Syracuse Sandwich: Coppertop Tavern’s Tavern Melt Club

Who: Coppertop Tavern What: Los Cabos Chicken Sandwich
Where: Route 11, North Syracuse Phone: 458-1999 Website: Coppertop 
Parking: Yes Accepts Credit Cards: Yes Take-Out: Yes Delivery: No 

     I HATE when the temperature even reaches into the 80s not to mention the 90s we have been experiencing. I simply can’t cook with the humidity as high as it is so my Dan in the Kitchen blog is suffering. We planned on having friends over for some pasta with homemade Italian bread and cucumber tomato salad. But there was no way I could cook all of that and not die from heat exhaustion so we decided to go out. Coppertop has something for everyone and if you recall I had a very tasty sandwich there a few months back so I was excited to go. Christine and the other couple joining us ordered pasta but I couldn’t decide if I wanted one of their thin crust pizzas or a sandwich, since I remembered my last trip being a success, I went with a sandwich. The Tavern Club Melt was suggested by a coworker during a conversation earlier that day about where we should go out to eat. From its description it sound like something I might make myself only on their homemade bread so I went for it.

     To start we ordered the Chicago spinach dip also known as spinach artichoke dip which at Coppertop comes with homemade pasta chips. The pasta chips are flakey and crunchy fried pasta sheets cut up into one inch strips. I just want to comment that not only are the pasta chips delicious, but the spinach dip is equally amazing. Packed with spinach and cheese, the artichoke still comes through in this cheesy and salty dip.

     The Tavern Club Melt is ham, turkey, Dijon mustard, lettuce, tomato, and garlic cheese spread on homemade stretch bread. The bread is made in house and baked to where the crust is crunchy but the crumb is chewy. It reminds me of the stretch bread served from Pasta’s Daily Bread bakery in Armory Square which is amazing. The ham and turkey were standard deli style but as you know I love deli meat so they were fine, nothing to write home about, but fine. Dijon mustard goes really well with both turkey and ham so this was shaping up to be a great sandwich. The tomatoes tasted pretty fresh and since they were warm, they gave off a hint of sweetness. Unfortunately, the sandwich came to a screeching halt when it came to the . The spread was so thick, greasy, and garlicky that it was almost inedible. I was able to get through half of the sandwich before realizing I would be sick if I continued. I scrapped all of the spread off the second half of the sandwich but most of the bread came with it leaving me just a shell of crust for the top slice. I ate about three quarters of the second half before calling it quits and focused my attention on the tavern fries that come with any sandwich. The fries are shoestring style and they really load them on the plate. It was disappointing to have such a poorly executed sandwich that sounded really good.

Rating: Edible – I wish I ordered the same sandwich as I did the last time.