First Look: Wild Crush Wine Bar(n) in Town & Country

Wild Crush Wine Bar(n) is bringing a rural winery feel a little closer to the city when it officially opens Friday, Oct. 22, at 13360 Clayton Road in Town & Country. The space is the brainchild of co-owners Jay Delsing and Karen Paslawski, who had the idea that people should come, drink great wine and enjoy the view. Wild Crush is part of a development called Town Square that houses other restaurants and shops. The back of the development, where Wild Crush has a patio that seats around 60 (the interior seats around 50), overlooks a big outdoor green space with walkways and a water feature. “This whole place is a gorgeous park," Delsing said. "We’re working on the ability to have weddings out here in the future.” 

The main draw is, of course, the wine. Wild Crush utilizes a wine preservation system called WineStation, which allows bottles of wine to be opened and kept fresh for up to 60 days in a temperature-controlled environment. The system uses argon gas as a seal to keep oxygen from oxidizing the opened wine. The 24-bottle machine is self-dispensing. Customers purchase reloadable cards that act as currency to the machine, and they can can walk up to the machine and choose what wines they want to try. 

The card enables customers to select between a 2-, 4- or 6-ounce pour, which are all priced clearly depending on what bottle they select to try. An expensive bottle from Caymus will run about $15 dollars for 2 ounces, but there are options as low as $3 for a 2-ounce pour, which encourages people to try different things. Once a card has purchased 16 ounces total, an employee will have to reactivate the card to help keep things under control. Apart from the wine dispensing machine, there's also a list of bottles for purchase, as well as beer from Anheuser-Busch, Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. and Four Hands Brewing Co.

A small selection of cocktails will be on offer, like the Buckin’ Bronco espresso martini or the Don Draper Old-Fashioned with Dewar's Rye, Angostura bitters, simple syrup and orange peel. They will also have a frozen machine that’ll churn out seasonal cocktails like frosés, frozen margaritas or a frozen bourbon whiskey smash.

On the food side, they’re partnering up with St. Louis Cheese Boards to provide grazing boards. The vegan version has crudité like rainbow carrots, snap peas and cucumbers with vegan tzatziki dip. There's also a fruit board and a more traditional meat and cheese board. 

Wild Crush will have their grand opening on Oct. 22 and will be open Wednesday and Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m., Friday from 4 to 10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.