Cheap Eats

Vaccaro's Italian Pastry Shop | |
| Phone: | 410-685-4905 |
| Address: | 222 Ablemarle Street Baltimore, MD 21202- |
More on Vaccaro's Italian Pastry Shop. | |
With its pastries, ice cream gustatory bombs, and billion-calorie real-whipped-cream-on-top combinations thereof, you don't go to Vaccaro's to eat actual food. You go there to blow your guests' minds (and stomach muscles). That changed, recently, with a redesign that makes the Baltimore dessert destination look more like a disco than a ice cream parlor. They've added a page of panini and mufalato sandwiches, salads, and soups which are, in true Vaccaro's fashion, quite big. They are also quite delicious. We went with a big boss ($8.75), a panini with turkey, artichokes, sauteed onions, tomatoes, and provolone cheese pressed between two slices of focaccia slathered with a basil-mayonnaise-garlic spread. The original mufalato ($8.75), had layers of peppered Italian ham, salami, mortadella, tomatoes, and provolone and crumbled Asiago cheese. Also on focaccia, but not pressed, the mufalato had a thin layer of olive spread, which we would have liked more of. Nevertheless, both sandwiches were flavorful and impressive. The sides--a tortellini salad and a plate of unpitted olives and large chunks of Asiago--were also huge. As is custom here, we couldn't finish the meal. Fortunately, sandwiches keep better than half-eaten ice cream.