The Cellar, and our first VT game night

Welcome back butts,

So game night in Blacksburg is just about as insane as game night in Lincoln, albeit more colorful with more accents. What better way to commemorate this night of people walking in front of your car/drivers forgetting their manners than getting dinner downtown! Enter The Cellar.

Colton: We walked in and said to ourselves "Oh." Typical of our behavior in Lincoln, we misjudged how much the football crazies fill up real establishments and not just football stadiums. The place was packed, but we found a table and sat down. The waitress came up and started to say something when someone else went "Let's go" and in case we forgot who should be going, everyone else in the restaurant said "Hokies!". They did this a few times and the waitress just said in between chants, "It'll pass." and then began talking when it did. We picked an appetizer without looking things over too much, since we needed to be efficient. Mussels bruschetta it is! The beer selection, like most of the places we've gone to up to now, was very gewd. 

Laura: Yeah! They had this pretty good grapefruit beer with a puffer fish on the label; because aesthetics. The mussels bruschetta was delicious. It was salty, citrusy, and felt like arts and crafts time building your pile of fishy goodness onto a slice of crostini. 

Colton: We looked over the menus and while The Cellar was reported to us as an Italian joint, it had an arrangement of an almost Greek-Italian fusion. There were a number of things that looked nice, I got myself some Aegean Pasta? It was shrimp, a pesto sauce, capers, mushrooms, and feta. Unfortunately, all of the greek elements of this dish needed to be amped up a little, as it mostly just came off as a pesto sauce. That pesto is powerful stuff, Cellar. I wished it had artichoke hearts in it, too, that would've done some neat stuff for it. The shrimp, tragically, was overdone and tough. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, and the portions were pretty gargantuan. It's really saying something if I don't finish my food.

Laura: (There's shrimp in the kitchen... yeah, I put inside jokes in my reviews. Deal with it). I ordered mushroom raviolis with marinara sauce. They were delicious and gargantuan. The marinara sauce needed more flavor ie: some oregano, garlic, thyme. It was also lacking a solid salt level. When I ate my leftovers at home a few days later, I added an incredible amount of cheese. But that is just personal preference. I liked it as a whole, but more cheese on everything. 

Colton: All of the normal boring stuff in reviews was good, in that even as busy as the place was, the service was good, and the place had a cozy atmosphere. I bet it's downright pleasant if you go on something besides game night! There's apparently a basement? We were pretty confused about the layout throughout the night, as diners from elsewhere just sort of appeared here and there from various doors. This would be a great location for a murder mystery or something. 

Laura: There is also a cute little beer shop next door that is part of the restaurant. Have yet to check that out, but I like the idea of it. We'll see if they have a beer the almighty Kroger does not. 

Colton: Seriously impressed with the beer at Kroger, but that's for another review(THERE'S ARROGANT BASTARD THERE)

Laura: OH! The complementary garlic bread was AMAZING. Might go back just for that.

Colton: Yeah, despite the weak points with both dishes, I think we'll probably come back in the near future.

Laura: On a NON game day. Goddamn.

Grades:
Colton: B

Laura: A