By Jamie Ducharme, News Staff
Right place at the wrong time – that’s how I’m evaluating my meal at the newly opened Orange Corner Cafe at 374 Massachusetts Ave.
A friend and I ventured to Orange Corner for dinner, and immediately realized we made a mistake. While the cafe has a good selection of coffee and pastries, the lunch and dinner menu is small, consisting only of three soups and eight sandwiches. I ordered the Orange Corner Cafe (OCC) Club, a roast beef sandwich with bacon, cheddar cheese, mayo, lettuce, tomato and onion.
My dreams of a tasty gourmet sandwich were crushed when it came wrapped in tin foil, despite having been made to order. Removing the packaging hardly made me feel better – instead of the layers of toasted bread I associate with a club sandwich, it was blanketed in a sad-looking white wrap.
I wasn’t expecting any miracles when I bit in, and with good reason. I enjoyed the sandwich, but it was certainly no better than anything I could have gotten at Panera Bread or Au Bon Pain. The vegetables weren’t exceptionally fresh and I couldn’t get past wanting bread with a bit more substance. The sandwich got the job done, but it wasn’t anything to rave about. Luckily, it was reasonably priced at $4.25.
My disappointment was only compounded when my friend dipped into her bowl of clam chowder. Her tasty meal gave me immediate food envy, and I vowed I would order soup if ever I returned. The soup portion sizes are also enormous and cheap at only $3.50 for a bowl and $2 for a cup.
The experience perked up at dessert, though. We split a piece of chocolate-covered cheesecake ($3.10) and agreed it was delicious. The chocolate was perfectly melted and creamy, while the cheesecake beneath was moist and fluffy without being overwhelmingly rich. OCC’s dessert case also boasted fabulous looking cupcakes, Tiramisu, chocolate pie and ice cream.
The only downside to my dessert experience came from an employee. Despite being clearly labeled in the dessert case, she said the cheesecake I had ordered was actually chocolate covered Tiramisu, which turned out to be incorrect. The cheesecake snafu illustrated just how new OCC really is; the cafe has only been open for about a week, and it’s obvious. While the employees were pleasant and polite, they were still unsure of what was on the menu and took a long time to prepare our fairly simple orders. They also failed to mention the cafe’s 10 percent student discount before we ordered.
Despite my mediocre first outing, I still want to like Orange Corner. It has a restful, friendly vibe and is conveniently located about a block from the Massachusetts Avenue T station, and I’m sure many of its kinks will be eliminated with time. After the delicious cheesecake and the tantalizing smells of fair trade coffee in the air, my friend and I came to the consensus that OCC is a better place for a light meal or snack – say, soup and a bagel or coffee and dessert – than for a filling dinner.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed, hoping if I go back for an afternoon coffee break it will make me forget all about dinner.
Orange Corner Cafe, 374 Massachusetts Ave., 617-437-7188, www.orangecornercafe.com. Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
