D'Amato's Bakery Introduces Sandwiches - Chicago

The corner of Grand Avenue and May Street has a long, flour-filled history.

For 41 years, crowds have flocked to D'Amato's Bakery for crusty loaves of bread, saucy pan pizza and thick disks of tomato-topped focaccia. The building's coal-burning oven is even older; it fired loaves for 90 years before Nick D'Amato purchased the bakery in 1971.

But history is far from the only reason to visit the West Town bakery. Earlier this year, its staff started loading a cooler with meals to go, packages of lasagna, fettuccine Bolognese, and chicken and eggplant Parmesan, all made with house-made pasta. And last month, D'Amato's added its very first sandwich menu.

Sandwiches are available as subs ($4.75), built on crusty 10-inch loaves, or as panini ($5.25), griddled between two slices of sourdough. These are hefty, flavorful beasts, loaded with sauce-drenched meatballs, deli meats, charcuterie, tuna salad or vegetables.

The king of them all is the focaccia sandwich, a charcuterie-packed Italian sub that's traded its oblong roll for one of the bakery's classic, tomato-topped rounds. Take sandwiches to go, or eat them on tables flanking May Street (also new). And don't leave without another iconic D'Amato's treat: cannoli.

D'Amato's Bakery, 1124 W. Grand Ave.; 312-733-5456 or facebook.com