Cellar 56 is located in Buckhead's East Andrews complex, and sits on an interior courtyard within the building. A great fountain is there to greet you as you approach the restaurant, and on the evening of our visit a charity fashion show was taking place inside the courtyard. We arrived a few minutes early for our 7:30 reservation, but had no problem being seated right away, even with the festivities taking place outside the restaurant.
Like most tapas style restaurants, the menu at Cellar 56 is incredibly diverse, and it featured many of my favorite dishes. With such a wide range of plates to choose from, we decided to tackle the menu in stages. Garden, Sea, Land, and Dessert. OK, so I can't take credit for this, because that's how the menu was already set up, but just go with it...
Next up was the Spicy Mac & Cheese, and the Duck Confit Flatbread. We ordered the Mac & Cheese more as a side to the other dishes, but it wound up being one of our favorite plates of the night. The creamy cheddar cheese and the spice of the roasted peppers combined for some amazing flavor. It's possible my wife's beloved "Blue Box" will never be quite the same. While she was being blown away by the Mac & Cheese, I had the opposite reaction to the Duck Confit Flatbread. Pretty much anytime there is anything Duck Confit on a menu, I'm gonna order it as it's one of my favorites. I had high hopes for this plate as a result, and perhaps those hopes were too high. The concept of the dish was great, but the duck was overcooked, and with that being the focus, this one was simply a miss. Sure it was a little disappointing, but when you're having a meal that consists of 11 plates, you're bound to have one that doesn't deliver. Besides, redemption was just one plate away...
Overall, we had an excellent food experience at Cellar 56, with the Duck Confit Flatbread being the only minor exception. The service, on the other hand, was hit and miss. Our server was very friendly, and made two excellent suggestions when it came to wine, but he often went missing for lengths at a time. This wouldn't be a problem in a traditional restaurant where more time is spent on fewer dishes, but in a tapas place the last thing a guest wants are empty plates on the table, and no order in the works for more. I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say the service was poor, just mediocre.
The food was far from mediocre, however, and really that's the only thing I remember when it comes to the meal. Cellar 56 was a great way to begin our dining tour of Atlanta, and was a precursor to several more outstanding meals which followed.
Now, to figure out how to have the bread pudding shipped to Florida....
Enjoy Your Stay