The Dish: Focaccia at Patina Green Home and Market

Patina Green is beloved for the ever-changing menu of amazing sandwiches and sides, including the best sandwich in Texas (Ham and Cheese). They support local farmers and artisans. They have some of the best antiques, art and collectibles around, along with locally sourced soaps, candles and homemade everything. Even the bathroom is beautiful. Everything at Patina Green is amazing. But let’s talk about a dish that each and every time blows me away, a dish that I hide, horde, and will not share ever. Garlic and Herb Focaccia.

I don’t know how Robert Lyford does it. But any focaccia that he didn’t bake is ruined for me and probably anyone else who wanders into Patina Green Home and Market. Usually a slab of it sits on the counter above the sandwiches, where the aroma wafts into your brain and short-circuits it until you are a bread-ordering, carb-eating fiend. Sometimes there are add-ons like ripe, thick slices of tomato and sprinklings of Parmesan baked into the bread’s signature indented surface.

Focaccia is a yeasted flatbread born in the days of antiquity in little Italian towns. The bread is punctured with a knife, or poked to release bubbles and moisture is preserved with brushings of olive oil before baking, giving it a unique look and texture. It’s more than just bread, more like an early form of pizza, and due to the vast array of possible toppings, it’s endlessly creative. At Patina Green, it always arrives fresh and hot in its wrapping of brown paper. The crust has a perfect razor-thin crunch and inside, it’s soft and moist as cake, full of aromatic steam. Pair with the Tomato Bisque for an unbelievably simple and decadent meal.