Spicy Chicken Panini (roasted red pepper, caramelized onions, chipotle olive oil mayonnaise, rosemary roll)
Molten Chocolate Cake
This was yet another location Our Protagonist had walked by again and again on his daily routine, his eye on the pastry counter nearest the window. Being within spitting distance of C'est la Vie and their heavenly pastries is quite gutsy, but this place was clearly standing on its own and deserved to be sampled. Soup and sandwich seemed the way to begin, the Black Bean Soup being tasty in the way black beans can't help but be tasty. This begs the question about the food in so many restaurants; is it the assembly, or merely the ingredients? If it is the ingredients, then one's own powers of industry is all that stands in the way of having the same food at home! But we digress; the soup was good, not memorable or earth-shattering in any way. The sandwich, with all of those lovely ingredients listed above, had a great taste of the caramelized onions and the red peppers, but the chipotle olive oil mayonnaise failed to deliver all that the name promised. An all-too-common occurrence in restaurants these days, really; why name your specialty condiment if it's not going to be the star of the show, or at least get a Best Supporting Actor nod? Our Protagonist says, go back to the lab and amp this stuff up and really earn that name! The rosemary in the bread was a nice combination with the chicken; simplicity itself sometimes overcomes the best of culinary intentions.
After eying all of those desserts in the counter over the past year, Our Protagonist thought to get a sampling; however, he was directed by the man behind the counter to go with the Molten Chocolate Cake; an interesting choice in light of all of those pastries. The cake, microwaved to get the center going again, was fine; again, nothing earth-shattering here, which seemed all the more stunning an indictment of the pastries, which is, after all, in the very name of the establishment. Our Protagonist has almost given up the idea of a true event occurring when ordering lunch where the fare is soup and sandwich, but, then again, he has fond memories of soups and sandwiches from other restaurants in other cities, or the lunch at Station 400, for example. Or C'est la Vie, for that matter. The hope, here, was to really go over the top with the dessert, which simply didn't happen. It's merely another coffee and eats and sweets shop to avoid ending up at Starbuck's.
Pastry Art
1512 Main Street
Sarasota, FL 34236
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