We've been here twice now, once on one of their many "opening nights" which was awful - more about that in a minute - and once quite a few weeks later in the vain hope that things had improved. They had not. The gf and I live literally across the street and really really really wanted this place to be a great addition to the downtown food scene. We were tragically disappointed.
Granted, visiting a new restaurant on opening night is always risky and we weren't expecting greatness but we were also not expecting a hockey-puck steak from the "celebrity chef" and his much-touted wood fire stove. Also, the menu for the evening was a 5 course chef's choice of which we only received 4 courses. Upon reporting this to the server, he didn't know what to do and went to ask Chef Jay who in turn threw up his hands and yelled at the server to "take it off the bill I guess". Uh, Chef, it's an open kitchen, we can see you (not to mention hear you). Also dining this evening was a large group of the Chef's friends who appear to have written all the good reviews seen here for this place.
On our second visit we elected to sit outside which was very nice on a Friday evening. Our server was very pleasant and knew the menu well but again, the food was an enormous disappointment. The gf ordered the ribeye special which produced such a fatty piece of meat it was nearly inedible, not to mention it was waaaaaay overcooked. Again. The scallop appetizer sounded good in theory but the scallops tasted frozen and the sauce lacked any real excitement. For a restaurant that appears to be marketing itself as urban fine dining with a celebrity chef, Vinery 214 leaves much to be desired and we definitely won't be back. Free sangria can only make you forgive so much.