Back In The Saddle, Again

Greetings, Readers!

I have bounced back from the sickness of last week, and was able to get out and get sandwiched properly this week.

You know, even with all of the options you've all given me over this past year, some nights it's just too hard to decide where to sample my next entry. Do I want a burger or a cold sandwich, do I want ham or turkey, etc.

Fact is, Los Angeles has way too many options.

But, wanting to keep it low key the other night, I stopped by a little place called Alcove Cafe in Los Feliz.

For those of you that may know Aroma Cafe in Studio City, this is the sister cafe. The menus are similar and so is the atmosphere: quaint outdoor cafe in which you feel like you're dining in someone's backyard. I love it.

Perusing the menu, the turkey hummus melt was the first to catch my eye: smoked turkey, hummus, aged cheddar cheese, and basil all cooked between two slices of sourdough bread.

You get your own choice of bread, but let's be real here. There's only one choice.

The sourdough bread was perfectly grilled. It had a great crispy bite to it, still kept all of its delicious sour flavor, and even maintained that slight buttery flavor from grilling. And all without burning the bread.

The turkey was slightly smoked and thickly sliced. There's a generous portion on this sandwich, and it was much appreciated.

The melted cheddar was gooey and loaded on to match the healthy portion of turkey. Even with the cheddar being aged, this cheese wasn't as sharp as you would expect. It added that slight taste of cheddar to accent the other flavors appearing in this sandwich.

If there is one problem with the sandwich it's the hummus. Now don't get me wrong, it's delicious. has wonderful flavor and really worked for this sandwich. The problem is that it overpowers everything else between the bread.

At times, you almost can't taste the other ingredients.

Regardless, I would still recommend this sandwich at Alcove, because it's by no means 'bad' at all, but it could be a lot better without so much hummus. So next time I think I might ask to scale back on that a bit.

Until next week, readers!

Turkey Hummus Melt

*** 1/2 Stars

Alcove Cafe and Bakery

1929 Hillhurst Avenue

Los Angeles, CA