Pressed for Success Gary Rulli was a young pastry chef doing an internship in Milan during the early 1980's, when the panini boom began. Italian bars and cafés had always offered simple sandwiches as an accompaniment to an espresso or apéritif - perhaps a few slices of ham or cheese on a roll, with or without condiments - but this was something different. "I remember one café that was selling about a thousand sandwiches a day, making them behind the counter and filling the cases as fast as they could," Rulli says. "There were a huge assortment of fillings and many were grilled. It became an art form - high-quality fast food that was perfect for Milanese business people who couldn't linger over their food." Rulli was witnessing the birth of the paninoteca, a kind of sandwich shop that has spread throughout Italy and is increasingly popular with commuters, business people and others on the go. By 1990, Rulli had returned to Marin County, Calif., opened a pasticceria and started introducing his own customers to panini. Panini Nation These days, of course, pressed panini need no introduction. We've become a panini nation. From mom-'n-pop delis to cafeterias to white-tablecloth independents, operators of all styles are turning sandwiches into gold with the help of a panini press. And despite their name, these sandwiches are not just Italian anymore. Pressed or toasted sandwiches from other traditions, such as the Cubano and the croquet monsieur, are taking hold on menus. Other operators are reinventing venerable favorites such as the BLT and tuna melt, or simply creating all-new pressed sandwich creations. Customers clearly love panini - but so do operators. On the practical side, panini are usually assembled in advance, and yet manage to escape the stigma of pre-fab sandwiches because they are grilled to order. At the same time, those signature grill marks make panini - even one that might normally pass as a typical deli sandwich - a good addition for just about any kind of menu. "Sandwiches add an instant casualness to menus that makes people feel more comfortable and, give our name, a grilled sandwich is a good fit," says Robert Merrifield, chef-owner of the Polo Grill, Tulsa, Okla. Italian Accents With his wife Jeannie, Gary Rulli is now the owner of Emporio Rulli, known throughout the San Francisco Bay area for fine chocolates, pastries, gelato, wines, house-roasted coffee blends and "hot-off-the-grill" panini. Aiming for the atmosphere of an authentic Italian paninoteca, he offers a half-dozen choices, all priced at $5.75. The "Milanese" is typical of Rulli's approach. Slices of prosciutto from Parma and Asiago from the Veneto are layered with fresh spinach leaves on tapenade-spread focaccia. Like the baguettes, ciabatta and herbed panino rolls Rulli uses, the focaccia is made on-premise and, in fact, is specially formulated just for panini. With more olive oil, as well as butter and eggs, it's closer to a brioche dough than the "leaner dough" destined for cold focaccia sandwiches, resulting in a soft bread that crisps well on a grill. Rulli's sandwiches are preassembled and substitutions are not allowed. "Letting people customize would increase labor and defeat the panino's purpose as a high-quality, low-cost lunch or snack," he says. "Besides, you've developed what you feel is the best combination. Why let the customer decide, any more than you'd let them tell you how to make a cake?" Brewing Better Sales Authenticity isn't the goal at Palm Springs Koffee. Bottom line, panini help sell more brew and position the California specialty coffee shop a cut above competitors who bring in pre-made sandwiches from outside. "Sandwiches bring in a different crowd during lunch and in the afternoon, when sales are typically slower," says co-owner John Strohm. "For less than $10, you can have a panino and a 16-ounce latte." The core menu revolves around what Strohm calls "classic American flavors with a European twist." Take the top-selling turkey panino. Cranberry sauce is spread on one ciabatta slice, cream cheese with Italian seasoning on another, while roast turkey and red onion slices go in the middle. The sandwiches are assembled each morning, with quantities based on daily sales projections, and grilled to order in panini presses as the day progresses. It's perfect for this operation because front-counter staff with minimal kitchen skills can easily finish the sandwiches by simply waiting for the ding of the timer. Layers of Flavors Turning an American classic like the BLT into a panino is more of a hop than a leap, but some tinkering took place before the sandwich was ready for The Polo Grill menu. Chef Robert Merrifield started by adding smoked Cheddar to the mix. "It goes with the smokiness of the bacon and binds the sandwich together," he says. "I grill the tomatoes a little, just to get them soft, before putting them on the sandwich. And a heavier lettuce like romaine stands up better under the panini maker's steam." Chef Ted Cizma, a former Chicago restaurant owner who now specializes in private cooking classes, points out that pressing "marries the flavors and gives the sandwich a great crust." Cizma's duck panino plays savory rare duck breast against the tartness of arugula leaves and richness of melted Gruyère, with pesto aïoli serving as the "glue." A successful pressed sandwich is all in the details, according to Tom Colicchio, owner of 'witchcraft and other New York restaurants and the author of "Think Like a Chef" (Clarkson Potter, 2000). "Great ingredients are key, of course," he says. "We roast our own turkey, use organic meats and buy produce from the farmer's market. And it's about balance among the elements, not overstuffing a sandwich so you can't taste the spread." The lunch menu as 'witchcraft includes a pressed ciabatta roll filled with roast pork and red cabbage, enlivened by jalapenos and mustard. Some recipes are seasonal. Recently, the kitchen poached quince with spices, pairing the fall fruit with Vermont Cheddar and smoked ham for a pressed pumpernickel sandwich. Well-Traveled Sandwiches At Miramar in Highwood, Ill., Chef Gabriel Viti''s menu is a comfortable marriage of French and Cuban influences, with a croque monsieur and a Cuban sandwich sharing space. Although a croque monsieur often is made in a special press with shell-shaped indentations, Viti bakes his version, finishing it with a salamander "for nice color." The bread is coated with mornay sauce, then layered with ham and Emmental slices. The croque madame is the same, except for a fried egg that is added to the top just before service. The inspiration for Viti's pressed Italian sausage and pepper sandwich, the Gop Santi, came from closer to home: an old-timer named Gop Santi who had a local sandwich place during the 1960's and 70's. "He had the apron, the stomach hanging out. Some of my older customers still remember him, so it's a nice tribute," Viti says. When planning his first menu, Angel Alvarez looked for foods not being served by restaurants in and around Lawrence, Kan. He settled on specialties of his native Mexico, including its ubiquitous torta sandwiches. Fourteen months later, Tortas Jalisco is going strong, with a second location in place. "Milanesa is the torta everybody knows in Mexico," says Alvarez. His $5.50 version is made on a soft bread called telera, which is browned lightly on a flat-top grill, then slathered with freshly made guacamole and stuffed with fried, hand-breaded beefsteak, pinto beans and tomato. This is a sandwich you can pick up, but torta ahogado, traditional to the Jalisco area, is definitely a knife-and-fork affair. Grilled bread is piled with pork carnitas, beans and raw onions mixed with cilantro. As for the spicy sauce spooned over the sandwich, Alvarez will say only that it calls for chiles de arbol and his wife's "secret ingredients." Anyone game for a "full ahogado" gets a torta with sauce in the middle, as well as on top. Golden Arches Panini As a McDonald's franchisee with 17 high-volume stores in the Orlando, Fla., area, Gary Oerther serves his share of tourists each year. But he thought more menu variety might help repeat business. Enter European Cafè, a more adult concept folded into several family-focused McDonald's. Hand-dipped ice cream and a pasta sauté station are part of the picture, and so is an ambitious gourmet sandwich menu revolving around panini. "The first thing I did was to create an open kitchen area to the right of the regular counter," Oerther says. "I knew people wouldn't believe what was going on - and we had to show them." Many of the 18 panini cross-utilize raw ingredients on the regular McDonald's menu. For instance, one of the chicken breast cuts used for salads and other chicken sandwiches goes on the popular grilled chicken panino with roasted red peppers, sautéed spinach and provolone. "What's neat is that all of the attributes of McDonald's become available to the Cafè user. You can drink a milkshake with your sandwich, or pick it up at the drive-thru window. And we rarely have an order that isn't a blend of McDonald's and Cafè food," Oerther says. "A fast-casual restaurant can't offer all that." Back To The Future With so many chefs menuing panini, the new challenge is finding ways to keep the concept fresh. Atlanta chef Kevin Rathbun is thinking that a petite panino could be one of the small plates offered on an upcoming bar menu at Rathbun's. "Not a whole sandwich cut in half, but a square shape, with maybe a little finely julienned radish salad on top," he muses. "I'm also a big grilled cheese fanatic, and think it deserves to be taken to the next level." Author Laura Werlin addresses that challenge in "Great Grilled Cheese" (Steward, Tabori, & Chang, 2004). In addition to dessert sandwiches such as a chocolate-hazelnut and goat cheese melt, she's created a recipe that puts the key ingredients of a classic soup - Cheddar, broccoli and cayenne butter - between slices of sourdough bread. Phil Roberts tries to insert a little whimsy into his menus. At Figlio, in Minneapolis, his classic grilled cheese sandwiches might be "plated" in a kid's lunchbox during the back-to-school season. "Sometimes it's three tiny sandwiches - each the size of a silver dollar - with a cup of soup. Or the opposite: an outsized sandwich on thick brioche," Roberts says. He's also thinking outside the panini press. How about a Dagwood sandwich, eight inches high? "People could share it. And, if you saw it arriving at the next table, you'd talk about it," he points out. Open-faced Danish sandwiches strike him as an appealing menu possibility. And just recently Roberts was in Paris, where Alain Ducasse has opened a take-out place called Be that serves small sandwiches with luscious, colorful fillings on bread from "torpedo shaped" loaves with granola-textured coatings. The sandwiches are premade and arranged in a case for customers to see and select. Sound familiar?    - Toni Lydecker    Article Courtesy of Plate Magazine, January/February 2005