Enjoying lunch downtown at Brotchen

This week we're visiting Brötchen, the delightful Austrian bakery and cafe on the Ithaca Commons. (Pronounce it "BRERT-khen.") Opened last fall, Brötchen offers pastries, fresh breads, cookies, salads, soups, and awesome open-faced sandwiches.

For a recent downtown lunch on a beautiful sunny day, I enjoyed two open-faced sandwiches, one with prosciutto and salami topped with pesto and fresh mozzarella and a strawberry slice, and the other featuring smoked salmon with thinly sliced red onion. A friend enjoyed an open-faced roast beef sandwich with strawberry, tomato, and olive and a handmade tomato and mozzarella salad.

The open-face sandwiches all have a layer of Liptauer cheese under the fillings, spread on the sandwich's base, a wide slice of fresh baguette. The sandwiches, each under $4, feel like a bargain -- two sandwiches or a sandwich and a salad make a reasonable meal, and this is hardly the only $8ish lunch you'll find downtown. (One sandwich, trying to stay under $5, won't be enough unless you have the lightest of appetites.)

Leave room for dessert... Brötchen is all about the fresh pastries and cakes, such as the insidious lemonberry mascarpone cake, a fruity eastern variant on European cheesecake. Or take the minimalist route and enjoy a single piece of rugelach, the traditional eastern European rolled pastry common at American Jewish celebrations.

Finally, I suggest finishing your meal with a spicy Viennese espresso, topped with cinnamon and whipped cream. It's one of several coffee options that include plain brewed coffee.

Plan on spending 5 to 10 bucks on your meal. Brötchen is at 128 East State Street on the Commons in downtown Ithaca. Call 607-277-9650 and tell them you heard about them here.