Dishin': Run, Rabbit, Run to Grand Cru
Over in Bellevue, just a bit off the beaten path (really, just a bit) is a wine bar that's serving up some excellent sips and dishes in a contemporary, European atmosphere. Grand Cru Wine Shop & Bar anchors the Ten20 Tower (a luxury apartment complex), and is well worth seeking out.
The menu offers a decent selection of small plates. We like most anything rolled in rice paper, and no exception was the braised rabbit roulade (pictured), with fresh herbs and sauteed leeks complimenting the flavor of the rabbit. If you're noticing three wine glasses in the photo, that's a clue about the creative wine flights available on the wine list. (That particular trio was called "It's Good to Be King!")
Grand Cru is a great place to learn more about wine and enjoy life as an oenophile. The staff is knowledgeable and interested in helping to explain the wine choices. There are VIP memberships that offer great savings, extended happy hours with discounts, and frequent special events. Every Thursday, for example, Grand Cru hosts a drop-in tasting which gets you five wine samples and some bites of food for $15. Best of all, tonight's event coincides with an art opening in the Galerie de Grand Cru Tasting Room featuring this Seattlest's partner, Akiko Kino, who'll be showing her unique, abstract oil paintings.
