A FORK ON THE ROAD
Fresh, fun Jam Café serves up Euro-style light bites
Posted on Thu, Jul. 24, 2008
By LINDA BLADHOLM
LINDA BLADHOLM / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD
Ower Salvatore "Salvo" Catania with a Lombarda salad in his newly opened The Jam Cafe.
IF YOU GO
Place: The Jam Café.
Address: 1935 West Ave., No. 102, Miami Beach.
Contact: 305-538-5877.
Hours: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday.
Prices: Breakfast sandwiches $4.95-$7.50, salads $6.45-$10.95, sandwiches and wraps $4.95-$9.25, smoothies $4.95.
FYI: Delivery in the neighborhood.
The Jam Café is a small, cool breakfast and lunch spot on West Avenue that is jamming although it has only been open a month. It's near the new Publix, and since it's never a good idea to grocery shop on an empty stomach, folks in the neighborhood stop in for a sandwich, smoothie or salad first. (The light bites are available until 8 p.m. every day but Sunday.)
Owner Salvatore ''Salvo'' Catania designed the modular space with a curved couch in the center where you sit on pillows at small round tables. Salvo is from Cantania, a town on the east coast of Sicily, where he studied hotel management.
He worked in London and the south of France before arriving in Miami in 1997. He worked the front of the house at several trendy Beach restaurants and was a partner in one, learning the business inside and out.
Marianna Trejo, a fellow Italian, answered his add for the new café. She is working on her master's degree at Florida International University and plans to take the food in an organic direction eventually. Emphasis is on high-quality cured meats and cheeses and Medaglia D'Oro gourmet coffee.
The café is open for breakfast, serving scrambled egg sandwiches (with ham, cheese or smoked salmon) on a bagel, jumbo croissant or whole-wheat bread. Healthful eaters can get a whole-wheat tortilla wrap with egg whites and spinach.
Other morning favorites include the 6-inch croissants or brioche with jam, blueberry muffins, coffees and teas. The bread is from Le Chic bakery and the bagels are from New York Bagels, both on the Beach. The Wi-Fi, newspapers, and gossip magazines are complimentary.
Salvo's philosophy is to take something simple and make it extraordinary. For example, the prosciutto and fresh mozzarella sandwich with basil pesto is elevated by the good ingredients and fresh bread (all sandwiches can be made on ciabatta, whole wheat or jumbo croissant).
Vegetarians can get a wrap with romaine, fresh mozzarella, cucumbers and grilled eggplant marinated in extra-virgin olive oil or as a sandwich that adds roasted red peppers and pesto. The grilled chicken panini has the pesto and peppers plus melted fontina cheese. Fish lovers will like the tuna-salad sandwich or smoked salmon sandwich with spinach and capers.
The best salad for meat eaters is the Lombarda, based on baby spinach greens tossed in red-wine vinaigrette with roasted red-pepper strips, Kalamata olives and red onions topped with slices of Italian salami and grated shavings of Grana Padano cheese. For veggies only, try the spinach salad with sun-dried tomatoes and hearts of palm in lemon-herb vinaigrette.
Gym rats come for the smoothies in flavors like muscle man (tropical fruit with peach and OJ) and passionate picante (banana, OJ, passion fruit nectar, apple juice, and crushed red pepper flakes).
The giant croissant with Nutella (big enough to share) and the tiramisu are great sweet endings at this hip little hangout.
Linda Bladholm's latest book is Latin and Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.
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