The Cellar Door

On Friday we had lunch at The Cellar Door.

Located at 1600 Monument Avenue, we smiled at the sandwich board quote.

We liked the bright interior.

We marveled that no one was here eating lunch.

For lunch (since it was a gorgeous day and we both were not at work) we ordered a botlle of 2007 Claar Cellars Cabernet-Merlot from the Columbia Valley in Washington State.

Our waitress related that she had not opened a bottle of vino in quite some time, but she handled the task in fine fashion. And the wine was yummy, yummy! And only $27.

To eat we ordered a 1/4 Peruvian chicken with jicama "fries"

Manchester chicken sandwich with regular fries and and order of corn salad

Everything was tasty. The chicken was a bit smaller than expected. The 1/4 was a leg and part of the back. The spicy dipping sauce, however, was awesome. The jicama "fries" sounded intriguing and I asked our waitress about them. Her description of the jicama having a bit of an apple consistency was spot on and she also told us they were sliced to look like fries. But even though I was acquainted with jicama, she did not say that the "fries" were served cold (or raw) and when I picked up the first one, I did a double-take. I should have known, but our waitress could have been more explicit, too. They were good, but I was shaken up a bit.

The chicken in the Manchester was sliced very thin. The tomato was bigger (hubby raved about the how good the tomato was). He really liked the bread - very crunchy on the outside, but almost cloud-like on the inside. Very impressive. The corn salad had corn cut right off the cob. Very nice.

We had mixed feelings eating here. We liked it and it if were in our neighborhood, we would visit occasionally. We weren't sure if our friends would like it (partly due to the smallish portions). We took the place to be more of a local hangout where you can enjoy the $1 PBR specials and the $3 Powers Whiskey and Guinness hour. One more note - if you are a vegetarian, consider trying this place. There were a number of vegetarian options on the menu.