Salad Trio

DAY 13: CORNER BAKERY

Trio Salad from Corner Bakery

If you live in Chicago, chances are you know Corner Bakery. In some areas of the city, this chain is nearly as ubiquitous as Starbucks. For example, in my building alone, there are two locations.

Corner Bakery has a diverse menu that includes several entree salads as well as side salads. If you're in the mood for variety, you can can choose three side salads and build a Salad Trio. Choices vary but might include tuna salad, chicken salad, pasta salad, caesar salad and fruit salad.

I went for a Trio today. I chose the cavatapi pasta salad, the mozzarella tomato arugula salad and the seasonal fruit medley. With that came a garnish of mixed greens dressed with vinaigrette plus a foccacia roll.

Altogether, my choices added up to 410 calories. With another 100 calories for the fresh, chewy, salty foccacia roll, this lunch was 10 calories over my 500 calorie limit. I let the overage slide. After all I’m sure I burned at least 10 calories when I walked a couple of blocks to eat my lunch in the park.

Focaccia roll from Corner Bakery

I’ve been eating Trios for a long time. When I started more than ten years ago, the salads and greens were all piled together in a plastic container. That was fine if everything had a similar flavor profile, but it didn’t work if you had three distinctly different salads.

Now, the salads are separated. In my situation, the greens and pasta salad were put directly into a square plastic container, but the mozzarella tomato arugula salad and fruit salad were put in separate cups. Having had vinaigrette bleed into my fruit, I actually appreciate the care that goes into this method of packaging.

Being a sucker for pasta salad, I started with the cavatapi salad. I was not disappointed. The pasta is cooked al dente and dressed with a super flavorful white balsamic vinaigrette. Roasted garlic, diced asiago cheese, roasted tomatoes, basil and arugula round out this dish. The garlic makes a strong statement, which I appreciate. There are only a few pieces of deliciously roasted tomato, but they’re large enough to cut up and stretch into many bites. Although the asiago is diced into very small pieces, it’s plentiful and its mild, nutty flavor is persistent. Finally, the sweet basil and peppery arugula add greenery and compliment the other ingredients. Frankly I could have had a big bowl of this salad and been really, really happy.

But I didn’t. I moved on to the mozzarella tomato arugula salad. It’s delicious and bright, but with much less flavor than the pasta salad. In retrospect, I should have started with this milder dish. Equal parts of sliced marinated cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese and arugula are accented with fresh basil and a lemon garlic dressing. With the creamy cheese, cold tomatoes and zippy greens, I think this is a great albeit light summer salad.

From there I moved to the greens. The menu says they’re a garnish, and that’s accurate. I counted ten pieces of lettuce. But with the sweet and spicy vinaigrette, it’s definitely fresh and tasty.

I finished with the fruit. It contains all of my favorites—pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, apples and cantelope. All of the fruit is perfectly ripe and in beautiful shape. It’s cold and sweet, the way a good fruit salad should be. It makes a great dessert.

But I actually ate my foccacia roll as dessert. I saved it for last because I wanted to see if the salads alone would satisfy me. But frankly, the portions in the Trio are not very big, and I wasn’t entirely satisfied, so I dove into the delicious bread.

Although I really enjoyed the variety and tastes of these salads, the combination didn’t quite fill me up. About halfway through the afternoon, I started feeling hungry. I ended up eating a Kind bar to hold myself over until dinner.

I suspect this is my own fault, though, because I concocted a carb-heavy lunch. Next time I order a Trio, I’ll pay as much attention to the protein as I do to the calories, and hopefully I’ll end up with something that fills me enough to keep me from snacking before dinner. I'm already studying the nutritional information and plotting my next visit.

ITEM
Trio Salad

EATERY
Corner Bakery Cafe, 444 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60606

MENU DESCRIPTION
Cavatapi pasta salad: Roasted tomatoes, Asiago cheese, basil, roasted garlic and arugula in white balsamic dressing.
Mozzarella tomato arugula: Marinated tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, arugula and basil with lemon garlic dressing.
Seasonal fruit medley: A delicious assortment of the season's freshest fruits.
Mixed greens salad (garnish): Field greens tossed in our sweet and spicy house vinaigrette.

CALORIES
510 (Cavatapi pasta salad = 150, mozzarella tomato arugula =160, seasonal fruit medley = 70, mixed greens salad = 30 + focaccia roll = 100)

COST
$8.27 with tax

RECOMMEND
Definitely, unless you like big portions