Near the eastern edge of downtown, at the base of the somewhat new Holiday Inn, sits the Spoon & Cellar restaurant. My wife and I stopped in for a date night dinner on a chilly November evening before a concert at the nearby Taft Theatre. We had an OpenTable reservation and upon our arrival, we were immediately seated and quickly drinks and a complimentary dish of bruschetta arrived. It was a nice touch and we are off to a great start to our meal.

Bruschetta

We also decided to split the spinach and artichoke dip starter with a nice pale ale based cheese dip and lavash crisps ($10). We were quite happy with this started and it was more than enough for our table of two.

Spinach & Artichoke Dip

I also spied the french onion soup on the menu ($5), and I had to give it a try. The tasty soup was covered in a large melted mount of gruyere cheese and plenty of soggy croutons.

French Onion Soup

With so much food already, I decided to order a handheld sandwich for dinner. The cellar club sandwich comes topped with roasted turkey, crispy pancetta, lingonberry chutney, lettuce, tomato, and garlic aioli on sourdough with fries on the side ($11). This was a pretty standard club sandwich, though the lingonberry chutney added a nice sweetness.

Cellar Club Sandwich

My wife ordered the crab cakes from the starter menu as her meal ($8). The plate would be ideal for 2 to share but wouldn’t provide a lot for larger groups. For her, it was the perfect sized meal after already filling start to our meal. Overall I think she would have tried something else on a future visit as she was not overly impressed by these crab cakes.

Crab Cakes

Overall we had a good first visit to Spoon & Cellar. I don’t think this will be a regular location for our family meals, but it would be nice for future date nights. Especially when going to a show and play nearby.