Food Snob: The CountDown Cafe is serving up food that’s out of this world

Well, it’s at a place that’s all about space

That’s the Barbecue Pulled Pork, minus the cole slaw, but topped with plenty of bacon, red onions and BBQ sauce. (THE FOOD SNOB / Insider staff) -
That’s the Barbecue Pulled Pork, minus the cole slaw, but topped with plenty of bacon, red onions and BBQ sauce. (THE FOOD SNOB / Insider staff)
The CountDown Cafe Cuban also featured roast pork, topped with ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and two, count them two, kinds of mustard. Both panini-style sandwiches came with macaroni salad and a pickle. (THE FOOD SNOB / Insider staff) -
The CountDown Cafe Cuban also featured roast pork, topped with ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and two, count them two, kinds of mustard. Both panini-style sandwiches came with macaroni salad and a pickle. (THE FOOD SNOB / Insider staff)

If you haven’t stopped into the McAuliffe-Shepard Discover Center since the latter stages of 2014, you’ve missed out on a lot of cool things related to space stuff.

And you also probably didn’t know the little cafe on the left as you walk in the door has gone through quite a transition.

Back in September 2014, the former operator of the cafe ended its contract after opening a new restaurant in Manchester. So for about the next 10 months, the spot was basically a self-service coffee and tea station and a place for Discovery Center enthusiasts to eat their brown bagged lunches.

But that all changed this summer when a guy by the name of Sully (yes, he legally changed his name to just Sully) and his wife Sandy Sully decided to set up shop. Let us introduce you to the CountDown Cafe.

The cafe has been open since July and the duo, along with newest addition to the team, Bill Walsh, have been serving up all kinds of homemade paninis, salads, soups wraps and other tasty grub ever since. They have a pretty good size white board menu hanging on the wall and even a signature sandwich, the CountDown Cafe Cuban, along with the Galileo Salad to add a little astronomy to the mix.

Since the menu isn’t set in stone (they’re still trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t) that’s why they haven’t taken the plunge to have a nice and flashy permanent menu put up.

But since we like to eat – which is well documented – and this is the Discovery Center issue, we had to try the food. Like we really needed an excuse to eat.

With many options to choose from, including a couple on the specials board, it was hard to decide what would soon fill out bellies for the afternoon.

You really can’t go wrong with a BBQ pulled pork panini. We’re talking a generous helping of roasted pork loin (cooked on site) topped with red onion, BBQ sauce and bacon. What makes any pulled pork sandwich better? The addition of more pork in a different form. It also comes with homemade coleslaw on top, but that was eliminated from the equation due to taste bud preferences.

It was grilled up and served with macaroni salad and a pickle. And it was pretty darn tasty. The pork was tender, the bread had a nice crisp to it and bacon, as always, was a nice bonus.

And with a panini that bears the name of the restaurant in which it’s made, we had to give that a further look. It also featured roast pork, along with sliced black forest ham and was topped with Swiss cheese, pickles and two types of mustard.

In the world of Cubans, it sure did hold up it’s end of the bargain.

Unfortunately, our stomachs and budgets only allow us to eat so much, but luckily there’s plenty of ink here to give you a little more to make you want to try this little cafe out.

There’s other paninis on the menu, like the Turkey Racheal, Roasted Red Pepper Chicken and Avocado Salsa Chicken. There were traditional salads, such as chef and caesar to go along with more outside the box choices like Tomato Cucumber and Mozzarella Fresca.

You can build your own wraps, or order a quesadilla or personal pizza.

Everything is made in house, except for the cookies and pastries, but that could be changing, along with the menu at some point. Like we said, it’s kind of a feeling out process right now.

The cafe also does catering, if you’re looking for someone to make all the food for your next event.

So the next time you feel like learning about space, or just want to grab a bite to eat, head down to the Discovery Center between Friday and Sunday.

And don’t worry about making lunch first because the CountDown Cafe will do it for you.

Author: The Food Snob

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