My boyfriend and I had always wanted to be spontaneous enough to pick a neighborhood in the city, walk around and choose a random spot for a meal. Sadly, we haven’t been able to do it that often because we’re usually too hungry to hunt and we’re such foodies that we want the meal to be realtively awesome/perfect. We’ve done the spontaenous thing a couple times, though—once in Hell’s Kitchen (where we ended up at a really nondescript, not-good Italian place) and a couple weeks ago while on the Upper East Side during a trip to La Maison du Chocolat.
En route to the subway after we were sadly turned away from the under-construction seating area at the famous French chocolate shop, we passed by Centolire Cafe & Panini, an elegant, very old-people-feeling panini restaurant with great prices.
I’m no stranger to paninis. It’s one of my favorite foods and I’ve been known to dabble in the art of sandwich-pressing on George Forman grills. (Hey, you work with what you got in New York City apartments.) So you can imagine my sheer joy when I saw this place. Elegant and affordable? I’m so there. You know why I was so there even more? They had a specific vegetarian panini. Bliss!
What’s in it for you: Portobello and provolone; skewered mozzarella; Gouda, onions and balsamic; radicchio, Gorgonzola and honey
What’s in it for them: Prosciutto, butter and arugula; grilled chicken; sauteed chicken livers with braised celery and pancetta
Oddly, the menu online doesn’t include the items we ordered even though they weren’t specials: my grilled veggie panini (I added Gouda):
Grilled veggie panini
and the grilled chicken my boyfriend got:
Grilled chicken panini
Since I tried them both, I can attest that the veggie was definitely better. Good call by me on the Gouda. It gave the sandwich some serious oozing goodness. Nestled in between the crisp slices of foccacia were roasted peppers and zucchini among other veggies that stayed smushed together nicely with some pesto mayo. It made for a nice light dinner, even though it was more like supper since we ate at 5 p.m. (That’s the lovely part about spontaneity!)
The grilled chicken was good, but not great. The bread was almost cracker-thin and the sprouts weren’t doing much for me. If I had eaten this, I probably would’ve been pretty hungry post-panini. Luckily, he wasn’t even that hungry to begin with, so all in all, I’d say quite the perfect match for our spontaneous hunt.
Best of all, everything we had, and everything on the cafe menu, is under $10.50! Those great prices are feasible in such a nice space because the bottom, more casual, floor (where we ate) is just the precursor to the more chic upstairs. Centolire’re owner, Pino Luongo, created the set-up to mimic the mid-day snacks native Italians enjoy. Gotta love the Italian way of life.
It’s more gussied-up than the usual snack spot, so feel free to try it for dinner. You’ll never know the difference.
Centolire Cafe & Panini
1167 Maidson Ave. (between 85th and 86th Sts.)
212.734.7711
4, 5, 6 to 86th St.-Lexington Ave.