Gordon’s Gourmet is one of those downtown eateries that’s built right into the first floor of an office building. Just east of the hot-spot stretch of Gay Street, the cafe is easy to overlook when lunchtime comes around.
It’s easy to overlook, that is, if you’ve never actually visited Gordon’s Gourmet. Once tried, you’ll want to evangelize.
The “Gordon” in Gordon’s is a local guy: Chef Gordon O’Reilly. He was born in Bexley, and has worked everywhere from Rubino’s to Cameron Mitchell’s restaurants to Due Amici to Rigsby’s.
And while Gordon’s is also a fancy catering operation that custom-makes cute appetizers with artsy drizzles (the options include things like Oysters Rockefeller or Pesto Flatbread with Goat Cheese), you can waltz in on a weekday for a fun, casual lunch and appreciate the eatery’s noteworthy commitment to freshness and quality.
Gordon’s serves from a limited, simple menu with three basic categories: flatbreads, sandwiches and salads. And almost every entree on the menu is priced at $6.95
There is a particular lush-ness to the sandwiches. In the Blackened Chicken Sandwich ($6.95), the poultry is fresh (not processed or preserved) and grilled with a little Cajun flavor. The juicy meat is layered in the sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cheddar and then some chipotle aioli pulls it all it together in a delicious way.
Or there’s the Teddy Boy ($6.95). It’s a sandwich that’s centered on house-baked roast beef. That means the meat has a full-bodied beef flavor, as opposed to a one-dimensional salty deli flavor. It teams perfectly with horseradish aoli and havarti cheese.
Salads are built on organic greens and generously sized. The Denny ($6.95) feels like a hearty throw-back: a combo of dewy greens, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, chicken, cheese and bleu cheese dressing. Heavy, but good.
Almost as good is the BBQ Chicken Salad. It’s lighter (although a Big Mac seems sorta light in comparison to the Denny). It’s also built on the same foundation of organic greens; this time the combo involves chicken, bacon and corn and a creamy dressing.
Then there is the pizza, er, flatbreads. “Flatbread” always sounds like a menu copout — like a Stouffer’s French Bread pizza thingy. There’s nothing vaguely cop-outish about the flatbread section at Gordon’s.
Consider the Three Cheese Pizza. For $6.95, you get a giant pizza box filled to sides with a razor-thin, fresh-baked pizza crust topped edge to edge with a dreamy layer of melted mozzarella, provolone and parmesan. It’s cut into little squares, and each piece leaves a little cheese trail right back to the original pie.
Or there’s the Italian Pizza ($6.95). Take that same perfectly thin crust with lots of cheese, and add pepperoni and house-made marinara to the mix. The only thing that would make Gordon’s pizzas better is if they were delivered on weekends.
But, Gordon’s Gourmet is a weekday sort of place. Located at 150 E. Gay Street, it’s open Mondays through Friday from 7:30am until 4pm. Early birds can find a different sort of menu before 11am. The eatery does serious breakfasts including croissant sandwiches, yogurt parfaits and burritos.
More information can be found online at www.gordonsgourmetofcolumbus.com.
Photos by Mollie Lyman of www.fornixphotography.com.