The Cellar offers late-night and party menus

The Cellar accommodates its customers with a late-night menu in addition to the party and events menu.

When The Cellar re-opened for the start of the first semester, the late-night menu began. “We started offering the late-night menu because we added an extra half-hour of ordering food to each night,” said Beverly van Boven, senior operations manager of The Cellar.

The late-night menu consists of 12 items: the flatbread crisps, truffle parmesan fries, cheesy breadstix, fried ravioli, steak quesadilla, chipotle BBQ or buffalo wings, buffalo chicken dip, spinach and artichoke dip, the house caesar salad, loaded steak sub, fish ‘n’ chips and the pesto chicken pasta.

These items are available during the normal business hours that begin at 5 p.m., and they are the only options available from 11 p.m. to 12 a.m., Sunday through Thursday and from 12 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

“It takes at least an hour and a half, usually more, to clean up and get out at the end of the night,” Van Boven said. “To help out our staff, which are mostly students, we decided that we would limit the number of items for the last hour. That way they could at least start getting a few closing duties done.”

There has been a high demand for take-out orders during the later hours, which is why she said the extra half hour was added to closing time.

“The extra half hour is great,” sophomore Kyle Adams said. “I think it was much needed because after a long night of studying and working up an appetite, I used to have no options. Now I have The Cellar as an option that serves items I actually like eating and fills my appetite.”

The items that are offered are some of the most popular items from the regular menu, Van Boven said. There are no desserts offered because Van Boven said that the late-night staff is more limited, but if someone were to ask for a dessert and they were not too busy, they would try to accommodate the customer.

Some students were unaware of The Cellar’s options and expressed little interest in the featured menus. Sophomore Gabrielle Gentile said she was indifferent about the menu options because she rarely goes and Laura Delaplace, sophomore, said that she wasn't interested in the shortened list and will not order food off of the late-night menu because nothing appetizing to her is offered.

Despite the new late-night menu addition, the party and event menu remains one of The Cellar’s in-restaurant dining options.

The event or party is held in the back room and must be booked at least two weeks before the event. There is a $200 minimum food order for each party that Van Boven said was put in place to ensure sales. “If the party were not there, the room could be filled with dinner business,” she said. A service charge of 15 percent is also added to each party tab.

Senior Lauren Tolson thought it was expensive. “Out of the $750 dining dollars for a semester, $200 is too much to spend in one circumstance,” she said. “I could probably go to Walmart and get everything I would need for $100.”

There are starters and favorites as well as desserts and drinks to chose from. If a desired item isn’t listed on the menu, it can be arranged to possibly meet the needs of the party.

The Cellar has hosted a couple of parties for the history department, the Bonner Scholars and others. She said that there are two more scheduled for the rest of October.

Contact sports assistant Olivia Healy at olivia.healy@richmond.edu.