Gastown’s Meat & Bread Serves a Hearty Lunch

Credit: Flickr / Roland Tanglao

Lunch at Meat and Bread in Gastown

Gastown welcomes a simple menu for a hearty, uncomplicated lunch at Meat & Bread

There’s a very good reason that people invest in pork bellies; they’re delicious. Cord Jarvie and Frankie Harrington at Meat & Bread are making that investment pay off. By keeping things simple (there are only four types of sandwiches on the menu) the ravenous lunchtime queue is quickly despatched with a production line of specialsts that would make Henry Ford proud.

Simple food, the star of the show

In the titular role of “Meat,” Porchetta gives a very juicy performance, but I was also impressed the following week by Porchetta’s understudy, Lamb, who did an equally stunning job. Co-star Bread gives a softer delivery than we’re used to in the role of Ciabatta, which worked excellently to help absorb some of the heavier parts of the work. Special mention should also go to Relish, who deserves an Oscar for his supporting role that both counterbalanced and highlighting the protagonists.

Often at the end of a spectacle, I feel the need for a short skit but Meat & Bread’s opus left me feeling well satiated, much to my surprise.

Carving the porchetta at Meat & Bread in Gastown.

Meat & Bread in a category all on its own

Meat & Bread is difficult to define. The moniker “restaurant” seems ill-suited, “cafe” too is a misnomer, “sandwich shop” (perhaps the most technically accurate) conjures up limp ham-and-cheese triangles. With white subway tiles covering the walls and a long, service counter-cum-bar, Meat & Bread feels like a cross between a butcher’s shop and an English Pub; an effect helped by the collection of curios toward the back.

The high ceilings make the space feel cavernous, while the service counter, as it morphs into a high table, with diners wrapping around both sides, blurs line beween patron and provisioner creating a sense of fellowship.

Dietary accomodations

A name like Meat & Bread is hardly likely to draw vegetarians or celiac sufferers, but if needs must one of the four sandwich options is a grilled cheese and their soups take the chill off a winter’s day.

If you could add one sandwich, what would it be?