. I’ve worked in a few different restaurants and I have never worked with anyone who thought it was a good idea to scream at customers. All in all, if you plan to have a birthday dinner here… don’t. I get it, we had been wrong, but being yelled at by a server over umbrellas really puts a damper on a night when you’re just trying to have fun...

Showed up at the restaurant at 7:10 and asked if we could sit at one of the 3-4 tables available outside. Manager Foster Smith informed us that we would need a reservation, so I asked to be placed on the waitlist after my friend and I were told there would be a 30-45 minute wait. I received a text immediately from the restaurant saying I’d been added to the list.

Great! Everything’s going fine up to this point. I’m even impressed with the expediency of the restaurant’s technology. I’d just returned from a few weeks in England and Croatia, where such technology is years away from implementation. My friend and I are well-dressed, well-mannered, and willing to wait despite the obviously open tables — always the optimist, I can’t even fathom that a problem will find its way into our evening.

After running into a friend from UGA and browsing through the Peter Millar store, we end up grabbing a beer at Barleygarden to pass the time until we get another message from Crú (which does not need the pretentious accent mark, by the way. The French word for vineyard “cru” carries no such accentuation and its superfluous usage here demonstrates the underlying ignorance of this enterprise.). Before we’ve even finished beer #1, I notice that it’s already 8:00 and I still haven’t heard back. Hmm. That’s odd, but maybe they’re just busy... on this Wednesday night? When they had open tables outside earlier? Doesn’t matter - I’m polite and don’t wish to return without an invite.

Lo and behold, my friend and I become hungry enough from waiting that we order food at Barleygarden around 8:30 — tasty food, too. The barkeep there actually told us that Cru has a tendency to give waitlisters the cold shoulder (much like Yale does, but with far less prestige). We stayed at Barleygarden and had a marvelous time until around 9:40.

On our way back to our vehicles, my friend and I passed Cru and decided to let the wait staff know that their text-messaging service wasn’t properly functioning. After running into a couple of my friends who help run a sorority’s national advisory board - a perfect pair to be enjoying a wine Wednesday - I asked to speak to the manager. Sure enough, Foster emerges (wearing a get-up that couldn’t have come from anywhere but Costco’s bargain bin) and left the restaurant laughing after a brief exchange in which he called me an “ass.”

I rarely feel compelled to leave a review anywhere, much less a negative one. However, the experience here was so substandard and insulting that I feel I must give voice to my outrage. Such disrespect in the town where I reside is intolerable.

I doubt I will ever return to sample this establishment’s overpriced offerings, but if I do, I expect to be treated like a human being. My chief recommendations for this restaurant are the reconsideration of their general manager’s employment, a reexamination of their reservation system, and a rebranding without the erroneous accented ú. I’d leave 0 stars if that were an...

We have been here several times and it’s always been great. However tonight was extremely different. We sat outside as I was waiting for another friend to join us I was asked how many I said 3 possibly a 4th. I asked for some bread and a sample of the Cab Franc. We ordered a bottle and were told happy hour was going to end in 30 minutes If we wanted to order anything off there. We ordered the goat cheese beignets, and the meatballs. I said we had another friend joining us. Was there anyway to add a table and was told that was a different section so we couldn’t do that. Was also told if there was going to be five people then it had to be on one check with one card. I’ve been here with five people many times and never had that situation. When my fourth friend joined us at the table. She ordered her tea and an appetizer the chicken lettuce wraps at 5:14 PM. We had another friend join us with her dog and ordered a glass of malback at that time we ordered a pizza, but noticed that the lettuce wrap still didn’t come out. When our pizza arrived, we asked for the lettuce wraps were she would check on it and then she told us two minutes. They brought it out like five minutes later after I said it had been 55 minutes since we ordered. And they looked like utter crap. It was chicken on lettuce wraps, soaking in a butter sauce we gave them back. The waitress was very abrupt and kind of rude to us the whole time. If this had been our first time here we would’ve never ever considered coming back and told our friends and family to stay Away. Customer service is everything and that fell extremely...