If I were to establish a cafe and were to make it a location specific name (such as Boston Common Coffee Co.), it would probably make sense to have the first location be at the appropriate place.  As it stands, the most recent franchise of Boston Common Coffee is actually the first to be close to Boston Common!  There are three locations of BCCC (not to be confused with the Bucks County Community College), and I would suggest it is an interesting up and coming franchise.  There are quite a few vegetarian options on the menu (primarily because there are a lot of options on the menu!).  If you eat eggs, you have a choice of a few quiches (such as a spinach or mushroom quiche), or you can have one of their three sandwiches (the Salem, the Original, or the Veggie Wrap).

I actually decided to get the Portobelly special panini one day, which is a panini filled with portobello mushrooms, spinach, goat cheese, and caramelized onions.  Overall, this was a pretty solid sandwich.  The bread is a very crusty and tasty bread (yet still appropriate for a panini).  One complaint I had is that some part of the sandwich was completely burnt (not just overtoasted) to the point that the bread was essentially charcoal.  I don’t like wasting food, so I tried finishing the whole sandwich (including the burnt bit), and it turns out that charcoal is inedible…

With the sandwich, you get a side, either 3 bean salad, a mixed greens salad, or a tortellini salad.  I decided to go with the mixed greens salad.  While I was eating this meal at work, Kara was also having her lunch at the table and she was commenting about how “pathetic” my salad looked.  She had just missed me eating the panini, so I assume she thought that this salad was my lunch (in which case, it would be quite pathetic).  I appreciate giving a side with your sandwich, but I literally could count the number of leaves of lettuce on two hands.  So, perhaps BCCC could splurge a little more with their sides?  Just a suggestion.

I made a second trip to BCCC to try out the tortellini salad, and came to the realization that if you are offered a side, and tortellini is an option - always go with the tortellini (unless you’re vegan - then you can have the mixed salad or 3 bean salad).  There are carrots and green peppers mingled lightly into the salad (just to give you the semblance that this IS a salad), but the star of the show is the tortellini, which is quite tasty.

While I am a fan of the sandwiches at BCCC, the star of the show is the pastries (most of which are made in-house, supposedly).  My favorite pastry is their maple walnut scone (which is saying something, because I normally hate scones).  I think scones comes from the Dutch word schoonbrood, meaning “brick that sits in your stomach”.  However, this scone is more akin to a cookie than a brick, and is quite light.  The maple icing definitely adds a lot to the flavor, though it could be a lot more walnut-y for my liking.

The chocolate croissant looks great (I hope it looks great), though it was woefully disappointing.  The pastry was too buttery for my liking (to the point where I feel like I’m eating butter instead of pastry), and the chocolate was strange tasting.  I don’t know if they were using chocolate syrup instead of actual chocolate, but there was something artificial tasting about it.

I think BCCC is a pretty good cafe (they have decent coffee), though I would summarize it as good, but not great.  The highlights would be the tortellini salad, maple scone, and coffee.  The rest I think you can avoid and not miss out on too much.  I give it three and a half cheese sandwiches.

Boston Common Coffee Co.
515 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02111-1759 
(617) 542-0595