On a beautiful day Uptown recently, we found ourselves at Tartine for lunch. We have long been fans of Tartine, and more frequently Toast, but it was Tartine that started the operation. It is tucked away in a neighborhood in a single block street on Perrier off Broadway by the river. It is a tiny space but the last time we went I noticed that the seating had been doubled by adding picnic tables outside. In the driveway. It was never big on atmosphere.
It was not my intention to to take it out, but Tom did not want to get out when I returned from ordering, so I had it delivered to a table next to where we were parked so I could taste everything and pack it. I ordered a lot, starting with a banana bread slice for Tom to savor while I ordered everything else. It came as a thick slice in a little baggie, and it was studded with pistachios. It was moist but not soft. It had some heft to it. Tom loved it and so did I.
The rest of the food came quickly. It was a breakfast sandwich, country pate, a shrimp salad, and a quiche of the day.
If there is quiche on the menu anywhere I must get it. This is to my taste the best in town, so I had to choose between two. I passed on the Florentine because the turkey one had spinach too, and Gruyere cheese. What I love about this quiche especially is the height of it. The slice is large and tall. Really tall. It seems odd that this would please me so much because the softness of the interior texture of a quiche demands to me a bite of crust with each custard bite. So in a quiche that tall it’s difficult to achieve this goal, but we manage. It has the extra plus of “stuff” which offsets the straight custard mouthfull. I understand this is not “authentic” but we can only deal with so much.
This quiche was a little overdone on top (which I actually prefer) to also offset the softness inside. It is like having extra crust. Layers of spinach were inside and big chunks of tender turkey made this a wonderful lunch. A weird little bean salad accompanied everything, but it was actually very good. It had three beans in it and a creamy Green Goddess dressing. Tasty.
The breakfast sandwich was large, layered with fluffy scrambled eggs and bacon. The bread was interesting. It seemed like a bread made in-house, and was toasted nicely. This was surprisingly not a hip breakfast sandwich as they tend to be, but more like one you would make at home, if you made your own bread. Nice.
The country pate was another large amount of food arrayed unexpectedly. It was sliced and halved into triangles, then placed on two halves of a small baguette. The baguette was wonderful and toasted deliciously. The pate slices were thick. I love pate just about anywhere, but this pate had dried fruit in it, which always diminishes anything to me. I much prefer nuts in pate. The bread had an onion marmalade spread which I could have done without, but a large pile of Cornichons made up for my complaints. This too was served with the bean salad.
The shrimp salad was the largest salad I've ever encountered. An enormous pile of escarole was tossed in a light vinaigrette dressing, and on top of that was pesto-grilled shrimp, chunks of fresh beets, pickled onions, and shreds of carrot. This was enough for four people. I was surprised at the unexpected clashing of flavors here, but anything this healthy cannot be gainsaid..
There is a lot more of interest on the menu at Tartine, but one can only get so much. We ate this for days at home too. I passed on the scone because it was pineapple???, and the housemade bagel. We will do that another time.
Tartine seems like a great place for the neighborhood residents, but I wonder how many of the other customers make it a destination. It is worthy of that, but part of its charm is that it is a hidden little gem.
