Lunch review: Enrico's Tazza D'oro

Enrico's Cup of Gold. Wow, what a romantic way to describe coffee!

It's not like those vast vats of muddy black sludge at the truckstop on the turnpike, brewed strong enough to make you sit up on the coroner's slab and sing. But it's also not like those over-marketed, fruity-choco-latte-crappuccinos at Starbucks, either.

Tucked away in the wilds of Highland Park, Enrico's Tazza D'oro is like a golden nugget of sun-baked Mediterranean languor, plucked from the Tuscan seaside and dropped into the land of rain and Roethlisberger.

This is what a coffee shop should be like. But that doesn't mean I want it homogenized, duplicated and plopped on every street corner. Enrico's quirky, unpretentious charm would be difficult to duplicate anyway.

The doorway and wall-size windows out front are wreathed with holiday pine garland and tiny white Christmas lights. Incongruously arty photos of race cars adorn the walls. The pierced barista is wearing a Cradle of Filth T-shirt -- death metal at its goriest/corniest -- but soft, folky indie rock dominates the hi-fi.

It's a quiet, bookish crowd at the moment, lost in their studies, faces lit by their laptops' glow. I have my suspicions about the bearded guy with the molecular biology textbook and the Chinese newspaper, however -- I think they're just for show.

The East End has plenty of coffee shops where you can get decent coffee, but few with good food to match. Enrico's stands way, way out in this respect -- the sandwiches are worth the trip alone. I've had the Pizza Romana ($7.95) -- which isn't a pizza. It's actually a hot sandwich on grilled and pressed focaccia, with artichoke hearts, prosciutto, sauteed portobello mushrooms and kalamata olives, slathered in melted fresh mozzarella. The prosciutto is thicker than most but full of flavor, and a sparing use of olives lends just the right touch of bitter saltiness.

All the other sandwiches sport deceptively simple monikers -- Eggplant ($6.30) being among the most modest. On grilled Italian bread, you get goat cheese, olives and roasted red peppers -- but the sauteed eggplant still gets top billing. The more mysterious Muffaletta ($7.35) boasts imported sopressata (a coarse, peppery salami) and capicola, olives, roasted red peppers and provolone. It's not quite New Orleans without the olive relish, but it's good enough.

And of course, besides biscotti there's the drinks, featuring all the teas, smoothies and espressos any coffee-shop philosopher could want. Lychee Black Tea ($2 a pot) -- flavored with an unusual, sweet Asian grape-like fruit -- is great, but the specialty house blends of coffee are clearly the big movers here. You can get a cup of Highland Park Blend ($1.50), but why not go for the whole bag of beans at $10 a pound• It's dark, sweet and smooth and supposedly contains both light and dark roasted coffees from every major coffee-producing region in the world -- Indonesia, Africa, Arabia and South America. That'll keep you well-caffeinated for a while.

Additional Information:

Details

Hours : 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays; 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays; and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays

Address: 1125 N. Highland Ave., Highland Park

Phone: (412) 362-3676