Eating Off the Menu at Cellar Door

It was such a nice day that I had the brilliant idea to stroll the Monument Avenue medians, something I hadn't done in a couple of years.

But every time I do it, I'm a amazed at how completely different it feels to be in the center of the street rather than on either side of it. There's something about being on the wide grassy expanse that makes the traffic seem distant.

And if I'm going to walk Monument Avenue, it only made sense to have lunch there, too. Of course, that leaves one option, but my last two visits to the Cellar Door had been delicious, so I wasn't adverse to a third.

When I walked in, I was pleasantly surprised to find four tables full and a couple at the bar deep in conversation. Things were looking up; tat's more than the combined number of people on my last two visits.

Maybe they'd heard about the Peruvian chicken I'd had on my last two visits, first by itself and then on a salad. Today I broke bad and got the Manchester, a sandwich of that chicken, tomato, avocado, Provolone and caramelized onions with Mediterranean potato salad.

The music was classic rhythm and blues (Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Jackson 5) and I enjoyed listening to it while waiting for my food. It soon became obvious that I must have arrived only a short time after the eight-top, the four-top and one of the two-tops.

The kitchen was clearly very busy making everyone's food, but I was in no hurry and my server was nice enough to chat me up in the interim. I asked about them doing music shows and he said they frequently happened on Mondays. I consider this a good thing since Mondays can be slow days and he agreed. Sprout is good about that, too.

He told me that Chiocca's was one of his favorite places to eat because of the enormous sandwiches. The vintage vibe at Chiocca's came up and he said that somehow the bar regulars at Chiocca's manage to seem less questionable than the ones at the Village, despite the fact that they could be the same people.

It's true: whenever I'm in Chiocca's, I feel like I'm in a time warp and it could be 20 or 40 years ago. Nothing much changes down there (okay, there was the addition of the ATM machine, but even that's old news now).

When my sandwich finally arrived, it was with profuse apologies from my server. I told him I understood that I had been in line behind fourteen other orders and felt the kitchen's pain and he thanked me for understanding.

My sandwich was an absolutely terrific combination of flavors, although not exactly as it had been billed. The onions were raw, not caramelized, which was still fine with me and the Provolone was missing in action, but that didn't matter to me, either.

The heat of the Peruvian chicken's jalapeno sauce paired with the coolness of the tomatoes and avocado and the crunch of the onion on thick ciabatta was a really delicious combination and I wasn't the least bit sorry for the changes from the menu's description.

As I was eating, a woman from the eight-top came over to pay and tell my server that, "Word is getting out about this place. My neighbor told us about it and then one of our guests over there arrived already wanting to come here."

I'm not surprised. A place that can give a customer something different than what she ordered and still impress knows what they're doing.

Now I'll just have to check out one of their shows and see if they're as good at that. Somehow I'm willing to bet that they are.