Thursday, August 20, 2009

Highlight #215: Showing off the bread - Sandwich shop: Noon

I think my lunch buddy Jenna (above) and I collectively know just as many lawyers as ex-lawyers. And the ex-lawyers tend to do everything from running restaurants, to writing books, to starting small businesses. Considering the amount of schooling required, it makes one wonder what it is about this profession that drives/prepares people to venture into these other things. Perhaps it has something to do with the type of individuals that choose to go to law school. Perhaps we are just a more flexible or less focused bunch. I mean you just don't see that many ex-doctors or ex-cpas. Or maybe I just haven't been looking in the right places for those. :)

Anyway, Noon, the newish sandwich shop in midtown is opened, you guessed it, by an ex-lawyer. The idea here is to serve sandwiches made of high quality ingredients in a modern setting. To that end, it succeeds, although one does pay for the quality and location. Each hot sandwich with meat filling is over $9. The size of the whole sandwich is about two inches longer than the half sandwich I had at Tiny Bistro a few posts back. Instead of paying the price for meat, I went with the peperonata panino at $6.95 and spent the extra on a jumble chocolate chip cookie.

Once we ordered at the counter, we found some seats to wait for our lunch delivery. The sandwiches come on baking sheets with the cutest pickles. Jenna splurged on a $9.25 Sopressata panino and kindly offered to swap a half with me. In return, I shared half of my monster cookie.

We both agreed that the breads were the undeniable stars of these sandwiches. No surprise, they came from the now wholesale only H&F bakery. Pressed to crunchy but not hard, it was a joy to eat. My sandwich's fillings of roasted red peppers and fresh mozzarella tasted fresh and bright, but were just a tad bland. I liked Jenna's sopressata more for its spiciness and assertive saltiness. But most of all, I loved the bread.

The monster cookie reminded me of the even bigger chocolate chip cookie from the famed Levain Bakery in my old neighborhood in nyc. Like the Levain cookie, the chocolate chips maintained a runny consistency in the cookie and got all over our hands. The outside of the cookie, however, was slightly harder than I would have like, but I love really chewy and soft kinds, so anyone that prefers a little more structured dough would probably like this.

Noon
404-496-4891
crescent avenue
between 11th & 12th street
1080 peachtree street, suite 6,
atlanta, ga 30309

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