Epicerie Boulud

We both had meetings in the UWS this morning, conveniently over close enough to lunchtime for a short detour out of our way to the highly lauded and brand new Epicerie Boulud. Everything looked delicious but we settled on the country pate sandwich and the intriguing banh mi interpretation. The banh mi (misspelled on the flat screens above) had to be ordered separately at the bar, even though it could be paid for on the other side at the cash register. I think it is meant to be consumed on the spot, although it was still quite tasty despite the long trip back to the office. It's possible they are using rice flour in the bread because of the tell-tale yielding of each bite, but it's also the nicely executed, gussied up ingredients that makes Boulud's banh mi worth ordering again.
Epicerie Boulud, 1900 Broadway, NY, NY 10023 (at 64th St)