Cellar Bistro
The Cellar Bistro has grapes hanging from the ceiling. Hanging grapes, along with the all red walls add to the cellar like feeling of the restaurant… hence its name. It is also home to some of the lesser known masterpieces. For example, above our table was a 4 foot velvet painting of the Godfather, Don Vito Corleone, stroking his cat.
I began dinner with the bread salad. I was expecting a traditional panzanella (bread) salad which normally has lots of olive oil soaked bread, vinegar, olives etc. However this was more similar to a house salad with reduced balsamic vinaigrette drizzled on top.
My girlfriend and I agreed on the Penne Fromaggi ($13.95), which is a “Cellar Bistro Favorite.” It consists of penne pasta mixed with a garlic cream sauce, gorgonzola and parmesan cheese, topped with toasted hazel nuts. Wow, creamy gorgonzola goodness! The best part of the dish was the use of penne. The great thing about cream sauces is that they cover, more like smother everything they are mixed with. But the added special effect with penne pasta is that the cream sauce gets inside the holes, which just adds more sauce with each bite. The down side to this dish was the hazel nuts. I find it disappointing when you’re enjoying a soft food and all of a sudden there is a CRUNCH in your bite full of food.
I couldn’t pass up the Chicken Saltimbocca ($15.95), which is a breaded chicken breast topped with prosciutto (hmmm, cured meats!), melted mozzarella cheese and a Dijon cream sauce. The two chicken breasts were joined by a healthy serving of pasta and beans. Chicken was sautéed perfectly, very moist. The prosciutto wasn’t stuffed inside the breast but was instead layered on top which leads to some difficulty when trying to cut your food. The only other thing that could have made this dish better is if I had ordered veal saltimbocca.
Homemade Red Velvet Cake ($4.95) was chosen for dessert as it was deemed the house specialty. This cake is three layers of devil’s food cake with velvet cream icing in between each layer. If this was the house specialty then I’m happy that I didn’t order any of their other deserts. The cake was not more special than anything you could make at home by yourself. Also the icing was so sugary that it hurt my teeth. We had a couple of bites each and left the rest of it untouched.
The Cellar Bistro definitely makes some really tasty food. It just happens that they really excel in the core dishes such as pastas and meats. Save your time and money and stay away from the salads and desserts and instead fill up on their main courses.
I would like to see a photo of Vito!