Negroni Panini
492 College Street
416-413-0005
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and wine - $70
The boys behind Sidecar get it right again, bringing more cheap and cheerful dining to College Street with Negroni Panini. The menu is deceptively simple with basic Italian sandwiches taken to the next level by superfluous touches of surprising quality and detail. Match this with a recession-friendly price structure, plus Sidecar's welcoming approach to customer service and nobody needs a crystal ball to see that this place is destined to be a hit.
The first reason to love Negroni: they serve $20 bottles of wine. That's right - Citra Trebbiano D'Abruzzo and Farnese Sangiovese Citra are both screaming bargains, also available at $5 per glass. We order the Farnese and while it's quaffable from the start, by the second pour it's zoomed off the scale in thrifty lusciousness-per-swig.
A short list of beers ($6) includes Italian faves Peroni and Moretti, both easy drinkers that pair well with the food. There are a handful of other reasonably priced wine options and one cocktail - the Campari-fueled Negroni, of course. Non-drinkers can choose from a selection of sodas by San Pellegrino ($2), including hard-to-find chinotto made from the same herbs that give Campari its trademark bitter bite.
Nicely appointed, the restaurant is airy with well-spaced tables and furnishings in golden wood. Church pews line some walls, but nothing about Negroni is uptight. These days the front windows are thrown open giving the whole space an al fresco feel, but the warm tones should be equally inviting in colder months. The front patio holds just two tables, but they are excellent for College Street people-watching, and by the time of this printing a new back patio should offer more outdoor seating. Most of the cooking is done on the panini presses at the central bar. We wonder how it will all shake down when Negroni is crammed to capacity, but for now we have no complaints.
The menu, no surprise, focuses on panini. A short list of "plates" favours picky dishes that lend themselves well to communal snacking like a bowl of marinated olives ($7), a board of cured meats ($12), or a selection of cheese ($12). Bufula with oven dried tomatoes and fresh basil pesto ($12) is a great plate. The tomatoes are rotund and hearty, the pesto is bright and evergreen, and fat roasted garlic laze luxuriously about the dish. A large frond of beautiful basil is the finishing touch. The combination of ingredients makes the shy mozz spring to life, and the overall effect could easily put many "fancy" restaurants to shame. Some bread to sop up extra bits of olive oil would be nice, but we appreciate that the no frills approach is what's keeping prices down.
Panini are served on traditional ciabatta, a crusty white bread with a soft interior. Ingredients are traditional with a focus on quality rather than quantity (more on this later). Italian meats and cheeses including pancetta, soppressata, fontina and taleggio make for authenticity, and spreads like red pepper garlic mayo, artichoke purée, and fresh pestos make for sandwiches that supersede the ordinary.
A panino of prosciutto, asparagus, and taleggio ($11) is a nod to spring with firm green asparagus spears melted into the not-your-average ham and cheese. The flavours complement each other well but there's a bit too much bread to let the fillings really shine. Salami with goat cheese and black olive tapenade ($11) suffers a similar fate. Ingredient are solid, but we wish its fillings were a bit fatter. Ditto for Italian sausage panini plumped up with sweet slow-roasted onions, fontina and sundried tomato pesto ($11). Fixings are consistently great and the available flavour combinations are well-considered with many tempting options (house cured tuna with bean purée or roasted chicken with asiago and made for tough deliberating), but the general criticism is that the panini are just a bit too skimpy on the good stuff. The one Italian among us says this want for more stuff is what tips him off that these panini "aren't made by Italians." It's not even that the value for money seems off, it's just that for dinner some of us are concerned that it's too light (granted, it's probably about perfect for lunch). We wonder whether an optional $2 deluxe upgrade might satisfy hungrier appetites? Our panini could also have used another 30 seconds on the press for maximal melt, but that's an easily remedied glitch. The important part is that all the necessary ingredients are here for excellent sammies once the proportions get ironed out.
Panini are served with a side salad of baby arugula gussied up with shards of fennel, reggiano, and a couple of inky-salty olives in a light olive oil dressing. It's an astonishingly sophisticated and well-considered side that completely thumbs its nose at all those boring heaps of mesclun mix lining typical Toronto plates - and a perfect example of how co-owners Bill Sweete and Casey Bee take their food the extra mile.
The only dessert on the menu is homemade ice cream ($5). Initially disappointed that the nightly offerings don't match the menu (we wanted to try the peanut butter!), we're immediately won over by the promise of chocolate espresso ice cream. We also order option number two, classic vanilla, just to see how they do it.
The chocolate espresso is a direct hit to the limbic system with luxurious texture and an assertive but not overwhelming chocolate taste. Amazingly, it also melts at just the right pace (how do they do that?). Vanilla is a bit crystallized and I wanted for more bean-ed out intensity of flavour, but it was by no means bad, and I love the idea of homemade ice cream so much that I'm willing to accept that batches may vary from day to day. Serving sizes get it just right and mint leaf garnishes are a thoughtful and pretty touch.
Service is pleasant and welcoming, especially since we're indecisive in a way that makes us admittedly annoying. Sweete is working the front of the house and he's clearly in his element pouring wine, delivering sandwiches, unobtrusively filling water glasses, and chatting with us about future plans for the house.
I have no trouble seeing myself back at Negroni repeatedly this summer. Great food, a charming setting, friendly service and reasonable prices make this spot a no-brainer, but it's the elegant and charming attention to detail that really sets Negroni apart. Note that the restaurant closes at 9pm, but I'd actually love to see them extend the hours for summer. In the supererogatory category - a cheapie bottle of prossecco on that wine list. Oh, and save me a place on the patio.
