Oh, yes, another deliciously expensive sandwich, number 63 on the list of Stuff White People Like.1 This one from Olive’s, a tiny soup, salad and sandwich outpost located in one of my favorite shopping neighborhoods, featured roasted shiitake mushrooms, dried tomatoes, cress and herb ricotta on a crusty/chewy sourdough baguette. The key was that the mushrooms tasted to have been marinated then grilled. Another key was that I was walking around SoHo and starving and there’s always a clot of people sitting outside this place on the famous worn wooden bench, munching on expensive sandwiches. The bench was full and I was headed west, so I ate mine on the go, peeling down the butcher-paper wrapper as I went, as one would eat a banana. It lasted me until West 3rd Street and Sixth, with a detour down Minetta after it started getting messy and I wanted to avoid passers-by having to see me with bits of cheese stuck to my face.
Olive’s
- 120 Prince St.
- (212) 941-0111
- Meal 16 of 52: expensive sandwich ($8).
1 My feelings for this website can be summed up by this Simpsons bit from the 1994 episode “Homer and Apu”:
- Comedian:
- Yo, check this out: black guys drive a car like this. [Leans back, as though his elbow were on the windowsill.] Do, do, ch. Do-be-do, do-be-do-be-do. Yeah, but white guys, see, they drive a car like this. [Hunches forward, talks nasally.] Dee-da-dee, a-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-dee. [Audience howls with laughter.]
- Homer:
- Ah ha ha! It’s true, it’s true! We’re so lame!
Although the guy who runs the site just nailed a book deal with Random House, so what do I know. [back]