Cafe is homey addition to neighborhood
For a case study in the condo mania afflicting Boston, take a look at the area near Broadway Station in Southie.
For forever, basically, this was not a place anyone would want to live. On one side, a bus yard. On the other, railway tracks. Around the corner, the Gillette plant. Beneath your feet, the rumbling Red Line. Call this gritty intersection home? No thanks.
Until condominium buildings started sprouting like kudzu. Now, this rugged corner is an actual neighborhood. Several hundred units were recently built on the block, and more are on the way.
Which got Dominique Lange thinking: Where are all those condo dwellers going to eat? As sales manager for the eco-chic Macallen and next-door Court Square Press condo projects, Lange saw a business opportunity. "I knew there was a need for something beyond a pub on the corner," said Lange, explaining why he and his wife, Jennifer, opened Sophia's Cafe - it's named after their 2-year-old daughter - on the street level of the Macallen Building in December. The cafe is "a needed amenity for residents of the neighborhood, and in the future," he added, sounding like a savvy sales rep. "Hopefully it will help me sell more condos."
Sophia's is a simple place with admirable ambitions. The menu gets no fancier than soups, salads, and sandwiches, as well as baked goods and coffee. Neither Jennifer, Dominique, nor his brother, Sebastian, who helps run the place, are trained cooks, but they put a lot of love in their food.
Jennifer makes most of the pastries and Sebastian makes most of the soups. That means you'll find a surprising number of homemade items, even though the Langes could easily rely on suppliers. Several of the soups need a dash of salt, but Sophia's serves two of my favorite local chilis: one with ground chicken, kidney beans, cilantro, and sweet corn, the other with ground turkey, white beans, green chilies, and a hint of cinnamon. Both are thick, meaty, and well-seasoned.
From the pastry case, the deeply fudgy brownies (secret ingredient: coffee) are especially good, and I also like the pudgy muffins (banana, blueberry, or raisin bran), which have soft centers and crusty tops. Lemon squares are a touch gummy, and the chocolate bread pudding, made from leftover chocolate croissants, is a doughy dud.
In keeping with current fashion, pressed sandwiches are offered, too. A basil lover, I am partial to chicken-pesto on focaccia with provolone, roasted red peppers, and arugula ($7), although I wish it were made with whole chicken breast, not lunch meat. Even better are two cold sandwiches: the Happy Goat ($8), with chicken, goat cheese, mixed greens, and oily sun-dried tomatoes that soak deliciously into the bread, and the Apple of My Eye ($7), a ham-and-Swiss elevated by Dijon mustard, multigrain bread studded with golden raisins, and apple slaw jazzed up with mint and jalapeno.
But thumbs-down to the Mediterranean wrap ($7), which is drowning in hummus and skimpy on veggies. Sometimes the too-bready sandwiches need a better bread-to-filling ratio, and more time on the press to warm their centers. Warning: service can be poky, and the specials often look like the handiwork of a kindergartener. A case in point is the "pizza" (also called "bruschetta" or "pizza bruschetta," depending on the day) that's little more than dry toast with a dollop of tomatoes.
Most of all, Sophia's needs to embrace its inner cutesiness. The specials chalkboard is a cozy accent, but it would look nicer without the chicken-scratch handwriting and erase marks, and the pastry case would be more alluring if it weren't often so bare and disheveled. Still, it's hard not to root for a little place like this, which has so many homespun touches. And once all those surrounding condos are finally occupied, those exquisite brownies are going to be in serious demand. 