The annual Taste of Concord event is naturally a Mecca of sorts for the Food Snob. But even with the multitude of local food offerings, there aren't usually too many restaurants there that the Snob hasn't visited. So when we saw Cimo's South End Market's booth and its exotic reuben soup, we were intrigued to say the least. Last week, we packed our dining companion into the car and took a trip down to the South End to see what Cimo's was like on its home turf.
Cimo's is basically a convenience store with a deli/grill counter; in the summer, they serve ice cream out of their deck window, but our visit took place after the ice cream season was over. On that brisk fall day, we were after a warm pick-me-up meal anyway, and it looked like we were in business. The menu consisted of a plethora of cold and hot subs, pizza, burgers and soups. Unfortunately, we were there too late for the “breakfast pizza.”
Cimo himself recommended the Italian chicken sub, so we ordered one of those along with the daily special, which was a roast beef sandwich on a croissant and a cup of sweet chili. We took a seat outside on a bench (more suited for the ice cream crowd than a sit-down diner, but we made do) and waited for our order.
Not five minutes later, our sandwiches and soups were ready. The small Italian chicken sub ($5.50) was as loaded as a sub can be: grilled chicken, melted provolone cheese, grilled peppers and onions and the sources of the Italian moniker, salami and Italian dressing. The dressing was hardly noticeable, but the salami lent a subtle, savory flavor to the chicken that really rounded out the overall sub experience. The sub roll was also near-perfect, achieving the delicate balance of crunchy exterior and soft interior. Small wonder it came highly recommended by the house.
The roast beef sandwich on a croissant ($4.99), while not hot, was equally delicious. The moist, not-too-flakey croissant served as an excellent bun. The roast beef was pink, rare and fresh and was complemented nicely by the lettuce, tomato, provolone, mayo and mustard.
The standout of the meal, however, was the sweet chili. The Snob is a professed hot-'n'-spicy chaser, so a sweet chili was a somewhat alien concept. Boy, were we glad we tried it. The standard chili elements were all there: beef, beans, tomato and celery. We were able to pinpoint black, kidney and baked beans in the mix; the latter must have been what created the sweetness.
The taste stayed with us for days afterward; even now while writing this, we can still recreate a mental taste-image of that sweet, sweet chili.
