Tuna, no melt... Bouchon Bakery

Okay, so last week I got a text from my good buddy JSL, and he shot me a text that he was gonna be in the city for an interview. So we connected on facebook and decided to get together for lunch after his interview. After discussing this very blog, we decided to find a diner that would serve me the finest tuna melt (he's a vegetarian; I know, please refrain from booing). We settled on Eisenberg's (I think that's the place) in the Flatiron district, but we ran into all sorts of snags and ended up @ Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner building @ Columbus Circle. Bouchon Bakery is a boulangerié style joint specializing in artisan breads and other manner of baked goodness, but since we really couldn't find a diner, we settled in here because they had a pretty nice sounding tuna salad sandwich which, due to time constraints I decided to investigate...



What you see above is Bouchon Bakery's Tuna Niçoise on Palladin, featuring a very nice (celery free) tuna salad, Niçoise olives, sliced hard-boiled egg, sliced radishes, bibb lettuce, and garlic aioli. Swap out sliced pickles and insert some nice, crunchy gherkins (sweet touch).

Now, I KNOW it's not a melt, but it was delightful surprise. Very pleasant, great flavor and the garlic aioli was perfect with the bibb lettuce. The olives really upped the ante for the tuna salad and seriously, who could be mad @ a boiled egg? Hell, I didn't even mind the sliced radish! However, into every life a little rain must fall, and this beautiful little sandwich was no exception. Tho the bread overall was great, the crust was simply too thick to cut with a butter knife (yeah, I got all siddidy and attacked this thing knife and fork style; just couldn't figure out any other attack plan). Also, with the bread infirm and not toasted, with that mound of tuna salad goodness on top, it's a bit awkward for simply bare-handing it. The crust of the bread was the only issue I had however, and that could have been over come with a sharper knife.

The brew accompanying the sandwich in question is Blue Point Brewery's Toasted Lager. Excellent Brew. I'm sure I mentioned it in the past somewhere on this blog. Reach back for it.

Bouchon Bakery's Tuna Niçoise gets four tomatoes. Gherkins... nice touch...