Metropulos Fine Foods

Metropulos carries a decent line of Vosges chocolates. The best in Santa Barbara (and slightly less expensive in base cost than online, that’s not even including shipping costs!) in fact.

The prepared foods are good. They have really nice sandwiches, which are not particularly cheap, but are worth the money.  The salads are very fresh. They have an in-house baker for all the desserts.  And don’t pass up the deli section of prepared salads and main dishes, which you can have packed up to take away, or heated up to dine in.

Personally, I am fond of the cured meat and cheese platter. For about $18, they will prepare an assortment of meat and cheeses, and serve it on a wood platter with bread, oil, and olives. It will feed 2 and it needs to be ordered ahead of time, so the staff will have time to freshly cut the meat and cheese.

The selection of meat and cheese is also decent, and since I work nearby, is an excellent place for a quick gourmet lunch. One criticism I have is that they will not sell portions of sliced meat or cheese smaller than a quarter pound. They will custom make you picnic lunches, but sometimes I like doing that myself and the quarter pound minimum reduces my options. On the plus side, they accommodated my request to buy a single apple to go with some havarti. At the time, apples were not an item for sale (but I think they sell a few near the dessert counter now).

Finally, Metropulos stands out for its selection of fine European imports. I take note of *any* place that sells Halloumi cheese and this is one of them. But best of all, they sell French creme de marrons (sweetened chestnut puree) that I use on ice cream and to fill crepes. Delicious! They have the chestnuts in both the can and a squeeze tube – the latter is a great option when you’re trying to ration it because it’s so expensive and rare in this town. If you want to try it yourself before investing in your own jar, you can order some toasted baguette  spread with creme de marrons off their breakfast menu for about $2.

ps! how can I forget, speaking of breakfast menus, their breakfast burrito. Metropulos serves my favorite, with crispy bacon, potatoes, eggs, cheese and a light dollop of sour cream to pull it all together, all for about $5.25. It feeds me and a friend.

I just noticed that there is a theme of needing two people to properly enjoy Metropulos. I’m glad I’ve got at least one friend in this town or I’d be outta luck, or contantly full.

Metro Fine Foods
216 East Yanonali Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
www.metrofinefoods.com