Openings

Goodfellas Turning Into Cellar 55 Wine Bar

Photo: Cellar 55

The owners of Goodfellas on Melrose are turning the restaurant into a wine bar called Cellar 55 (Go ahead, insert a “go get your shinebox” joke here). Mike and chef Suzy Mnatsakanyan, another sibling team much like those Fresh Brothers, put the word out via press release and Twitter that the new incarnation is open today, although there’s no one answering at the restaurant to confirm that someone’s in there serving quite yet. So far, the family reports a piano up front and a patio in the rear, with servings of Italian-U.S. comfort dishes like chicken parm, plus the requisite beef sliders, and “golden eye” pizza served with sunny-side up egg that they call “borderline eccentric,” as much as it sounds a little like those Georgian khachapuris at Big Mama and Papa’s Pizza Downtown. So, what’s for dessert at Cellar 55?

Purple yam ice cream and battered PB&J; are offered up as ways to finish a meal here. And of course, there’s the wine that might bring you here in the first place. The only wine details mentioned here are that it will be “affordable,” giving us involuntary notions of what could find its way into the glasses. The brother and sister team, who feel liberated burying Goodfellas for Cellar 55, also plan to showcase local artists and singers at a cozy restaurant that appears to have its heart set on being a neighborhood hang more than a tourist trap or next hot thing.

Cellar 55, 7455 Melrose Ave. Hollywood. 323-951-1555.

Goodfellas Turning Into Cellar 55 Wine Bar