Midtown Lunch

Rumors of Pane Panelle‘s demise started swirling a couple of months ago after a comment that the restaurant on Church St. (at Walker) had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Well, it turns out they’re closed and the restaurant is already papered up and being transformed into something else. The sit-down restaurant Stuzzicheria had spawned the Pane Panelle sandwich and soup counter which mostly stuck to the $10 and under price cap but was a little lacking in the quantity/money spent ratio. Then the restaurant just changed its name to Pane Panelle and you had to go to the bar to order sandwiches which never got any larger or less expensive, although I did really like what they did with chickpeas and eggplant. Unless the new place has some sort of affordable lunch or sandwich options (doubtful), I guess we’ll have to settle for the less refined but no less delicious Italian sandwiches from Saluggi’s or Saluggi’s Sandwich Shoppe up the street.

Pane Panelle opened last September as a sandwich counter offshoot of the nicer Italian restaurant Stuzzicheria on Church St. (at Walker). Then the whole restaurant became a bit more casual and although the separate entrance for sandwiches remain, the day I went there you had to order yours at the bar so the restaurant and sandwich shop seem to have absorbed each other. The sandwiches were tasty enough, but the size-to-price ratio seemed to be skewed the wrong way and I haven’t been back since then. The other day I was in the area and the place I intended to eat at wasn’t open so instead I headed over to Pane Panelle to give them a second shot and see if the sandwiches had changed since that opening visit.

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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. Read more »