The Good And Bad Of The Sandwiches At Tribeca’s New Pane Panelle

You can’t even call Pane Panelle a sandwich shop as there are no seats (other than outside) and you have to step aside to make way for deliveries going into the kitchen. It’s essentially a hallway. That being said, it’s kind of genius for an upper crust restaurant such as Stuzzicheria to open a lower-brow sandwich place by simply blocking off part of its dining room and having a separate door. Put up a couple of signs advertising that you exist and you’re done. There are six sandwiches to choose from here along with a lone “appetizer” of sorts. And those sandwiches come with one killer side.

I brought along a co-luncher and had a little battle royale pitting a vegetarian option against a meaty one. If you don’t eat meat this place has two options both involving chickpea fritters. There’s meat in everything else, including a ready-made muffuletta sitting pretty under glass on the counter, a meatball parm, and vastedda linguetta dulled for Tribeca tastes with beef tongue instead of the more traditional spleen.

We opted for one each of the namesake sandwich and a vastedda although the melanzane e panelle involving chickpea fritters, fried eggplant, pecorino and mortadella sounded very good. Then we waited outside on the sidewalk where our bags were delivered about five minutes later. There’s also the option to wait at the bar which will come in handy in colder weather.

The pane e panelle ($8) was simple but good with a few layers of flat fritters layered over soft cheese and under a harder, saltier variety. All of this sat on a soft brioche bun.

Both of the sandwiches are more diminutive than you might like for the price tag but I did like that they threw in a small container of caponata that was so good. And my co-luncher remedied some of the dull flavor of the sandwich by added some of that eggplant goodness to it.

The vastedda tasted mostly of the soft layers of beef that were topped with a salty cheese. If the thought of eating tongue disgusts you, don’t be afraid. It was basically like eating any variety of roast beef.

The bottom line is if you’re really hungry you’re probably going to need two of these to fill you up which isn’t exactly the best value. Or you could just buy a container of  their meatballs for $10 and go to town.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

  • Finally, a new non-chain sandwich place.
  • You get some bonus caponata with your sandwich.
  • Who knew chickpea fritters could be so good?

THE — (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

  • The size-to-price ratio is a little off.
  • What’s up with switching spleen out for tongue in vastedda?
  • There’s no seating in the winter.

Pane Panelle, 305 1/2 Church St. (at Walker), (212) 219-2357

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