Hybrid Vented/Unvented Attic – GreenBuildingAdvisor

I’m interested in better insulating a portion of my attic. The majority of my attic is vented via soffit vents and a ridge vent, however in my kitchen the floor is cantilevered and the ceiling is dropped which eliminates the soffit venting. Currently the dropped ceiling is only filled with poorly fit fiberglass batts. My thought is to fill the dropped ceiling with either closed cell spray foam or dense-packed cellulose. I’d like thoughts on those options.

A second part of this scenario, is that the pinch point created by the dropped ceiling is only a few inches deep, thus not a good thermal break and that part of the roof always melts snow first in the winter (zone 6, southern Wisconsin). Ideally that small gap would be filled with spray foam to achieve the highest R-value possible, but doing so would completely seal off the lower unvented portion. If I were to use cellulose there, should it not be sealed off to be able to dry to the higher vented part of the attic?