Fusco’s Market

Late July: Fusco’s Market is serving a summer tomato sandwich. I cannot resist, even if this faddish shopping-center cafe / grocery / wine shop has a personality that is more foodie-suburban than Roadfood-in-the-raw.

Unless you specify add-ons such as onions, mayo, butter, cheese, etc., it is the simplest sandwich imaginable: slices of tomato stacked up between crisp tiles of toast. It looks great, and it tastes good. These are real tomatoes, no doubt about that; but am I being a curmudgeon to whine that even fresh summer tomatoes don’t taste as good as they used to?

Aside from a long roster of hot and cold sandwiches, the menu is fashionable comfort food: chicken pot pie, pastas hot and cool, chicken tacos, cheese-rich tomato pie, white chicken lasagna, lamb chops, house-smoked brisket.

Nearly everything on the menu (and more) is available to take home and serve or cook and serve. Half the storefront is devoted to the take-out and grocery trade.