Crossing Vineyards and Winery has made it even easier to order food, wine, and cocktails while visiting the Washington Crossing-area winery. Each table, whether indoors or outdoors, has a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone. From there, visitors can view menus and place orders right from their fingertips.
Crossing Vineyards is offering no-contact food and drink ordering.
“You do it all on your phone,” said Tom Carroll Sr., who owns Crossing Vineyards with his wife, Christine, and their son and winemaker, Tom Jr. “You get a text when yours is ready to pick up.”
The winery offers three pickup tables where orders can be retrieved.
The no-contact ordering was born from the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, even as restrictions are being lifted, the Carrolls said the easier ordering and pickup is here to stay. (Outside food and beverages are not permitted at Crossing Vineyards).
Another amenity resulting from the pandemic was the addition of new furniture on the terrace, which boasts picturesque views of the vineyard and meticulously cared for grounds. With the additional seats, the terrace comfortably seats 72.
A view of Crossing Vineyards’ freshly replanted vines.
The Carrolls recently upgraded the area where grapes are crushed, and the winemaking process begins. The family is looking to convert it into an overflow seating area, aptly dubbed “The Crush Pad.” The newly poured concrete pad will offer six tables with seating for 50.
“People can come here and hang out,” Christine Carroll said, adding that The Crush Pad will have an industrial look and feel. “You are literally in the winery.”
Similarly, all of Crossing Vineyards’ wine tastings are done inside the winery amid wine barrels and vats. The seated 45-minute tastings include 10 wines and offers “an educational tasting and a fun tasting,” Tom Carroll Sr. said. *Reservations are required for wine tastings and can be booked online here.
Crossing Vineyards’ tasting room.
Besides the new seating available, Crossing also has ample seating in its indoor garden room, cottage and the cozy McAvoy’s Bar and lounge, which opened about three years ago. The space is named for Mike McAvoy, who had been working with the Carroll family to add the bar and died in the middle of the project. Deer antlers above the fireplace are a nod to McAvoy, who Tom Carroll Sr. said was a “huge hunter.”
On the weekends, Crossing Vineyards offers complimentary valet parking. Live music is available most Saturdays and some Sundays. In addition, the ever-popular annual Summer Wine & Music Series continues in 2021 with eight Friday evening concerts.
Warmer weather also means the “Crushie” is back. The wine slushies are made from rose’ wine, an organic mix with no added sugars and a “secret formula” featuring vodka. The frozen drink got its name from Crossing + Slushie = Crushie.
“It’s a slushie with spirit,” Christine Carroll said.
“Our slushies are really crushies because they crush the slushie,” Tom Carroll Sr. said.
Outside of the vineyard and winery that the Carroll family has run on a 200-year-old estate since 2000, Crossing Vineyards is expanding its reach with the addition of wine bars in New Hope, Scranton, and most recently, in Dublin. The Boiler Room by Crossing Vineyards will open May 28, 2021 at The Square, in Dublin.
The Boiler Room by Crossing Vineyards opens May 28, 2021.
The Carrolls continue to grow their family-run business, offering new events and experiences constantly.
“There’s always something going on,” Tom Carroll Sr. said.
Crossing Vineyards is owned by (from left) Tom Carroll Jr., Christine Carroll and Tom Carroll Sr.