Trellis Begins Anew as American Bistro

By Desiree Parker Thursday, April 15, 2010

After a rich, 29-year history on Merchants Square, the Trellis Restaurant is ready to open its doors again, renewed and refreshed – but don’t worry. There’s still Death by Chocolate.

When chef and Blue Talon owner David Everett decided to buy the Trellis Restaurant last September, he figured he’d just spiffy up the inside a bit to get things ready.

The Trellis will officially reopen on Monday, and Everett says that the light interior facelift he’d previously planned “turned into a full-on renovation” making the interior “nearly unrecognizable.”

The interior is a style Everett describes as transitional, but based on the theme of a trellis and the outdoors. “We wanted to bring the outside inside,” he says. With 30 different colors and dozens of fabrics, and floors that look like a cobbled-stone garden path, the décor will immediately let customers know they’re in for something different.

That something is a new “quintessential American restaurant,” according to Everett, who has already conquered quintessential French bistro cuisine with the Blue Talon.

The new Trellis will feature a host of local and regional products, and will serve only American-grown items (there are select few items, though, that can’t be found in the country, like peppercorns). Whenever possible, a nearby producer has been selected. Ashley Farms in North Carolina, for instance, will be supplying the restaurant with some poultry items.

While Everett wouldn’t dish about what the new menu items will be – promising only that there would be a protein and a choice of side dishes – he did promise that the famous Death by Chocolate, the signature dessert created at the Trellis by former owner and renowned chef Marcel Desaulniers, will remain on the menu. It will, however, have a new presentation and even more chocolate.

The Trellis has retained the Trellis’ previous baker, so the recipe for the signature dessert will be the same. The dessert menu will have chocolate and non-chocolate selections.

It’s not just the food that’s going native, either. The wine and beer will be American-made, says Everett. The wines will be generally mainstream stateside vintages, but the plan is to add more boutique wines as time goes on.

Everett says he’s tried to focus on purchasing local goods whenever possible – including coffee.

He’s a die-hard fan of renowned Illy coffee, even meeting with Dr. Ernesto Illy a few times to talk about the brew. “I absolutely love this coffee,” he says, but he wanted an American blend for the Trellis. He talked to some roasters in Hawaii to try to find something perfect, but those are a little too smooth and mellow, and he wanted something robust.

“Let’s use American coffee and find a custom blend with a local, who can do small batches and who really has a passion for coffee,” Everett says.

So he’s chosen to use a local roaster, John Stein, who owns Harbour Coffee in New Town.

Harbour will roast small batches of a special blend just for the Trellis, which will serve the coffee in a press (we can’t call it French press coffee, jokes Everett).

Everett, already busy with his current restaurant, said he decided to tackle the Trellis because “I just had an itch to do it.” As a former executive chef at Ford’s Colony, he says he had many outlets for his culinary creativity.

“Also, I like the people, and the industry.”

No word yet on whether he’ll tackle another regional cuisine in a future restaurant, though he did joke about trying out a noodle house.

The reborn restaurant, which seats about 200, will open its doors to the public Monday, and for the first week or two it will serve only dinner (they’ll begin seating at 5 p.m.).  Breakfast and lunch will be added later. Entrée prices will be between $20 and $30.