Sandwiches great, but save room for dessert

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/05/2009 (6339 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If everything else is just prologue to dessert, lunch is probably a better idea than dinner. I know that after I’ve been through an appetizer (even when shared) and a main course, I have trouble doing anything more than just nibble at dessert. Sandwiches are more manageable and today’s two establishments offer a selection of good ones, to justify your indulgence in the beautiful baked goods you may really have come for.

Dessert Sinsations is a spacious, airy place, with walls of tall windows on two sides, a cool modern ambience, and a superb location in the heart of midtown, just behind the Art Gallery. With its own parking lot, no less. It also has a noise level that discourages lingering — high on its own, and downright deafening when the background music is amped up to foreground music.

The menu doesn’t list a plain burger — they all come topped with something, e.g. bacon or sautéed portobellos with white cheddar, for instance — for a whopping $13. So what makes a burger worth $13, besides the toppings, which also include mayonnaise, tomatoes, lettuce and red onions? For starters, it is thick, juicy and incredibly flavourful — one of the best, in fact, that the city has to offer.

The sandwiches are no slouches either, pricey too, but generous and mostly delicious. The Godfather is loaded with spicy capicolla, calabrese and genoa salamis, spread with Dijon mustard and layered with double cream brie and tomato slices, as well as (unnecessarily, for my taste) artichokes that add only a canned taste, and pickled eggplant ($13); the ingredients also come as a salad ($14). I also liked the baguette generously topped with smoked salmon, dill-flavoured cream cheese, capers and red onion ($13).

I was less happy with the "grown-up tuna" sandwich, which didn’t have enough of the promised curry, or capers either, and was sloppily assembled, with more cream cheese than tuna. It was my own fault, though, that I didn’t realize that it was also packed with a mass of sprouts — a personal dislike — and which probably would have been omitted if I’d asked.

If you aren’t yet guilty enough at the prospect of dessert, there are two delicious sides to go with your sandwiches — fries, made of either white or sweet potatoes. Both are terrific, and, yes, pricey too, at $5 and $6 respectively.

Desserts are luscious and mostly very rich. Also very big. The splendid lemon lemon, for instance — lemon chiffon cake filled with lemon curd and coated in lemony whipped cream — was gargantuan, defeating three of us. The major cakes and pies cost from $7.50 to $8.50. Smaller desserts — although small is a relative term — cost significantly less, and are often just as rich as the tortes (most $3.50). Butter cream rules, filling a crunchy cannoli instead of ricotta, and topping a classic chocolate brownie by a good half inch. Both are lovely, but my own tastes are possibly more infantile, and my personal heaven is the huge, crunchy cookie topped by a peanut butter cream.

Open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and — an added attraction for those who want coffee and cake after the show — until midnight from Thursday to Saturday (on Saturday it opens at noon). Closed Sunday.

* * *

Pastry Castle’s tall windows overlook the animated action of The Exchange, and its interior, appropriately, has a cosy coffeehouse feeling, and the usual range of coffees and teas to go with it. Seating is either at conventional tables and chairs, or on sofas and easy chairs at low tables.

Sandwiches here are based on substantial breads, filled almost to bursting ($5 to $6.50). They run to fanciful names and interesting seasonings; chicken salad, for instance (a.k.a. Lord of Tarragon) is, predictably, aromatic with tarragon, and the creamy egg salad (Prince Edward’s) has hints of dill. Although both are listed as fillings for the house-made croissants, you can have them on your choice of bread.

The Treasure Chest is packed, not just with honey ham and Swiss cheese, but also with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. Possibly one could have a straightforward corned beef sandwich for the asking, but the only one listed — the Duke of York — comes with mozzarella, lettuce, tomatoes and Thousand Island dressing. One could also have half a sandwich with either soup or salad ($7.50), but the caesar salad I sampled was drowning in dressing and yielded not a single speck of bacon.

On a recent visit I didn’t see as many choices among the baked goods as I’d remembered from a few years ago — I still dream about the glorious apricot-poppyseed torte — but there are still cheesecakes of various flavours, and sumptuous cakes and tortes, ranging from a bombe-shaped hazelnut confection to a chocolate filling-layered chocolate genoise (most $4.75 a slice). There’s also the occasional pie, including an exemplary, cinnamon-scented apple pie ($3.75). I’m partial to the cookies and dainties too — smaller, more restrained choices for those trying to exercise restraint. Among them are lovely little layers of puff pastry filled with pastry cream (a sort of mini-napoleon), little nut balls, and a crisp, all-chocolate chocolate chip cookie (most $1.50).

Open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca

 

Restaurant Reviews

Dessert Sinsations Cafe,
505 St Mary Ave.,
284-4661

Pastry Castle,
237 McDermot Ave.,
254-6778