Cellarmaker is a local brewing company, with brewery locations in Berkeley, Oakland (soon), and San Francisco. The San Francisco outpost also houses their "House of Pizza", pizza restaurant, that slings Detroit style pies alongside their brews. As a non-beer drinker, the brews side of the establishment isn't interesting to me, but, they do have quite a line up of interesting sounding selections, that change frequently, with plenty of sour beers and large format options, along with guest ciders and beers.
My experience with Cellarmaker was on the food side of things only (surprise, surprise). I did not dine-in, but rather, ordered for delivery. Rather than ordering through a third-party (e.g. DoorDash, Uber Eats, etc), I ordered directly with the restaurant, hoping to support them more directly, and potentially save extra fees. I wish I could report a good experience, but, alas, it was a bit of a disaster.
Ordering online on their website was easy - they use Toast for both delivery and pickup orders. The menu was clear, yadda yadda. Delivery is done via DoorDash silently in the background. The delivery fee turned out to be higher than the one via DoorDash ordering directly, and menu prices weren't actually any lower. It turns out, it would have been cheaper to order on a third-party site, which surprised me.
Anyway, my order was immediately confirmed, and prepared quickly. A delivery driver from DoorDash was assigned, and picked it up within 20 minutes. I was given a reasonable delivery estimate. But ... it then took 2.5 hours to get to me. I'll spare you all the details, but, I could sorta follow along and saw the driver literally not move for a full hour, not far from the restaurant. Since it wasn't an order directly through DoorDash, I couldn't contact their customer support. After a full hour of no movement, I realized I could call the driver directly. I did so. He apologized, and told me the map was wrong. I confirmed my address. He said he had to go, hung up, but, at least started moving towards me. I truly do not know what he was doing for a full hour, just sitting there, not moving, with a wrong map? Another half an hour elapses, and he's finally in my neighborhood. But then ... I watch him kinda circling around on the map. For another 30 minutes. It has now been 2 hours since he picked up my order. I call again. He apologizes again, and says he can't find it. He repeats my correct address to me. I give even more clear instructions with landmarks. Another 25 minutes pass. And then he shows up.
As you can imagine, this didn't bode well for my food. 2.5 hours post pickup. The hot food was stone cold, the chilled food warm. Likely not food safe. I still risked it, and tried a few bites of each. Not a smart decision on my part, as I woke up in the middle of the night with severe GI distress. I spent the entire next day regretting those bites. Sadness.
The delivery woes aren't Cellermaker's fault exactly, and I'd consider ordering from them again, although sadly not directly. I'd like to actually try their pizza, they make some fun sounding creations like a Cubano pizza ...
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| Fried Calamari. $13. |
"Buttermilk Marinated Water 2 Table Local Calamari, Onions, Micro Cilantro & Lemon. Served w/ a Remoulade Sauce."
"Dive into a world of crispy perfection with our tender calamari, marinated in rich buttermilk to ensure every bite is bursting with flavor. Each golden ring is delicately fried to achieve that irresistible crunch. And as if that weren't enough, we've paired it with a delectable remoulade sauce that adds a zesty, tangy kick. This dish will have you hooked from the first bite!"
A pizza joint, that partners with a local seafood company like Water 2 Table? Yup! On the night I ordered, they had two special appetizers, both seafood based, this, and a local halibut crudo. Not your typical pizza joint options (nor brewery for that matter).
I'll start by saying it is a bit hard to give this a fair evaluation, given that it was literally stone cold when it arrived, 2+ hours post pickup, and, packaged alongside a cold cider and sparkling water.
The calamari was nicely battered, and the coating was tasty, it reminded me a bit of onion rings, lightly flaky. Good salt level. I suspect it was crispy at some point. The ring pieces were pretty chewy however, kinda the texture that makes people think they don't like calamari. The tentacles were better, and also held more batter. Decent distribution of rings and bodies. As I had it, this was really just **+ though, *** once I reheated it, but, I think it may have been much better served at the restaurant.
I appreciated the lemon wedge to squeeze over it. The remoulade however was not very flavorful. No real zing to it. No bits of caper. Sorta seemed just like mayo. Below average. **+.
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| Panna Cotta. $10. |
"Sweet Panna Cotta served with a Cherry or Strawberry Compote."
Panna cotta. Oh yes. Something near and dear to me, such that it has its own label on my blog. I love a good panna cotta (or any style of pudding, really). This is the only dessert that Cellarmaker offers, but, it is all I wanted anyway. It had been a while since I had panna cotta!
The panna cotta was ... well, um, very cream forward? I know panna cotta *is* cream after all, but, that was all I could taste here. Lovely cream, but, just cream. No hint of vanilla, no buttermilk tang, just, cream. Sweetened cream. To be fair, they don't advertise it as a vanilla bean or buttermilk panna cotta. The description just says "sweet panna cotta". So, it is what they say it is. The consistency was good, smooth, not grainy, thick set. A skin on top that I actually liked. Nice jiggle. But ... besides cream, no flavor to it. Nice execution, but no flavor, ***.
The panna cotta is available with either a cherry or strawberry compote topping, I opted for strawberry, which came on the side. This was definitely needed to add some flavor to the dish. That said, I didn't really love the compote. It was sweet, but also a touch acidic, almost like a mostarda. Nice soft hunks of berry though. **.
I ended up topping mine with fresh strawberries and raspberries, plus some sprinkles, and a little coconut crumble, and enjoyed it far more that way. **** in the end, with my additions.
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