Posts Tagged “sandwich”

Everybody’s the best at something, if you define the category right, but that should take nothing away from the excellence of this sandwich from DePasquale’s Homemade Pasta Shoppe in, or perhaps below, Boston’s North End.

Since it is really a pasta shop(pe), it’s not that surprising that DePasquale’s has only two sandwiches on the menu (unlike Dave’s Fresh Pasta where sandwiches have taken center stage) and that menu is actually a small chalkboard almost hidden by the scales.  The Panino is prosciutto, tomato, fresh mozzarella and an herby olive oil on some crusty rustic bread.  All made to order.  Add in a overdyed blood orange soda and you’ve got lunch for one and a half for less than ten bucks.  If we ever do a North End Cheese Sandwich Smackdown, this will be a contender, for sure.

In the process of checking up on DePasquale’s to provide the link above, I noticed something odd about DePasquale’s address in Google Maps and Street View.  Sure, it’s not uncommon for the Goog’ to be a block or two off with an address, especially in the older parts of town, but in this case, the 2-D online maps are stymied by a 3-D situation: the submerged I-93 runs more or less beneath the street above, and Google is a little mixed up between them.  Observe the street view on nearby Hanover…

…but when you try to look at Cross street or to zoom in…

So next time you’re stuck in traffic on 93 under Boston, imagine you’re driving up to a deli takeout window.

Tags: 02114, boston, maps, sandwich

Since the Davis Square cheese sandwich quest became a semi-regular feature back in May, I’ve been aware of Deli-icious but for whatever reason never checked out their cheese sandwich.  Until this week.

Yelpsters seem generally bullish on the place, and Chowhound offers an interesting bit of navistalgia around the former occupant of the space and the price of sandwiches.

I ordered the grilled cheese with bacon and tomato on sourdough.  About as traditional and comforting as you can get on a winters day.  They asked if I wanted American cheese, I asked for cheddar.

So almost perfect and yet a miss.

The bread was good sourdough, buttered and griddled just right.  The bacon was crispy and not overbearing.  The tomato was good, maybe a bit too thickly sliced.  But the cheese… the cheese was that bland deli loaf cheese that breaks my heart.  How hard would it be for them to stock a sharp vermont cheddar?

I recommend this grilled cheese sandwich for anybody looking for a nostalgic comfort experience, but not for anybody who really loves cheese.  The quest goes on.

Tags: 02144, cheese, davis square, sandwich, somerville

The cheese sandwich quest continues.  Following up on a tip from Brian, I ordered up the Ploughman’s Lunch at The Burren here in Davis.  It came with excellent chips (fries) but the cheese was less than it might have been.  Apologies for the sub-par cameraphone shot, I was caught out without my Ricoh.

The menu describes it thusly: “Ploughman’s Lunch – $5.95 - open faced sandwich on french bread with choice of swiss or cheddar with  lettuce, tomato & onion, accompanied with branston pickle“

I opted for cheddar, which was of decent quality but a little stingy in quantity, just one square slice per half sandwich.  The sandwich wasn’t actually open-faced, but I suppose I could have ditched half the bread.  I’m not sure how authentic this is, but it was an inexpensive and filling sandwich.  A perfect cheese sandwich, perhaps not.  Next stop, Deli-icous?

Tags: burren, cheese, davis square, lunch, ploughman, sandwich, somerville

Blue Shirt Cafe recently expanded Eastward into the space between them and Snappy Sushi, probably doubling their total square footage while increasing the dining seating perhaps fivefold. But there’s still not that much cheese in their cheese sandwiches.

I had the Little Italy, with tomatoes, roasted red peppers, pesto, provolone and balsamic on focaccia. I know, it’s not actually billed as a cheese sandwich, but a single slice of provolone isn’t much, and it’s one of the mildest cheeses out there. The tomatoes and peppers were plentiful, maybe even overly generous, and the pesto was mild.  The focaccia was well-grilled but could have been oiled a little more.  An all-around nice sandwich, but nothing super-special, and certainly not the cheese sandwich experience I’ve been seeking.

On the plus side, Blue Shirt is now offering free wifi. Until a worthier cheese sandwich makes itself known, this is a afwully good lunchtime blogging hideaway. And they have their own private label orange soda.  How cool is that?

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PS, In other insufficiently cheesy news, I’ve just become aware of Jeff Cutler’s blog and podcast Bowl of Cheese which I’m sorry to report is not hardly about cheese at all.  But it’s still worth a look and a listen.  And I’m not just saying that because Jeff gave me a USB coffee warmer from the cyberposeurs at the Cyberposium.

Tags: Blue shirt, cheese, davis square, orange soda, sandwich

The great Davis Square Cheese Sandwich battle got a little more interesting this week as second-place finisher Blue Shirt Cafe struck back at weakened champion Diesel Cafe.  Diesel had won handily with the Branch Trio, but then took it off their menu, retiring undefeated as it were.  But if you were persistent and lucky, you could still get a Branch Duo.  Now, at Blue Shirt, which by the way is about to expand and double their space, I have discovered a new contender:  Lili’s Lunch.

Officially, Lili’s Lunch is avocado, swiss, cucumbers, tomatoes, sprouts, and sundried tomato spread
grilled on your choice of bread.  I chose whole wheat and substituted cheddar.  I give Lili high marks for grilling the sandwich and for tomatoes and the salty sundried spread.  In the minus column goes the feeble bright orange cheddar (maybe I should have stuck with the swiss) and as with Granny & Jack, the too-thick sliced cucumbers, which make the whole sandwich difficult to eat.  Blue Shirt also wins on price, with Lili’s Lunch weighing in at under $6 compared to $7.50 or more at Diesel.

Given the difficult circumstances of comparing a sandwich you can get with one that you can’t, I have to call this one a tie for now.  Clearly, more research is required.

Tags: cheese, davis square, sandwich, somerville