Cory Waddell and Tom Viola are both classically trained chefs, and they built Cru Dining around a division of talent that guests feel at the table. Cory works behind the scenes on cohesive, precisely crafted courses, and Tom looks after every detail in the room and keeps guests company with his knowledge of food and wine. Their menu of experiences had grown to include tasting dinners, cocktail hours, wine tastings, corporate lunches, special event catering, cooking classes, and weekly chef-prepared meals.
That range needed a name and a voice. Fine dining in someone's home can read as stuffy or out of reach, and a host choosing a private chef wants to know whether their guests will feel at ease. The brand had to carry real culinary skill and a generous, easygoing hospitality in the same breath.
We worked through three rounds of naming and landed on Cru Dining, with the clarifier Curated Tasting Events and In-Home Fine Dining and the line A Complete Culinary Experience for Any Occasion. The brand introduction opens on the heart of it, all the flavors and finesse of fine dining with none of the pomp or pretense. From there we created the visual identity, wrote the website, designed it around the experiences hosts ask about most, and built a contact form that asks about the occasion, guest count, and dietary needs.
Today Cru Dining has a name, a voice, and a website that sound like the two chefs behind it, and hosts can see the range of experiences and reach out with the details that matter. Cory and Tom have language they can use in every conversation about what they do, along with email marketing tools to stay in touch with the people they serve.
