Grüv Bistro & Wine Bar now open in Belleville

Belleville has a new spot to grab some tasty bites and fine drinks. As reported by Feast Magazine, Grüv Bistro & Wine Bar opened for business in late December 2022 at 223 E. Main St. in downtown Belleville. 

Co-owners Kierra Hennings and Daniel Gonzalez, who worked together at Gonzalez’s other Belleville eatery, Casa Maria, had been planning to team up to open a new place for a while, Hennings said. Initially, the thought was for that to be a coffee shop. Then people kept telling them about an available space that used to house The Wine Tap, a Belleville staple that shuttered during the pandemic, and had been vacant for a couple of years. They checked it out and fell in love.

“It’s so perfectly set up to be a wine bar, so that night we actually went out to a wine bar and talked about it, and we decided that’s what we were going to do,” Hennings said.

Despite not having much of a background in vino, the duo took the plunge and immersed themselves in the world of wine. 

“It just all fell together perfectly,” Hennings said. “We got the place in May and started redoing pretty much everything from the ground up.” Hennings said she can’t exactly remember how she and Gonzalez came up with the name Grüv from all of the possibilities they threw around. “But I remember we decided on Grüv because it’s cute, funky and the way it is spelled gives it a touch of elegance,” she said.

Grüv boasts 89 seats, including the heated, enclosed back patio, which also sports a retractable roof. There will be a front patio as well when spring arrives, and the second-floor party room, currently under renovation, will add an additional 50 or so seats when it’s completed.

The beverage selections include wines (of course) at all price points that rotate frequently, plus eight taps of craft beers and a selection of craft cocktails. Initially, the food menu was limited to pizza, tapas and apps, but Hennings said it’s currently being expanded.

“It’s a very tiny kitchen, so the menu has to be limited,” Hennings said, adding that the team is quickly learning all that they can do with the limited space. Recent specials have included a pork shank with garlic-gouda mashed potatoes that Hennings said has sold “beautifully” every time it’s been offered. The back patio also sports a brick oven that they plan to put to use as well in the near future.