Baguette From Bon Fresco: Go For The Sandwiches, Carry Home A Loaf Of Something

Sometimes, it is good to remember the basics.  Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery does that, and that's why it's one of my best restaurants in Howard County.

Go for any of the sandwiches.  Maybe start with a cold cut or that London broil.  But the Columbia spot is worth a visit just for bread.

That's the base of all those sandwiches.  Baguettes, ciabatta, wonderful challah on Fridays.  You won't get a better loaf anywhere -- even after the revolution in bread around here.  Bon Fresco pays attention to the details, and they bake up special bread.

For $2, I grabbed a baguette last week as I was doing late-afternoon errands.  I broke a hunk in the car.  A light white crumb with a real flavor -- lightly sour, crisp on the outside.  We made sandwiches with just a slice of speck from Wegmans.

Comfort: Bread - In Many Forms - With Meat Or Vegetables (And Potato Salad On The Side)

The vegetarian special at Soretti's

Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery has begun charging 50 cents for its potato salad side dish, and you shouldn't think twice about picking up one or even two.

Fresh bread makes wonderful comfort food.  To me, no one makes a better sandwich than Bon Fresco's London broil.  But don't go cheap and miss out on the amazing potato salad -- smooth without being heavy, getting all the flavor from the basic potato without tarting up with cream and fat.

Fifty cents is a bargain.   It's better than any bag of chips -- and cheap at that price.

Bon Fresco's London broil and potato salad

But comforting bread can come in many forms.  The Bon Fresco sandwich makes for an easy grab.  Even after a drive home, the thin-sliced steak contrasts perfectly with the crisp greens and the slightly chewy loaf.


In contrast, Soretti Ethiopian Cuisine's vegetable special provides a homey, simple challenge.  You just eat everything. Eat the vegetables.  Eat the lentils.  Even eat the plate -- the injera bread spread out beneath the stews.

It's not literally the plate.  There is a plate under the injera.  I realize that Ethiopian vegetable platters may not be the most-standard comfort food.  But I last ended up in the Burtonsville restaurant on night where I had to feed myself and a cold.  I brought a paperback novel, and I sat quietly with dinner and a cup of sweet Ethiopian tea.  One of the lentils runs spicy, but mostly, the salads and stews just taste like vegetables.  Bright colors, earthy flavors, and healthy fuel for a healing body.

Soretti is a friendly, relaxed place.  The women there treated me nicely, and I hung out to read and finish my tea.  They offered some extra lentils, which sounded smart until I realized that I was incredibly full.  They're delicious, but I realized eventually that I was scooping food to be polite -- not because I needed any more to eat.

Bon Fresco Expanding To Annapolis Junction

The Washington Post raves about the sandwiches at Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery in Columbia, and owner Gerald Koh told the Post that he has plans to open a second location in Annapolis Junction this year.

Rita Rapuano talked up the picante pork sandwich, along with the London broil and the salads.  Koh talked about he tries to make everything in house -- from the breads to the roasted meats to the chocolate croissants.  That's why I suggested Bon Fresco as the first stop on my tour for people thinking about moving to Howard County.

Bon Fresco Basics Come Back Into Focus When The Special "Easter Basket" Catches Our Eyes

Sandwiches from Bon Fresco

It can take a moment of crazy newness to remember how great some of the steady, regular places around here can be.

It took an Easter special at Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery to make me post again about how great they make their regular sandwiches and breads.  Every day, you can pick up greatness in cold cuts, grilled vegetables, London broil, and other flavors.  Or you can pick up a baguettes, focaccia, and even Friday challah for your own menus.

Focaccia for you to take home

That's why I suggest the Columbia restaurant as one of the first stops in my advice to people who are moving to Howard County.  We were jammed with chores Saturday, so I got a spicy Italian sandwich for Mrs. HowChow and a London broil for myself.

You're just not going to get better sandwiches anywhere.  It's a small menu.  It hasn't changed much if I remember right.  But it's all delicious -- corned beef, grilled vegetables, real sliced turkey. . . The potato salad comes with tender potato and just enough mild binder to stay together.

The Easter special was a bit unusual.  They baked an actual Easter egg into a loaf of bread shaped like a basket.  The bread is slightly sweet like the challah and glazed with spinkles.  Catnip for a food blogger.  Maybe an exotic treat for a kid who likes bread and eggs?  They were $3.75 Saturday.  I don't know if they were a lark or something that Bon Fresco is trying out for the season.

Easter special

It was playing with the "Easter basket" that made me think about what a deal we're getting with the $2 baguettes.  These are perfect.  They're crisp on the outside.  They cut open to reveal an interior that is dense and tasty, but lightened up with the irregular holes that you get in artesian loaves.  I grabbed one that we just sliced thin and put on a tray with eggplant dip for Mrs. HowChow's college friends.

If you're working in Howard County, you should add it to your lunch repertoire.  If you're looking for a break, you should stop by on a weekend -- just a short run from your errand at Lowe's, Home Depot, Target, etc.  If you're a food blogger, you shouldn't take Bon Fresco for granted.  All my old posts are true, but I'm going to hunt for new favorites on the menu.

My one Bon Fresco wish is that they try a bahn mi sandwich.  It seems right up their alley -- maybe some roasted pork, pickled vegetables, cilantro, cukes and hot peppers.  Until then, use Bon Fresco's baguette to make something amazing with Andrea Nguyen's recipe.

Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery 
6945 Oakland Mills Road 
Columbia, MD 21045 
410-290-3434 

NEAR: Bon Fresco is in the shopping center on Oakland Mills Road at Snowden River Parkway. The center with Race Pace bike shop and a Ledo Pizza overlooks Snowden, but you need to turn onto Oakland Mills at the intersection and turn right into the shopping center. Bon Fresco is in the out-building just to the right of the entrance.  Nazar Market is right across the parking lot.

Sandwiches In Howard County: The Bready Competition Pita & Rye Joins This Weekend

Corned beef and Italian from
New York Deli in Columbia

The new kosher deli Pita & Rye is working out the kinks and aiming for an official opening this Sunday morning, and that got me thinking about the sandwich landscape that the new joint is joining.

Taste is personal, and sandwiches are super-personal.  Just check the comments on prior Pita & Rye posts to see people split in their preferences for meat and bread.

But there are certainly some Howard County spots trying to put out exceptional sandwiches.  They're selling food that I couldn't just assemble from the stuff that I can buy at the supermarket -- and that's important because I can get okay bread and pretty-good meats to pack in my own brown bag.

Pita & Rye has two angles that appeal to me -- falafel and special corned beef.  As far as I know, no one else sells falafel sandwiches around here, and I'd love hot fried chick peas if they come with some flavorful salad and dressing.

Challah Trial: Bon Fresco vs. Great Harvest

Challah A (Bon Fresco) & Challah B (Great Harvest)

Let's start by saying that none of the human subjects suffered in the Great Challah Trial of 2011.

The Jewish bread is a regular treat for RDAdoc, who guest-posted last week about challah from Great Harvest bakery in Columbia off Rte 108.  In the comments, Anonymous complimented the Great Harvest loaves, but said that even better were the challahs that were being sold on Fridays at Bon Fresco.

Bon Fresco?  That Columbia shop right off Snowden River Boulevard is one of my favorite restaurants -- both for sandwiches and loaves of chiabatta and baguettes.  But we had never heard about their challah.

That lead to a taste test and a geeky string of email humor as the scientists in my life proposed an experimental design, critiqued the statistical weaknesses, and joked about where to find a committee to approve the trial on human subjects.  It ended with me picking up two half-loaves of challah from RDAdoc last Friday night, knowing nothing more than that they were Challah A and Challah B.

The Secret Sandwich Menu At Bon Fresco

Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery has a menu so secret that even the employees don't know about it.

Behold: The HowChow Special.

Bon Fresco has served some of Howard County's best sandwiches since it opened two years ago in Columbia, but they took it  to the next level by offering to let me make my own.  I was deciding between the roasted vegetables sandwich with tapanade or the turkey sandwich with Maple Lawn Turkey Farm meat.  The turkey sounded good, but I wanted the salty tapanade more than whatever condiments were on the official turkey version.

That's when the cashier told me that I could mix and match.  Turkey on ciabatta with a thin layer of the roasted vegetables and tapanade.  That was absolutely delicious.  Bon Fresco's menu items were already exceptional.  It just gets better now that I realize that I can shuffle the ingredients myself.  Turkey and roasted vegetables is the HowChow Special -- as long as you get the potato salad as your side.

On a similar note, 1ltkis left a comment on a prior post saying that he/she has called Bon Fresco and asked them to make rolls.  Ciabatta or French bread rolls?  That sounds terrific.  Has anyone else ever done this?  How far in advance do you call?

Look For A New Bread At Bon Fresco: Soft Italian

Watch for a new bread this week at Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery -- a soft Italian loaf to go along with the ciabatta and baguettes.

No one sells better bread than Bon Fresco in Howard County.  Now the owner Gerald Koh is sampling an Italian bread that Chris said "was perfect like everything else he does, crunchy, yet had a chewy sweetness to it.  It's more like the usual bread you would get at a sub/sandwich place which I think will help introduce more people who are not fans of the heavier breads like ciabatta or baguette."

Koh told Chris that they'll start selling the Italian loaf this week.  Chris recommends trying it on the cold cut sandwiches like the Genoa or the Venice.  And he has plans for a homemade meatball sub.

Cookies at Bon Fresco and Touche Touchet

Bakeries become famous for their exotic offerings, but they make people very happy with a good cookie.

Bon Fresco makes wonderful breads and sandwiches.  Touche Touchet does amazing sweets, including pies, bear claws and cupcakes.  But my most-recent finds at both Columbia bakeries were cookies -- homey chocolate chip and exotic cayenne chocholate.

Bon Fresco goes homey and pulls off the hardest cookie -- the chocolate chip.  Most chocolate chip cookies that we eat have just come out of my oven, so you need to bake a great specimen to make us happy about paying cash.  Mrs. HowChow and I think Bon Fresco delivers.  Delicious even at room temperature with the fresh quality that makes Bon Fresco's bread so delicious.

Touche Touchet goes devilish.  The chocolate cookie comes spiked with hot pepper.  That's an adult taste, and it works beautifully.  Mostly, you taste chocolate and sweet, but the aftertaste comes with the direct sharp flavor of cayenne.  Touche Touchet and Bonaparte in Savage serve the most beautiful desserts with tables for coffee, hot chocolate or milk, and the chocolate cayenne cookies adds another reason why you should stop at either one for an afternoon treat -- either as an adult snack or a sweet kid's activity.  Just keep the cayenne for the adults.

Touche Touchet is also selling several flavors of Tommy's Naked Soda.

No Breakfast At Bon Fresco

For a while, Bon Fresco had talked about opening for breakfast, but a comment from Momteachs says that they're saying now that breakfast did not work out.  It is still one of my Top 10 places -- so check it out for sandwiches, soups or takeout bread.  Click here for all the Bon Fresco posts.

Bon Fresco Gets A Rave From The Sun

In my most egomaniacal moments, I hope that the real food critics use blogs as a way to identify places that they should check out.

The Sun actually reviewed Bon Fresco yesterday -- saying that the bread was exceptional and talking up the lentil soup and the grilled vegetable and spicy Italian sandwiches.  This was ironic because Elizabeth Large posted an email from me two months ago as part of her posts about "places we probably won't get to as well."  This was also terrific because the Sun will drive more people for Bon Fresco's bread and sandwiches -- a crusade that I have been on since they opened last summer.

The truth is that the Sun probably saw the recent WPost review.  But either way, I'm a huge Bon Fresco fan.  A great place to grab lunch if you're doing errands in Columbia today -- especially that potato salad.

Thanks to Cari and Sarah who pointed out the review!

Potato Salad at Bon Fresco

Potato salad is a subtle art.  No one wants potato salad on the center of a plate, but the right flavor can make a meal.

At Bon Fresco, I go for the potato salad because it tastes like potatoes.  Tender chunks of potato.  Just enough creaminess and a touch of chopped vegetables.  This isn't deli salad where the mayonnaise gets equal billing.  This is a side dish that falls somewhere between homemade and a real restaurant, which makes it pair perfectly with Bon Fresco's sandwiches.

Most recently, I ate the spicy pork loin sandwich.  Again, it's real slices of pork with the authenticity of a homemade roast, but then topped with a professional touch -- mildly-spicy sauce and slices of roasted zucchini.  I'd never think to put squash on a sandwich, but it was delicious and unique.

If you haven't been there, you need to check out the sandwiches at Bon Fresco in Columbia.  The breads makes the place, and it is truly one of my favorite restaurants in Howard County. 

Bon Fresco To Start Breakfast This Week

The talk at Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery in Columbia is that breakfast service may start as early as this week, including egg sandwiches on the bakery's own breads.

(Update: See Momteachs comment below that breakfast hasn't happened and isn't on the plans in May 2010.)

Bon Fresco on Oakland Mills Road at Snowden River Parkway is a real treasure. They serve fresh, flavorful fillings on their own baguettes, ciabattas, and other breads. These are interesting, intelligent sandwiches that really qualify as one of my best restaurants in Howard County.

Saturday, we stopped to split a sandwich on the way to Target, and we were very happy to see every table full. We stopped back for a baguette that became French toast on Sunday morning.

Breakfast will be another way to get our Bon Fresco bread!

Tomatoes and Bon Fresco's Baguette

The summer's tomato crop has started to come in, and you should pair your bounty with the summer's great new Howard County restaurant.

Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery opened this season, and you can go there for imaginative sandwiches and an increasing number of salads and other side dishes. The Bon Fresco folks are getting rave reviews in the comments. Many people report about Bon Fresco's managers are trying new products, offering tastes of new breads, and otherwise establishing themselves as a casual treasure on Oakland Park Road.

But you can just stop for a simple baguette. Two dollars, and you're out the door. I brought mine home and sliced the long way. On one side, I piled slices of farm stand tomato. On other, I spread goat cheese and some pepper. I pressed together my sandwich, and it was perfectly delicious. After three sandwiches, I only stopped because my stomach ached.

If you are looking for other options, check out my post about bakeries in Howard County or about the Pepperjack Deli in Laurel, which also serves good sandwiches.

Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery

6945 Oakland Mills Road

Columbia, MD 21045

410-290-3434

NEAR: Bon Fresco is in the shopping center on Oakland Mills Road at Snowden River Parkway. The center with Race Pace bike shop and a Ledo Pizza overlooks Snowden, but you need to turn onto Oakland Mills at the intersection and turn right into the shopping center. Bon Fresco is in the out-building just to the right of the entrance.

Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery in Columbia

Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery has opened in Columbia and brought sandwiches and bread that rise immediately into my favorites in Howard County.

Great ingredients. It couldn't be more simple, but it feels less and less common to find delicious food that tastes like someone was paying attention. Certainly rarer at a casual sandwich joint -- where the chains make their money with interchangeable ingredients.

Bon Fresco's sandwiches are exceptional. Thick $6.50 sandwiches that each have several great ingredients. Thick slices of real roasted pork loin with grilled squash and a spicy sauce. A pile of salami that looks more like a gourmet deli than a sandwich shop, topped with

green-leaf lettuce and cream cheese. Cream cheese? We would never put cream cheese on salami, but Bon Fresco offers this kind of inspiration in everything from tuna to turkey, prosciutto to grilled vegetables. These are sandwiches with real flavors. Each ingredient stood out, and it came together with the beauty of Thanksgiving leftovers -- a simple sandwich made scrumptious because someone spent an entire day cooking the parts.

Of course, great sandwiches start with great bread, and Bon Fresco's baking is every bit as attractive as its meals. In the open kitchen, Bon Fresco bakes baguettes, ciabatta, focaccia and other loaves.  (Update: They added an Italian bread in 2010.)  You won't buy better bread in Howard County. This is the bread that I love -- crisp crust, light interior. They're sandwich breads so they don't have filings or flavors. We ate two ciabattas right out of the oven. So hot that the crust cracked rather than tore, and we juggled pieces as we drove home and wolfed them down. We brought home a separate baguette, and that bread holds it own with the local favorite Bonaparte Bread for sandwiches and French toast. Again, these are sandwich breads so the inside is more perfect white loaf than the famous, yeasty French bread of 2941, but they're spectacular warm and worth the trip over anything that I have bought in a supermarket.

This is a great place for lunch or to just pick up bread to bring home for dinner. Check out the salads. There is a rotating selection, and the Israeli coucous and the curried chicken salad looked spectacular when I visited. (Update: Try the potato salad!)  When a place pays attention to ingredients like Bon Fresco, simple dishes like tomato and mozzarella become worth a few minutes' drive.

Bon Fresco is just off Snowden River Parkway on Oakland Mills Road. Like so many Columbia joints, you can't see it from the main road, and I hope that people will search it out. As Jason1 noted on Chowhound, $6.50 is pricey for a sandwich without even chips, but I think Bon Fresco is worth the money. This is the kind of place that I hope would become a chain, and it has the clean, modern look of the renovated Maiwand Kabob, the perfect example of how to expand without losing the magic that made the first store so memorable.

(Update: Try the potato salad as your side.  It's very mild -- halfway to mashed potatoes from potato salad.  Just potatoes and something creamy, maybe a touch of vinegar.)

(Update:  Remember that you can make your own sandwiches.  I posted in January 2011 about how I added roasted vegetables and tapanade to the Maple Lawn turkey sandwich.  That's ideal.)

If you are looking for other options, check out my post about bakeries in Howard County or about the Pepperjack Deli in Laurel, which also serves good sandwiches. Or click for the starting page for my "What I Learned" guide to food in Howard County.

(Update: Check out my 2009 list of the Best of Howard County.)

Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery

6945 Oakland Mills Road

Columbia, MD 21045

410-290-3434

NEAR: Bon Fresco is in the shopping center on Oakland Mills Road at Snowden River Parkway. The center with Race Pace bike shop and a Ledo Pizza overlooks Snowden, but you need to turn onto Oakland Mills at the intersection and turn right into the shopping center. Bon Fresco is in the out-building just to the right of the entrance.