Lenny Kravitz (Hearts) Burgundies

There are so many reasons I go to Cru on Manhattan's lower Fifth Avenue. The food is awesome—Shea Gallante, who was an F&W Best New Chef in 2005, makes some of the most delicious pastas in town (the pappardelle with duck bolognese is especially good). The cocktails are great and the bar boasts some spirits that are quite literally priceless, specifically a bottle of Old Mohawk Whiskey that was distilled in May of 1892 and has a typewritten label (the 1974 Pernod Fils green absinthe does have a price: about $80 a shot). And then there's the wine. Sommelier and co-owner Robert Bohr, whom I worship, has a 200-something page list (two books—one for reds, one for whites) and thousands of bottles of wine at his disposal. I'm not the only one who appreciates it. Lenny Kravitz was there the other night, drinking a double magnum of 1988 G. Mascarello Barolo Monprivato (not by himself; he had his band with him—they're finishing up an album, "It's Time for a Love Revolution"). If you talk to him for a couple minutes you'll find out that: a) he's hugely into rich, deep terroir-driven wines, especially Burgundies; b) he's even cuter in real life than he is on MTV; and c) he's both psyched and apprehensive about his upcoming two-year tour—loves performing, wishes he could go back to his New York apartment after each show. Maybe, as an antidote for homesickness, he should stock Burgundies backstage.