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Friday, November 03, 2000
By Woodene Merriman, Post-Gazette Dining Critic
Like the old gray mare, the Cheese Cellar ain't what it used to be.
For its 20th birthday, the popular Station Square restaurant got a new look, a new menu, and a new name. It's the Cheese Cellar Cafe now, if you please.
Adding the word "cafe" to the name indicates it's a small, unpretentious, relaxing place to eat, whether you want a little or a lot.
One couple eating at a table near us on the sun porch is having just the chocolate fondue. Two long-handled forks, a candle burning under the fondue pot, and a plate of marshmallows, chunks of pound cake, apples, pineapple and banana to dip into the orange liqueur-flavored chocolate. Who could want anything more?
His Honor, that's who. So we ordered a traditional dinner, starting with an appetizer. Tomato and chevre fondue, new on the menu, turns out to be a dip, not a fondue. It's a rich tomato sauce served in a shallow bowl, a mound of goat cheese in the center, and garlicky golden toasted crostini ready for dipping. It's a thick, fresh-tasting tomato sauce, but it's not fondue, no matter what the menu calls it.
Other than this tomato and chevre and the chocolate fondue, the only other fondue on the menu now is a Sam Adams beer-and-Cheddar fondue, served with French bread and sliced apples for dipping.
The Cheese Cellar Cafe seems to be moving away from an emphasis on fondues to a wider menu of fish and meat entrees, sandwiches, salads, pastas and "heart healthy" foods. The beer and wine list has been expanded, too. Now there are about 30 red and white wines, mostly American, mostly in the $20 and $30 range. "Right for this restaurant," H.H. says. Far be it from me to disagree.
We've tried several of the new items. Another night, we had bruschetta, which has one of those little hearts in front of it on the menu, indicating that it's heart healthy. It's four pieces of oven-roasted crostini, covered with slices of bright red vine-ripened tomatoes, fresh basil and roasted garlic, tossed with the restaurant's balsamic vinaigrette, and topped with Parmesan cheese. It could easily have served four people. I hope this bruschetta is just as good next winter, when those deep red tomatoes are hard to get.
We have also enjoyed the "heart healthy" cafe salad of field greens tossed with cucumber and tomato and topped with tortilla crisps (which H.H. immediately removed from his serving) and the Mediterranean salad, an entree-size salad that has plump shrimp, tomato wedges, feta cheese and toasted pine nuts on the field greens.
Tonight H.H. is forgetting that "heart healthy" business and has ordered London broil. The meat has been marinated before broiling, and is served sliced, with mashed potatoes that taste like the real thing, carrots and crisp, almost-undercooked green beans.
My Mediterranean pasta with chicken has pieces of chicken as big as chicken tenders in with the penne, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, kalamata olives and capers, and Parmesan cheese on top. Both dinners are quite good. Considering that the London broil was $13.95, and the Mediterranean pasta, $11.95, make that especially good.
Right in tune with the way many people are eating today, the cafe has added seafood -- salmon in parchment, linguine with shrimp and tomatoes, fresh scrod, grilled salmon with rock shrimp stew, grilled swordfish and usually a fish special of the day. The night we tried the swordfish special it was grilled a little too long (common problem in Pittsburgh), and was served with a wild and white rice combo, green beans, red pepper and baby carrots, making an attractive plate.
I remember when the Cheese Cellar had those gadgets that look like cameras on the table. As you clicked the gadget and looked inside, you saw pictures of the desserts and could make your choice. They're gone, but the menu descriptions make the cheesecake, Toll House pie, Not Just Apple Pie, berry cobbler, fresh fruit and the chocolate fondue, of course, sound enticing. Clever, too, is a dessert called "A Little Something." It's a very small portion of one of the desserts, different every day. It's perfect for those people -- like H.H. -- who protest they don't want a whole dessert, but a little something will do. Tonight it's a sliver of apple pie with a dab of ice cream and a trickle of caramel. Just enough, he says.
The Cheese Cellar closed in mid-April and reopened in mid-summer, with new red cherry furniture and tile flooring. The exposed brick walls are still there. The bar area has floor-to-ceiling French doors, a new bar structure, an all-glass ceiling, and four cafe tables in front of the bar in the Station Square walkway.
It's not a noisy restaurant. But I can't say that for all the customers. A young woman seated several tables away apparently is waiting for a friend, and is spending the time making calls on her cell phone. We've heard more about her social life than we care to know.
Why is it that people speak so loudly on the phone?
Cheese Cellar Cafe
The newly reopened Cheese Cellar Cafe offers a wider menu with a choice of "heart healthy" entrees. (Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette) 
Freight House Shops
Station Square
412-471-3355
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m., Monday-Thursday; 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m., Friday and Saturday; 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., SundayBasics: Contemporary bistro cuisine, with lunch entrees ranging from $6.95 (pasta pomodora) to $13.95 (grilled salmon), and dinners from $9.95 (pasta pomodora) to $18.95 (New York strip steak); other typical prices: bruschetta, $4.95; vegetarian chili, $6.95; chocolate fondue, $8.95; parking in Station Square lots; youth menu; seats 130 inside, about 100 more when outside tables can be used; smoking only in the bar area; wheelchair accessible to bar area and rest rooms; major credit cards; reservations Sunday through Thursday and during the day only on Friday and Saturday The last word: 2 1/2 stars