CRU Cafe Opens Today in Newport, Offers a New Menu Each Week

Opening a successful restaurant in Newport isn’t easy.

Competition is fierce: some of the best chefs in the state call the City-by-the-Sea home.

To attract a loyal following and generate enough business in the off-season, many restaurants here offer something unique, or put a fresh spin on a tradition to win over a public increasingly confronted with knockout food across the city.

It pays to be different and at CRU Café , which celebrated its grand opening today, different isn’t just a concept. It’s integral to the business plan.

Each week, Chef Brandon Teachout will offer a brand new menu that will reflect the passage of the seasons and what is available locally on land or from the sea.

It’s the latest venture for Russell Morin of Russell Morin Catering and Events, who said he’s thrilled to debut the concept.

“We have taken inspiration from our travels to catering events around the nation, as well as the abundance of fresh, local ingredients to develop a unique addition to the Newport community,” he said.

CRU Café is centrally located on Casino Terrace, just off Bellevue Avenue and right next to another of Morin’s ventures, VUE, which opened in 2014. It occupies space formerly home to Katrina’s Bakery and is what Morin says is a “cozy, boutique dining establishment.”

The idea is that the food is quickly prepared, handcrafted and will offer a new take on breakfast or lunch each week.

It could turn out to be a favorite breakfast and lunch spot if the offerings are as compelling as their opening menu promises.

For breakfast, consider Swine on English — a fried egg, mortadella, cru-made pimento cheese, cru hot sauce on an english muffin. Wash it down with a griddled cinnamon bun with praline topping and if you’re still hungry, a buttermilk biscuit with caraway beef cream cheese might hit the spot. That biscuit can also be topped with lobster and chorizo cream, or praline bacon and apple butter.

For lunch, the smoked tofu cobb at $9.5 includes artisan greens, egg, avocado, tomato, smoked tofu and white balsamic vinaigrette.

There’s the Maderia mushroom melt, with portabello, sauerkraut, gruyere, fontina, roasted garlic aioli on a baguette.

Want a grilled cheese? Order for $7 the griddled pimento — that cru-made pimento cheese has joined us for lunch too, served up on sourdough.

With a menu that has nothing on it for more than $10, the prices are aggressive, to say the least. Good luck finding a peppered shrimp po boy with creole remoulade, shredded lettuce and tomato on milano roll for $8.50 anywhere else.

The menu will be scrawled on the chalkboard walls each week. Or you can check them out on Facebook, where they’ll post updates to the menu on a regular basis.

CRU Café will be open daily at 7:30 a.m.for breakfast and lunch.

Along with a the space inside, there is patio dining outside.

For more information visit www.crucafenewport.com ; www.facebook.com/CruCafeNewport ; or Instagram @crucafe

Photos: CRU Café via Facebook.