The Fat Tuscan Cafe: Sandwiches, Salads, and Soups done right!

725 NE 1st St

Five Thumbs Up

Price Range: Sandwiches are from 5-9 bucks. It's really quite reasonably priced. Full menu is here http://fattuscan.com/SM.html

Menu Highlights: The Fromage a Trois is a delicious take on the traditionall grilled cheese

The Fat Tuscan Cafe is self described as an authentic European cafe with the best homemade food. Honestly, despite my typical cynicism and vitriol, I actually agree with them. I think their sandwiches are great, the bread is extremely tasty, the ingredients are high quality, and the physical location is beautiful (it's a restored historic house in the Duck Pond portion of town). I do think they reach their claim of authentic European cafe, as the place looks chic and the food doesn't ever disappoint.

I've eaten here many times, and have always been pleased with the Fromage a Trois, which features gruyere, fontina, brie, roasted tomato, sautéed shallots, grilled on panini bread, and drizzled with a balsamic reduction. I'm sure it's not terribly healthy with all the rich cheeses, but man is it good. They also make their own soups and if you can pair this sandwich with one of their frequently available tomato based soups, the combination is sublime.

I am not wild about the Grilled Vegetable Sandwich on Ciabatta bread, which features zucchini, squash, eggplant, portabella mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, and gruyere cheese on a ciabatta. Maybe it's the fact that it's cold, or that I'm not a huge fan of cold eggplant and mushrooms, but I'm not really into it.

The third vegetarian choice is the Greek Panini, with roasted tomatoes, grilled eggplant, roasted garlic, calamata olives, chevre, and arugula. I haven't had this one recently, and don't remember how I feel about it.

Obviously, there are a slew of meat based choices, which are all tasty as well.
The Ham and Cheese Panini was another choice made by a lunch partner. It featured homemade honey ham slices, brie, roasted apple mustard and arugula grilled on panini bread. It looked quite good and is pictured with a side salad.

The Roast Beef with Herbed Cheese looked particularly good, and was confirmed as such by my lunch mate. It features slices of homemade roast beef topped with homemade herbed cream cheese spread, and caramelized shallots on toasted ciabatta bread. It's pictured here with a side of tomato pasta soup (the actual name was much fancier)

On the last Wednesday of the month, they feature special, reservation-only, candlelight 5-course Rustic, Italian-style dinners (lots of qualifiers in that sentence). The courses are Appetizer, Salad or Soup, Pasta, Main Entree/Vegetable and Dessert. For 35 dollars per person (iced tea or coffee included), it sounds like a great deal. I have never tried this yet, but really hope to soon.

My only complaint is that the pasta salad that accompanies each sandwich is never good. To me, it's a waste of pasta as it's always dry and nearly flavorless.

Otherwise, this is quite a special, hidden gem of a restaurant that most people might not know about. Go check it out!