UPDATE: Verjus is no longer offering a lunch service! Lunch is served at Ellsworth, their new restaurant several doors down the road. Sandwiches like this are not included BUT buttermilk fried chicken has carried over unchanged.
Question the merits of a time-tested jambon-beurre or poulet-crudités to a French person and you’re liable to elicit a backlash. I speak from experience.
Despite evolving habits of consumption and a wonderfully creative food scene, their lunchtime staples remain entrenched in the past. As a longtime consumer of peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches (with crust), I certainly see the value in a classic. But I’m also a firm believer that there should be a whole host of options to satisfy our ever-changing cravings. The French have mastered this when it comes to pastry but there’s work left to be done on the humble sandwich.
Mid-market lunch joints should take a cue from the Verjus crew who recently began offering lunch in their downstairs wine bar. The menu currently features three US-inspired sandwiches and can be ordered alone or as part of a full meal which comes with a dessert and a drink. Two of the three current recipes contain pork, which I don’t eat, but the third was…
