The Trellis

	The Trellis Address: Duke of Gloucester St., Williamsburg Phone: 757-229-8610 Website: www.thetrellis.com Hours: Lunch 11-3; Dinner 5-9:30, seven days Prices: $$$$

For more than two decades, The Trellis has been one of Virginia’s best and prettiest restaurants, and it got even better two years ago with a $750,000 remodeling that brightened its contemporary main dining room and made it flow better into my favorite section, the Garden Room, whose windows look out on tourist-laden Merchants Square. 

The secret of the Trellis’ success is that its celebrity chef, Marcel Desaulniers, is a co-owner who is behind the grill every night except when he is writing yet another cookbook--six by last count--or out-of-town on a book tour or television program. His partner, businessman John Curtis Jr., also is on the premises daily, chatting with guests or looking over the shoulders of the servers.

At our recent visit, all diners started off with a complimentary appetizer of anchovy filets in a creamy garlic sauce and a basket of pepper flatbread, corn soda bread and spindly bread sticks.

The best deal on the menu is the seasonal supper for $25.95 that includes soup, main course and dessert. The entrée, which changes nightly, might be a fresh fish, duck breast, rabbit or a favorite of mine, grilled sausage from nearby Surry County. My supper began with chowder of chunky ham and black-eyed peas and was followed by perfectly flaked salmon in a bowl of jalapeno fettuccini garnished with crispy onions in the shape of shoestrings and a tomato and corn relish.

My wife chose from the regular menu and began with an appetizer ($8) of Portobello mushrooms and wafer-thin gruyere sprinkled with pine nuts on a bed of spinach. Her entrée ($26) had two nicely sized, crispy lump-meat crab cakes, on which four stalks of asparagus had been stacked teepee style, surrounded by pan-seared onions and toasted black pepper brioche. 

Prices at dinner range from $16 to $28. Other autumn entrees include oven-roasted monkfish with sautéed gulf shrimp ($20); pan-friend sea scallops with julienne country ham ($23); grilled Smithfield pork tenderloins with black-eyed peas, mashed yellow turnips and carrots ($21.50); angus beef steak with zucchini and lyonaisse potatoes ($26 and $32); grilled beef tenderloin steak with tiny green beans and crispy potatoes ($28) and four dishes at $16: Chicken with cranberries, parsnips and toasted almond basmati rice; grilled calves liver, pumpkin fettuccini, the later a reprise from the Fall 2000 menu, and a daily vegan special. 

At lunch, the most called for dish over the years has been the savory cheesecake, which is The Trellis’ version of quiche, which may be filled with country ham and toasted pine nuts. While the Trellis is definitely a gourmet adventure, because it sits in the heart of touristy Williamsburg the kitchen also knows how to fix a burger and other sandwiches and salads, which are available in the main dining rooms at lunch and at both lunch and dinner in the café adjoining the bar and the outdoor patio

No visit to a restaurant whose chef has written four books about dessert is complete without trying one of them. If you choose the signature “Death By Chocolate,” don’t expect to plow through its seven lawyers of cake, mousse and meringue alone. Having failed to meet that challenge in the past, we split “diamonds on ice,” assorted bite-sized chocolates with a sampling of the ice cream and sorbet of the day. 

You can get to the Trellis from Richmond in about 45 minutes via I-64 (Exit 238), but on these gorgeous fall days, a better alternative is a leisurely drive along Routes 60 or 5. Save the interstate for the trip home.

This review first appeared in Style Weekly.