• EAT: I liked the concept: A small cafe where the specialties are sandwiches associated with particular cities. At Taste of the City Cafe, you can get a Cuban sandwich from Little Havana, an Italian Dog from Newark, or a chicken or veggie Philly from, of course, Philadelphia. Clearly some creativity went into planning the menu. In practice, though, some of that creativity didn't pay off.

Taste of the City has an odd habit of not putting condiments on sandwiches unless you ask for them. Never mind that the menu described the Chicago Dog as having ``The Works -- mustard, relish, onion, tomato, pickles, sport pepper, celery salt.'' The roll came plain, no mustard. And the Davie fried chicken sandwich, which came with an abundance of crispy chicken, desperately needed a condiment (honey mustard would have been perfect) to balance the dryness of the breading.

The best of the bunch was a grilled veggie Philly gooey with cheese, onion, mushroom and black olives. ``Mmmmm, tastes like eating a pizza,'' said the happy diner who ordered it. A blackboard special of Corn Bites -- little corn fritters, crunchy and sweet with whole kernels and dipped in honey butter -- was surprisingly addictive.

The Cuban sandwich and a New Orleans blackened chicken sandwich tasted good although the blackened chicken was only vaguely spicy. Oddest was a Miami Dolphin Reuben sandwich made with cole slaw and fish. Cabbage's bite needs aggressively flavored meat to stand up to it. Instead, the cole slaw overwhelmed the mild fish.

• DRINK: Fred Tasker pick: What goes with miscellaneous sandwiches? Beer. Light beer, even.

• WATCH: In honor of the creative veggie Philly, watch Rocky -- a movie so identified with Philadelphia that the Philadelphia Museum of Art has a statue of Rocky Balboa running up the museum steps.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@