Adega Wine Cellars and Café

by Patricia B. Grossman
Photos by Julie Wiatt

Silver Spring has been opening a wide variety of new restaurants along Georgia Avenue and the soon-to-be-reopened Ellsworth Drive. While most of the new offerings are national chains, Adega (which means wine cellar in Portuguese) is not. It brings an air of culture and sophistication to our newly redeveloped downtown.

Located around the corner from Baja Fresh on Fenton Street, one block down from Whole Foods, Adega is owned by former wine distributor Walter Rhee and chef Bruno Silva. The menu is small but its offerings are distinctive, fresh, and tasty. Any wine connoisseur would enjoy perusing this shop to buy bottles of wine or to enjoy a meal with a "glass"–or rather, a cup. All of Adega’s tableware is plastic: plastic plates, utensils, and wine glasses…it takes from the ambiance, but just a little.

There is a special section where bottles are kept under lock and key, ranging in price from $59 to $129 (for exceptional wines, bottled in the 1990s, mostly from Napa Valley). Fine German, Italian, and even South African wines are featured, and many you can get by the glass. If you are looking for outstanding American wines, Adega has them. On my recent lunchtime visit with a dining companion, there were offerings by the glass of both white and red wines: Mars and Venus Cabernet Sauvignon, Allan Scott Sauvignon Blanc, Gnangara Chardonnay, Siena Pinot Grigio, and Excelsior Cabernet. Most were $3 per glass.

At lunchtime, however, everyone (including us) was not ordering wine, but food. My dining companion is an avid Adega customer, and she especially loves the salads, which are

fresh and generously portioned. Her favorite is the Adega’s Mixed Greens, priced at $7.75, featuring fresh field greens with diced tomatoes, roasted pecans, caramelized pears and crumbled blue cheese all tossed in a citrus vinaigrette. For $1 extra you can add warm goat cheese, or for $2, grilled chicken or steak. But the day we went, she strayed from her favorite to try the Caribbean Chicken Salad–a delicious grilled jerk chicken breast served on a bed of field greens with fresh mangoes and sliced avocado, complimented with a mango-lime vinaigrette. When I sampled it, the dressing was very flavorful and the chicken was moist, but the dry-rub seasonings tasted somewhat stale as compared to the jerk chicken I get at local Jamaican restaurants. My companion agreed–the Caribbean salad isn’t as good as her favorite, but she still enjoyed it immensely. April 2004–VOICE–21

I ordered the Ahi Tuna Salad, which was market priced at $11.95. The presentation is exquisite. Never have I seen tuna so thickly encrusted in sesame seeds, and it’s perfectly seared–out of this world. And the jasmine rice that accompanies it is as unique and piquant as can be. The rice is not hot, and it’s tossed with cilantro and fresh ginger, making it a perfect accompaniment to the tuna. All this is served atop a bed of fresh greens tossed in a citrus vinaigrette–not as good as the mango-lime vinaigrette, but still tasty.

Salads aren’t the only item on Adega’s menu. Sandwiches, wraps, and homemade soups are also available. The Adega’s Salmon Club sounds interesting–smoked salmon, mascarpone cream, bacon, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, and wasabi cream layered on toasted pumpernickel bread. And don’t forget their signature hamburger: The Napa Valley Cabernet Burger, consisting of a half-pound of ground beef in a cabernet reduction topped with provolone cheese, shredded lettuce, fresh tomato, and Dijon mayonnaise, served on foccacia bread.

Meditterean flatbreads are offered as well, which feature a choice of chicken or steak on grilled pita flatbread with fresh pesto spread, caramelized onions, roasted bell peppers, and mozzarella cheese, topped with a fresh tarragon cream drizzle and fresh-cut basil. This sounds like something worth investigating on my next visit to Adega.

If you want to come and "unwine," Adega has a happy hour from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, when you can get bruschetta, miniburgers, miniflatbreads and smoked salmon rolls for $5 apiece. House wines and ales are available for $2 apiece. What a nice addition to the growing list of things to do in downtown Silver Spring.

Adega is located 8519 at Fenton Street, Silver Spring. Phone: 301 608-2200. Hours: Monday through Saturday 11:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. and Sunday 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.