2/17/2010 - City Scene article featuring Brookwood Lunch

COFFEE, DESSERTS AND SANDWICHES, TOO

By Deeana Crider

Published in The Birmingham News City Scene – 2/12/10

Longtime local coffeehouse O’Henry’s recently opened a new location at Colonial Brookwood Village.  The coffeehouse is located outside the mall in the lower level of an office building near Applebee’s restaurant.

In addition to the new Brookwood store, O’Henry’s has several others around town, including the original location in downtown Homewood, as well as Regions/Harbert Tower, St. Vincent’s East Hospital and Samford University locations.

For two of the locations – Brookwood and Regions/Harbert – the Web site posts food menus, which are similar but not identical.  The Brookwood location offers the coffees and desserts O’Henry’s has always been known for, as well as a selection of panini sandwiches, flatbread melts and signature salads. There is also a soup of the day.

Order and pay at the register.  You will be given a number and a server will deliver the food to your table.

The enjoyable chicken salad plate ($7.50) featured a creamy chicken salad made with white meat, toasted pecans, grapes and diced celery.  On the side was a small slice of spiced bread and a serving of seasonal fresh fruit – pineapple and cantaloupe.

What appears to be the same chicken salad, called “Miss Mary’s,” can also be ordered sandwich style, served on a croissant, for $6.95.  Other sandwiches include honey glazed turkey and pimento cheese. Other salads include Thai chicken and apple walnut spring mix.

Grilled paninis were gooey and cheesy. The Virginia ham and Havarti panini ($6.95) featured smoked ham and creamy Havarti cheese melted inside a toasted croissant.  O’Henry’s Smokehouse grill ($7.25) consisted of turkey, smoked ham, bacon, Provolone cheese and barbeque-mayonnaise inside sourdough bread.

The sandwiches were served with a creamy baby red potato salad.  Fresh fruit is an alternative accompaniment.

The wasabi roast beef flatbread melt ($5.75) featured a thin, square flatbread topped with crispy red and green bell pepper, red onion, mushrooms, roast beef, pepper jack cheese, and a touch of wasabi – flavorful but not overly spicy. The flatbread was cut into triangles for easier serving.

There are two other flatbread melts on the menu – the Santa Fe, topped with andouille sausage, black beans, corn, green peppers, pepper jack cheese and chipotle sauce, and the Madison County, topped with marinated chicken, smoked cheddar, sliced apple, red onion, bacon, and a special white sauce.

In typical coffeehouse fashion, tables are often staked out by students and others, reading, studying and working on laptop computers. On a recent visit for coffee and dessert, there wasn’t an available table, so our server asked a couple of the laptoppers to consolidate to free up a table for us.

We enjoyed robust classic espresso, foamy café lattes and flavorful, refreshing orange-spice iced tea.

Caramel fudge cheesecake was delicious, featuring a soft fudge bottom layer topped with cheesecake, caramel and nuts. Peanut Butter Thunder cake was moist and good, with peanut butter kisses in the frosting.

Banana cake looked beautiful, but was disappointingly dry and dense. Ricotta cheesecake was the least interesting offering.

Each of us had our own favorite dessert, but the standout, hands down, was the chocolate lava cake. Sitting in the display case, this round little cake looked relatively benign – kind of like a chocolate muffin. However, a gooey chocolate filling lurked within, and served warm, it became a moist, oozy lava bomb of goodness.

Cookies, brownies and lemon squares were also available.

The menu also lists specialty espressos, iced espressos, frappes, freezes and other warm and cold beverages. Bagel sandwiches are available for breakfast.

O’Henry’s buys and roasts their own coffee beans at their sister company, O’Henry’s Coffee Roasting Company, in Homewood. Their coffees are also sold in Publix, Piggly Wiggly and Western supermarkets.

Another point of note is the décor at the new O’Henry’s, which features interesting architectural items salvaged from old homes, churches and schools.  A printed flier explains the origins of these items, including the railing around the upstairs loft dining area, which once bordered the staircase of an old house.

Deeana Crider is a freelance restaurant critic for The Birmingham News.

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