andreoli's

on chowhound, saw a recommendation for an interesting italian grocery store/deli by molto.

went there yesterday and really enjoyed it. cool place with a lot of character. reminds me a bit of defalco's on scottsdale just north of oak which we love as well. seems a bit more relaxed though.

for this visit, we just tested the food off the menu. there was 4 of us plus our 2 year old. we did a variety of sandwiches & antipasto to share.

btw no pasta special today though. there was a filet special at about $18 so i didn't listen too closely as that seemed a bit much for lunch.

sandwiches:

panino in porchetta (roasted pork, garlic, fennel, black pepper) - ordered this for our dairy allergic daughter. it was great. came on a baguette (which btw is). comes with a side salad that was well liked by everyone.

panino del tirolo (smoked proscuitto spec, pesto, tomatoes and rucola) - i really liked this sandwich. great flavors, great bread. would definitely order again.

panino bocca di rosa (eggplant, mozzarella, tomato sauce and parmigiano) - this was also awesome. great flavors. definitely would order again.

schiacciata du belin (focaccia with tuna and pecorino) - i actually wasn't a huge fan of this as i'm not a focaccia guy but the others in my party really, really liked it. simple but they said the pecorino really made it stand out.

antipasto:

potatine e porri fritti con salsina ghiotta (french fries & leeks with aoli) - of course we had to try these after molto's recommendation. they were great. i forgot to order them extra crispy as directed and in my opinion, they would benefit from that. will definitely be a staple but will also be asking for extra crispy.

arancini alla catonese (rice stuffed with bolognase and peas, breaded and deep fried) - these were great. hadn't seen these since cool delis in australia. i just love this whole idea and would be happy to see them do multiple versions with different stuffings. i love risotto, and how can you not love breading & deep frying...just makes everything better. i could see 5 or 6 different versions of this...would be very happy to!

other:

we also did a few bottles of limonata, chinotto, a latte e menta (a milk drink with mint syrup - which we had cold - that was very refreshing and nice) and a few lattes (respectable). we did get a few of the flower shaped almond cookies (raspberry filled, apricot filled? and marzipan filled) and they were killer.

note:

i did speak with giovanni afterwards and he indicated that he flies fresh fish in on the weekends (fridays & saturdays). some recent ones have been cuttlefish from san francisco (i think i saw referred to in a cuttlefish with black ink risotto) and baby octopus from greece. we will definitely be happy to come back and try the specials out.

one other thing that was a standout to me is that for a not very large menu, i could easily pick out 10 - 15 other sandwiches/salada/antipasto that i definitely want to try. for that size of a menu, this seems like a lot of interesting selections to me. i can get stuck in the "order the same thing" rut too easily but i don't think that would be the case here.