Cheap Eats - Salty sweet

Savories Bistro brings NYC to the Perimeter



One glance at Savories Bistro’s menu — with its roster of freshly made sandwiches, salads and desserts — confirms it has all the makings for a top-notch New York deli. But then you have to deal with its location, in a strip mall along Roswell Road just inside I-285. A pastiche of items that scream ’80s — black, sleek metal chairs, textural wall coverings, halogen lights — fill the space. On any given day, the lunch crowd is a swarm of Yankee grandmothers and khaki-and-button-down types all looking for that NYC experience.

BREAD BASKET: Some sandwich shops get their bread from local bakeries, some from national companies. Savories sets itself apart by making its own — and it makes a difference. The cracked wheat, served in inch-thick slices, is soft and fragrant. The dark rye, with its multihued swirls, and the New York rye offer a wonderful sour-and-molasses sweetness. Good ol’ white bread, pitas, onion rolls, hoagies, deli rolls and croissants are also baked fresh.

CRUSTY THE CROUTON: Even the croutons are high-quality — crusty, toasted strips of jagged cracked wheat. Served alongside the freshly made soups, they made an OK cup of cream of mushroom ($2.25 cup/$3.25 bowl) great. The soup was full of sliced mushrooms and seasoned liberally with dill. But with the side of crunchy croutons — which I used to dunk, kerplunk, crumble and soak in the creamy stuff — I couldn’t help but play with my food.

TWO-HANDERS: The meat was piled so high on my New York ($6.95) — corned beef, turkey breast, coleslaw and Swiss — that it took a moment to figure out how to get it all in my mouth. The meat was standard, but the coleslaw was interesting — oversized shreds of cabbage mixed with Russian dressing and tons of dill. It provided a nice counterpoint to the salty meats. Other sandwiches, like the pastrami melt with provolone on dark rye ($6.95) and grilled chicken breast on wheat ($5.95), also featured the same massive amounts of meat. You’ll need both hands for these babies.

The one complaint was voiced by a friend who had a veggie selection — the Milan ($6.95). The grilled eggplant seemed fried, and turned the bread greasy. Sundried tomatoes didn’t add much punch.

PIE IN YOUR EYE: I wasn’t floored upon hearing that the restaurant’s specialty was cream pies ($4.25 a slice). They claim to make over 125 different varieties from family recipes “handed down from generation to generation.” But once I bit into my first, the chocolate malt, I understood why. A layer of soft, oozy cream cheese, sprinkled with pecan pieces and spread on a graham cracker crust, is loaded with a hefty portion of silky chocolate mousse and topped with a light, almost-meringue-like whipped cream. The banana cream pie, with a smooth filling lighter and airier than banana pudding, packed slices of banana and heaps of flavor.

jerry.portwood@creativeloafing.com??