City Cellar Wine Bar & Grill
1080 Corporate Dr.
Westbury
516-693-5400
www.bigtimerestaurants.com
At first sight, a Corporate Drive Westbury location seems appropriate for City Cellar. Open just over a year, the place is all windows and brick, an open kitchen, soaring ceiling and pillars radiating from the massive glass-enclosed wine cache behind the bar, the focus of the large space. It’s bright and airy by day, packed with energy by night. But despite its size and being born of a Florida restaurant group, there’s a distinctly small-restaurant emphasis on service and an adventurous menu. Plus, without deep corporate pockets, how else could such an impressive room be built? Service is friendly, well-trained, snappy and organized, with the focus on wine, many available in half bottles and 40 very nice choices by the glass. On Mondays, bottles are half price. There are also $12 flights-a tasting of three-available every day. But what they call their “multiethnic” menu is just as potent a draw.
There are many options for a casual meal after a day of shopping, or a grand dinner, with ethnicity largely defined as Asian. A lunchtime Caesar Salad with chicken ($13.50) was a worthy contender and large enough for two. Another shareable lunch salad, Chopped Chicken Salad ($13.50), with onions, sugar snaps and bok choy in a spicy ginger vinaigrette, is another fine option, but cashews, which were forgotten, would have added flavor.
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At dinner, I admit I was stunned to see the Thai national dish, Mee Grob (sometimes spelled Mee Krob) take center stage in the masterful Seared Tuna on Mee Grob ($13.50) appetizer. The sweet-glazed, crispy rice-noodle dish is hard enough to find even at Thai restaurants, and to be the cylindrically constructed bed under the perfectly turned out sliced rare tuna was innovatively uncorporate. They upped the ante on the popular Italian appetizer Calamari Fritto Misto ($10.50), including fried poblano pepper strips and surprising fried lemon slices with the squid. I daydreamed about an entire order of lemon slices. A glass of smooth J. Lohr “Seven Oaks” Cabernet Sauvignon ($9) was the perfect complement to the Lamb Shank ($26) paraded out from the large kitchen, very tall with a rosemary sprig jutting out of the bone and piled even higher with a massive tangle of crunchy sweet parsnips. The meat is fall-off-the-bone tender and the wine sauce mingles with pureed potatoes underneath. Hardy, solid and nice to look at. Less inspiring was Gnocchi al Forno ($22), with overcooked pasta. But I was completely knocked out by Crabmeat Crusted Chilean Sea Bass ($32), set on a potato pancake and pooled lemon butter. With big crab flavor, it outshines any version of this overused fish I’ve tasted. Flavorful and well-integrated Yellowfin Tuna Steak ($27), sliced, sesame-seed coated and paired with fragrant jasmine rice, is another top Asian choice.
Meal-ending, show-stopping Banana Cream Doughnuts ($7.50), three fruit-topped cream puffs with vanilla gelato, disappeared quickly and will not soon be forgotten. Apple Strudel ($7.50), with cinnamon gelato and caramel sauce, was over the top also.
If this is corporate food culture, please connect me with your human resources department-I want to be recruited.
