Restaurant Review - Slice of life

CHEAP EATS

I stumbled upon Breadgarden about a year ago because I’m a shoe fanatic and it happens to be right by the Shoemaker’s Warehouse at the end of Amsterdam Avenue where - OK I’ll admit it - I’m a regular.

Bread at this off-the-beaten-path bakery is overseen by owner Catherine Krasnow, a former biochemist whose work with yeast, flour and water has garnered more than a few accolades in recent years. She explains that though she never had any formal training as a baker, she “understood the science of bread” and the bakery’s inception (around 1990) was “just another research project that got out of hand.”

Pastries, another element in this grand experiment, have been in the hands of Michael Rudiger - formerly pastry chef of Atlanta’s pet restaurant, Bacchanalia - for about two months. This is a sweet score for this modest bakery whose lemon torts now sing with a luscious symphonic tartness and whose chocolate torte ($3 per inch) - heavy as concrete, and rich as sin - is arguably the best chocolate bargain in town.

Breadgarden’s other draw is more on the sensible, square meal side of things. The lunch menu includes foccacia pizza ($2.50) - thick-as-a-brick, basted with oil and baked with layers of eggplant, roasted tomato, garlic, zucchini and onion - and sandwiches. The sandwich selection consists of four specialties of the house ($5-$5.50), plus a mix-and-match list of makings including: 6 breads, four meats, six condiments, three cheeses and four extras ($4.95 -$5.25).

The Asian chicken salad, served on soft bubbly slices of country Italian bread (of which I took home a disappointing day-old seeming $3 loaf) included fresh, plentiful, tender pieces of white meat which co-mingled with crunchy green onion, diced red pepper, cilantro, a light chili-pepper sauce and green leaf lettuce. In short, a delight.

The Mediterranean vegetarian sandwich, on the other hand, was not. The combination of a thin layer of goat cheese, roasted red peppers, too-thick hunks of eggplant, tomato, and calamata olive spread managed to collectively drown the lovely mixed-grain bread within minutes. Served on a sturdy baguette, my guess is that this sandwich would hold up fine.

I also tasted a turkey sandwich with greens, “horsey mayo,” provolone and roasted red peppers which was wonderful except that the baguette wasn’t quite as fresh as it could have been. Roast beef on soft sourdough rye with goat cheese and calamata olive spread, alternately, was very impressive with its abundant fillings and a wonderful crust that put my incisors to work.

Other places you might run into Breadgarden’s variety of sandwiches and/or morning treats (soon to include croissants) include Aurora coffeehouses, Outwrite bookstore and Southern Sweets.

Good bakeries are a truly precious commodity in this culture that’s still struggling to appreciate the value of a loaf of bread executed with both scientific and gastronomic perfection. In the words of esteemed food critic Jeffrey Steingarten: “Fantastic bread can overcome an ugly restaurant with brutish service, recently defrosted desserts and burned coffee.” With award-winning loaves at the Breadgarden - from baguettes and walnut batards to sourdough raisin nut rye - there’s no good reason not to take your chances on a loaf of your very own ... even if you could care less about shoes.

Breadgarden, 549-5 Amsterdam Ave. 404-875-1166. Open Mon.-Wed., 9 a.m-3 p.m., Thurs.-Sat., 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Closed Sun. Cash and checks accepted.??