Decadent sandwiches, house-made takeout will satisfy comfort-food cravings

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This article was published 12/03/2015 (4160 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With a name like King + Bannatyne, this little sandwich cafe isn’t hard to find. It’s a pleasant place with a cool, friendly vibe, but it isn’t designed for lingering — certainly not during meal times, when there will be lineups waiting for your table; nor, for that matter, on the hard, unpadded wooden banquettes.

The small wallboard menu lists only three permanent sandwiches, which are served on attractive wooden boards and priced from $8 to $9.50. But there are always weekly specials, as well as also varying salads and soups. Orders are placed at the counter and brought to the table — at least, sometimes, when they aren’t too busy.

I didn’t get to most of the specials, which sound delicious, but the two permanent offerings I did have were downright sensational: the River City Brisket and the Herb Roast Porchetta, and if I had to choose between them I couldn’t. I’d have both, and to hell with the calories.

This is corned beef as it should be, used to be — made, not with lean, less flavourful roasts in one of a few food-processing plants (blame our obsession with fat and calories), but with the fatty and flavourful brisket. Here it is cured in-house, roasted slowly, cut by hand into thick, hot slices and tucked into slices of light rye, with no distracting extras beyond a shmear of mustard.

I didn’t think anything could equal that brisket, but the porchetta does. This apotheosis of pork is the juiciest, tastiest of any roast pork I can remember — a herbed and lightly cured loin, in a heavenly marriage of ultra-crunchy bits from the outside and tender, juicy slices from within.

The third permanent offering, spicy meatballs, wasn’t in the same league — not bad but slightly dense and dry, and probably would have tasted better with some tomato sauce. There’s almost always a grilled cheese special — on our visit, an unexceptional one of Gruyère with roasted eggplant and pickled onion that could have used more cheese. Other possible specials are bourbon pork belly, pulled pork or braised beef.

The listed potato salad wasn’t available, but the salad du jour of roasted beets and arugula in a light vinaigrette was elegant and delicious. There’s also a daily soup — an OK puréed tomato-vegetable on my visit.

There are a few wines and beers, and several old-timey bottled pops (none of them low-cal), but this is another place with no tea or coffee. A trend? If so, not a welcome one.

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The Store Next Door is nothing like your local mini-mart. There’s a long communal table for coffee and pastry along one side, shelves of fancy groceries on the other, freezers stocked with ready-to-heat meals and showcases with fresh, house-made desserts and breads. But don’t expect the kind of food you might have dined on at Chew restaurant, its creative parent next door. Not all the specialties are available all the time (some are by order only), and of those I did find, some of the best ran more to comfort than to elegance.

Take the four thick, tender slices of brisket in savoury, slightly winey juices, for instance ($14); or the homey shepherd’s pie with a generous base of wine-tinged beef and mushrooms, and a topping of smoothly mashed potatoes ($8.50) — an alternative is chicken with a sweet potato topping.

I also liked the mushroom and mashed potato perogies, but found that baking them for less than the suggested time kept them from turning into crisp, un-perogy-like pastries (eight for $12). But for $13 I expected a little more lobster and certainly a lot more cheese in the mac and cheese.

A lentil salad with slightly tangy green mango slices in a delicately sweet and sour vinaigrette was excellent ($4), and the meal-for-two-sized bean and bacon soup was hearty and satisfying. The beef and barley soup might also have scored higher if it hadn’t been overdosed with what tasted like thyme ($6.25 each).

Surprisingly light risotto balls with tomato and little chunks of cheddar would make ideal snacks or starters (six for $15). Ditto the smoked fish cakes, although (and possibly it’s a matter of taste) its strong smoky flavour was too intense for me (two cakes for $10).

Takeout meals can be completed with some baked goods — a nice eggy challah, perhaps, or a rosemary-scented focaccia. I found the imperial cookie far too sweet ($2) but I loved the wedge of butter tart, and an unnamed square of excellent pastry topped by soft toffee, bits of chocolate and little marshmallow balls ($3.25 each).

marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca