Email
PrintDe-Novo Bistro & Bar
A cool downtown space with a fun menu.
At De-Novo, clockwise from front: spicy ahi tuna cups, North Market pasta and lobster truffle mac 'n cheese.
Michael A. Foley/MAF Photography
The big neon sign advertising “Restaurant” has been affixed to the front of this old brick building on High Street for decades. But it’s been about as long since there was a truly notable eating establishment occupying the location that’s now directly across from the new Columbus Commons park downtown.
Enter De-Novo Bistro & Bar, owned by the same folks who ran Vonn Jazz Supperclub, which closed in December. They have transformed the interior into a mod-urban space and hired a talented chef to design a cool menu. The result: a truly notable restaurant, indeed.
There’s a lot of life downtown these days, and if you didn’t know it, the hours of this place—8 am to 1 am some days and serving breakfast, lunch and dinner all seven—are a big clue. When I saw De-Novo opening on this block, I wondered if it could attract enough business. But so far so good.
Robert Harrison is the aforementioned chef, and I love his style and ambition. While not everything is perfectly executed, there sure is plenty of interesting and delicious food here.
Let’s begin with breakfast. There were all kinds of choices, including pancakes, crab cake eggs Benedict, biscuits and gravy, crème brûlée French toast, shiitake mushroom and truffle omelets . . . you name it.
The breakfast menu, however, pales in comparison with lunch and dinner (same selections for both). It’s all over the globe and really fun. Let’s start with banh mi, a Vietnamese sandwich. It combines a lot of flavors (salty, tart and sweet) and ingredients (sweetened vinegar, cilantro, carrots, cucumbers, a rich chicken pâté and unctuous lamb meat from the belly)—all on a small baguette. What a great sandwich. The burger was a mix of fatty Kobe beef and chorizo—take your Lipitor—but it sure is tasty, as was the Cuban-style shredded pork flavored with a cumin and garlic mayo on a Kaiser roll.
But this place is much more than sandwiches. There were cold and hot small plates, entrees, side dishes and rich desserts to tempt as well. The butter bibb lettuce salad was beautifully presented, with the roundish leaves stacked together and topped with toasted hazelnuts and slivers of the salty Spanish hard cheese called Manchego. I often whine about excess vinegar in salad dressings, but the one here was close to right (perhaps a teensy bit too much).
The spicy ahi tuna cups were crunchy cracker-like containers with diced tuna in a somewhat spicy mayo—a little heavy on the mayo, but still nice. The hot small plates of note included a good crab cake with mustard mayo and a braised cube of short rib—quite good, though a bit more braising would be helpful because it was somewhat chewier than expected.
Entrees ranged from scallops and sea bass to filet and pork chops. But I was drawn (who wouldn’t be?) to the lobster truffle mac ’n cheese. OK, so it’s just a study in richness and luxe, but I do love that kind of homework. Equally yummy and rich was lamb belly—that fatty, but delicious cut of lamb again, with asparagus, a poached egg and wide noodles in a Dijon mustard cream sauce.
On the lighter side was North Market pasta, featuring fresh veggies of the day. The pasta was properly al dente and the veggies were crisp—all in a mild tomato sauce.
Desserts were mostly rich, too: cheesecake (the chocolate swirl was somewhat bland), salty caramel apple bread pudding and housemade ice creams! I tried the spiced dark chocolate, and it was pretty darn good, but also check out the roasted banana peanut butter, mixed berry, Kahlua stout and others.
Service was hip and chatty (if that’s a description), especially at the bar, and it seemed to fit the tone of the place. There was a full bar, a decent wine selection and plenty of good beers.
And I think you’ll like the space: 12-foot-high tin ceilings, interior brick, whimsical tree branches hanging upside down overhead. Very downtown chic, but cozy.
De-Novo Bistro & Bar
201 S. High St.
222-3380
denovobistro.com
Atmosphere: Urban chic.
Recommended dishes: Banh mi, Kobe chorizo burger, Cuban pulled pork, spicy tuna cups, butter bibb salad, lobster truffle mac ’n cheese, lamb belly, North Market pasta, ice cream.
Price range: Breakfast $5-$9; sandwiches $7-$11; small plates $8-$12; entrees $14-$30; desserts $8-$9.
Hours: Daily 8 am to 1 am; kitchen open Sunday through Thursday till 10 pm, Friday and Saturday till 11 pm; brunch Saturday and Sunday till 2 pm.
Service: Urban hip.
Reservations: Accepted.
Rating: *** 1⁄2
We picked this restaurant because the pictures looked great. The decor of the restaurant was great and that was the only thing that was good. We had a party of 12 people which they couldn't accommodate and we have made the reservation prior. So they sat us at two separate tables and we had to yell across the floor to each other. Half of our party got there at 8:15 - we waited for our waiter for 20 minutes just to get our drinks. Then we waited another 25 minutes for him to come back with our drinks. The rest of our party got there around 9pm. They waited another 30 minutes to get their drinks. We asked our waiter to bring bread and butter while waiting for our food. Waited 45 minutes for that - he told us that the bread was baking in the oven. When the bread finally came in it was cold; we asked him why, he told us that it's a special kind of bread! A couple of people in our party ordered their wedge salad. They use hearts of romaine lettuce for their wedge salad which is no big deal; however, the parts they use are the parts that people throw away (the inside of the romaine lettuce). The salad leaves were bitter. They forgot to put tomatoes on my salad and when I asked him about it, he brought me tomatoes in a little dish for me to add them to my salad. If I am paying $8.00 for a salad, I expect the chef to fix my salad in the kitchen. $2.00 extra to add chicken - don't waste your money. They bring you 5-6 pieces of chicken lunch meat that won't even make one circle of the lunch meat. At 10:30 at night - we still didn't have our food. We asked for a manager - she said that they will push our food in front of the line and that's after 2.5 hours of waiting! The whole party said that after the service and the food we have tasted so far we just wanted to leave. The restaurant management staff refused to discount anything due to the lack of service. And wait for this one... they made us pay $20.00 in gratuity for the service we didn't even get.