I stopped. I stared. I may have drooled. Alas, I was here for soup and sandwich. Dessert would have to wait.
But don’t think making a lunch choice was any easier than picking a treat. There were eight soups available on this day, including Carribean seafood chowder (a popular choice that was nearly empty by 12:45), Mexican bean & corn, veggie chili and chicken noodle. I tried the tomato & rice, which had hunks of tomato and plenty of flavor. It was labeled dairy & gluten free, as all the soups with special nutritional info are.
And then on to the sandwiches. The build-your-owns start with 14 meat product options and sell for $4.50 for a half and $6.50 for a whole. Customer favorites are $5.95 (whole), and include turkey salad, pepper turkey and chutney chicken. I got the oven roasted turkey with cranberry mayo ($6.50). Huge and delish, and for the first time in recent memory I was unable to finish my meal. Had I known it was so big, I would have ordered a half. Stacy had a tuna wrap with pickles and sprouts, which turned out to be double the wrap you get at most other sandwich shops.
The food options don’t stop there. There are pre-made salads, pizza slices, quiches, green salads, bagels, muffins and melts. The melts come open-faced with tuna, veggie, ham, curried chicken and cranberry turkey ($6.50). Salad plates come with lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and sprouts with single, double or triple scoops of whatever meat (or egg or tofu) salad you choose. (Go to www.wildoatsbakery.com to check the daily menu.)
And once you’ve made your very difficult dining choice, you have a whole host of seating options to pick through: there are outdoor tables for good weather, tables and couch seating in the Tontine Mall corridor, tables with a view of all the coffee and espresso options and tables with a view of the dessert display. You can sit and talk politics with the folks in the corner, bring a book and eat while slipping into someone else’s world or get it to go and get right back to the workday grind.
Wild Oats has it all — and lots of it. It’s worth the trip to Brunswick (though I’m wishing they would set up shop in Portland), if only to try a different treat every day.
Alas, again, I was momentarily devastated when I realized I was too full for dessert.
Noooooooooooooooooo!
So I got two to go.
— Karen Beaudoin