DailyCandy - "Secret Garden" December 15th, 2006
Few things are as satisfying as unleashing a big secret. Even when you know it’ll get you into trouble.
Like, oh, announcing the arrival of a new restaurant called Garden at The Cellar. (Oops, must’ve slipped out — though we wanted to keep it to ourselves.) . . .
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The Boston Globe - "A new garden spot" January 11th, 2007
Boston loves a hidden gem, especially if it’s a restaurant. Small, tucked away, known only to those savvy and discerning enough to seek it out — this is the kind of place that created the very first burst of culinary devotion around here. And Cambridge — where knowing what others don’t is a time-honored game — was the epicenter of the craze for places like Chez Nous and the Peacock in Cambridge and Peasant Stock, over the line in Somerville. . . .
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The Boston Phoenix - "Garden at the Cellar" July 25th, 2007
This Cambridge gastropub is blooming with local flavors
The rookie comes up and, in his first major-league game, hits for the cycle. Well, maybe not an ordinary rookie, since 25-year-old chef Will Gilson was previously a line cook at Oleana, and grew up at a family herb farm and restaurant in Connecticut. But in an unlikely room over the subterranean Cellar bar, Gilson has cultivated a gastropub based on local produce, and a neat list of draught beers and wines, that doesn’t cut any corners. . . .
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The Boston Herald- "Cellar Pub: Not your garden variety" October 26th
Garden at the Cellar is one of those wonderfully idiosyncratic restaurants that occasionally sprout up in Cambridge.
It’s a gastro pub that shares space with a popular neighborhood bar and a wine store, featuring a menu of revitalized bistro classics and childhood favorites. And it’s all prepared by a just-turned-25-year-old chef who grew up in a family of farmer-restaurateurs.
The chef is Will Gilson; his mom and dad own and operate J Gilson Greenhouses and the Herb Lyceum restaurant in Groton. No wonder Will - who apprenticed at Marcuccio’s in the North End at age 15 and worked at Oleana after he graduated from Johnson & Wales - is an ardent supporter of cooking seasonally and buying local. It’s in his genes.
Discerning diners will reap the rewards.
Among them: Local pears in a cast-iron skillet ($8), covered with Great Hill blue cheese (from Marion) and roasted until the cheese melts, coating the pears and forming a sticky crust on the bottom.
Or tomato soup ($7) speckled with fresh basil, oregano and thyme and drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil. It’s served with a grilled cheddar sandwich that oozes creaminess in every bite. Mmmm-mmmm good.
Three airy codfish cakes ($8) are arranged on a layer of remoulade and topped with tart, slow-cooked lemon confit. Boneless honey-glazed short rib ($11) is braised into fork-tender submission and accompanied by sweet carrot puree and a salad of cubed beets and aggressively smoky bacon.
The grilled flatbread pizza spread with herbed ricotta ($11) is strewn with sauteed mushrooms, mozzarella and cheddar. It’s crunchy, creamy, wonderfully woodsy andaltogether satisfying.
Many plates are garnished with a scoop of arugula (grown locally from April through November) tossed in lemony vinaigrette.
This is confidently simple fare predicated on the culinary calendar of the Northeast: asparagus in spring; tomatoes and corn in summer; root vegetables and resilient greens in the fall, when heartier dishes ward off the physical and psychological effects of shorter days and chillier nights.
That’s why you’ll find tangy-sweet parsnip puree underneath Gilson’s excellent steak frites ($22). It’s a slab of grilled organic ribeye that’s perfect with garlic spinach and French fries, redolent of rosemary and truffle oil.
And why the chef accompanies “crispy” brined breast of duck ($20) with a wintry gratin of potatoes, cream and apple-smoked bacon under a blanket of gooey cheese. Too bad the duck was undercooked - even though we sent it back, the skin never did get crispy.
I can’t recall the last time I had food so pretty, in a natural, nonfussy way. Indeed, roasted breast of all-natural chicken ($17) in a bowl of intensely chickeny jus looks as if it sprang from the pages of a glossy gastronomy magazine. The chicken is surrounded by glazed carrots and marshmallow-shaped tater tots with velvety, pureed potato centers.
Grilled fillet of wild salmon ($18) is equally beautiful, the coral-colored fish nestled among strips of roasted red pepper and orange segments under a scoop of frisee and assorted greens. While undoubtedly healthful, the salmon is ultimately a disappointment - more spa than cold-weather cuisine.
From the small but smart wine list we enjoyed the plums and chocolate of a 2005 Razor’s Edge Shiraz ($28) with the steak frites and duck, and a surprisingly strawberry-intense 2006 Chateau Mourges du Gres “Fleur d’Eglantine” Rose ($32) with the chicken and salmon.
Service is misleadingly casual, unusually attentive and well-informed. There is no dessert - although you’re sometimes offered tiny squares of fudgy brownies with the check.
mschaffer@bostonherald.com
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Stuff@ Night 2007 Dining awards- "Nicest surprise: Garden at the Cellar"
by Ruth Tobias, 58.24.2007
A man walks into a bar. Orders . . . a glass of Shiraz and a braised short rib with carrot purée? Okay, it\\\'s no punch line, but Garden at the Cellar (991 Mass Ave, Cambridge, 617.230.5880), a civilized little hideaway adjoining an old Harvard Square watering hole, does indeed deliver the unexpected. A profusion of fresh herbs is chef Will Gilson\\\'s trademark, one he acquired on his family\\\'s Groton farm, the Herb Lyceum. Even if the menu didn\\\'t read like the lyrics to \\\"Scarborough Fair,\\\" the dishes themselves sing lustily of their debt to sprigs and leaves. We\\\'re especially fond of the small plates and side dishes - from warm olives and spiced almonds to frîtes and puréed parsnips - that, in their judicious redolence, blot out all thought of your average overprocessed bar snack.
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