Amy Vitale’s fetish for funky old tables culled from yard sales and antiques shops had so cluttered her basement that opening a gourmet sandwich shop was kind of a relief.
Tables, open since April in a Park Hill strip center shared with a Buddhist temple and groovy dog-grooming operation, provided a place where her collection, and her cooking, could be fully appreciated.
The hip but low-key eatery offers more than a dozen delicious sandwiches $6.50 and less. The favorite house “Table Setting” is The Monaco ($6.50), which joins smoked turkey, brie, artichoke hearts, and tomatoes on sourdough bread smeared with spinach and herb pesto. This creation is fragrant and delicious, and worthy of its status as a customer favorite.
Other sandwiches – they call them “Table Toppers” – are slightly more daring. The Hudson Street makes classic ham and Swiss extraordinary by adding fruit. Thinly sliced pears and a slick of apricot jam are sneaked in between slices of chewy sourdough, along with spicy watercress and Dijon cream to make a simple sandwich a $6 sensation.
The vegetarian pickings are slim in the sandwich category, with the hummus-based Veggie Barracuda the sole meat-free selection. Folks eating lower on the food chain can still find a meal at Tables, though. The menu includes a “Set Your Own Table” option, that allows patrons to make up their own combinations, selecting from a slate that includes avocado, tomato, roasted peppers, olives, pears, watercress.
There are also seven salads to choose from ($4-$6.50), and three come without meat or fish.
All of the sandwiches are accompanied by chips or the salad of the day. With a little luck, the du jour selection will be Tables’ saucy coleslaw, a little dab of zippy sweet-and-sour goodness made from red cabbage and red onions. You can round out the meal with “End Tables,” cookies, brownies and other treats ($3).
The good eats at Tables reveal a secret: Vitale and her partner, Dustin Barrett, are no restaurant novices. The recently married pair last worked at Strings, where Vitale was the executive chef and Barrett was a line cook.
After seven months on their own cold line, the pair now is looking to expand into the evening hours, replacing some of their gourmet sandwiches with more of the types of ambitious cooked entrees that now show up as daily “Hot Plate” specials ($10-12). They include roasted Cajun chicken served with a pile of garlicky mashed potatoes.
Vitale and Barrett have applied for a liquor license and are thinking about how the dining room might be rearranged to make room for the new menu. The deli case may be shoved to the back of the kitchen, but the much loved drop-leaf tables will certainly stay at the center of attention at Tables.
Tables
AMERICAN | 2267 Kearney St.,
303-388-0299 | $3-$12 | 11:30
a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday;
noon-4 p.m. Saturday; Visa, MC,
Amex, Discover; on-street parking.
Front burner: Perfect combinations
of fresh vegetables and
top-notch deli meats sandwiched
between slabs of lovely
bread.
Back burner: Bare walls, a concrete
floor and a corrugated metal
ceiling boost the noise factor.
