Oh Dio Mio, Zeppoleme! Killer Coffee, Sandwiches, Zeppole + More in Port Chester, NY

Aye, paisanos, have we got a new spot for you to check out! We’re talking ’bout Zeppoleme, right on Main Street in Port Chester, walking distance from our part of Greenwich (uh oh, we’re in trouble). Ever since we saw the sign a few months ago, we’ve been dreaming about the zeppoles we’d enjoy on, oh, say EVERY Sunday morning, starting with this past Sunday when they opened up shop!

Lucky for Kristien’s parents, they just so happened to be in town when they opened…which was the perfect way to round out our weekend of gorging. See just two nights before we had taken the rents out for dinner at Bar Sugo and feasted like the good Italians we are.  But back to Zeppoleme…

Immediately, we were happy to see how cute and cozy the interior is. Lots of dark wood tables and rustic tones make Zeppoleme chill, relaxing, and comfortable. Plus, if you’re feeling like it would be nice to eat outside, check out their pretty outdoor garden dining that they share with sister restaurant Nessa next door. Eh, you gonna get to the food? Psshhhh, here are the basics:

1. Zeppole: classic, modern ricotta, and savory
2. Coffee, espresso, tea, frozen whipped frappes, and other drinks
3. Special boxed lunches and salads
4. Panini for breakfast, lunch, or dinner
5. Their seasonal soup and superfood cereals.

Now, ordering might seem like a super easy thing to do, but there are lots of combos of things to get and we got almost every kind of combination that you could think of. Hey, we were doing our due diligence.  You can get 3 zeppole for $2.95 (comes with one sauce), 6 for $5.50 (two sauces), or a dozen for $10 and three sauces. Each extra sauce costs just .50, no biggie. You can pick from vanilla cream, caramel, buttercream, espresso dip, biscoff, hazelnut nutella, and lemon glaze and have that go with either the classic zeppole or the modern, airier version. For whatever zeppole you get, you can take them plain (but that’s just lame), with granulated, or powdered sugar. We prefer the powdered sugar, but you might be different…whatevs. They also have savory zepps of bacon, chives, and provolone; veggie; and sundried tomato, basil, and fontina.

Seriously, we felt like little kids in a candy store, only this time the smell of fried zeppole was in the air and we were getting drunk off the vapors.

Zeppole

Ah, lovely powdered sugar laden zeppoles!

We got a dozen modern ricotta and they were light, airy, and fluffy. At first we were concerned because the outside seemed crispy, but when you bit in…madon! Those were some magical zeppoles:  light, fluffy, moist, and hot! We tried the thick buttercream that we loved, the gentle touch of coffee from the espresso dip, and the indescribable yumminess of the biscoff dip (though it was a bit congealed). If you haven’t had biscoff, go get you some!

Bacon, chive, and provolone zeppole

Just to get a taste of the savory (you know we did it for the sake of you, not because we wanted more zeppole!) we got three of the bacon, chives, and provolone zeppole. Again, this zeppole was just right, and no flavor was too overpowering. There was just a small amount of ingredients which made the zeppole perfect in our eyes because if it was overloaded with ingredients, it really wouldn’t feel like you were eating zeppole anymore. Our one suggestion to them when we left (they found out who we were at the end because Kristien’s mom outed us as OmNomCT, saying we were big-time bloggers…oh mom) was to have dipping sauces for the savory also such as a marinara, a pesto, or a cheese sauce. Still, we loved them. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the classic zeppoles, but…oh darn…guess we’ll have to go back for more!

Caffè

The coffee, well, we can’t say enough about the coffee. It’s from one of our favorite roasters, Stumptown Coffee Roasters. We drank a whole helluva lot of this in Seattle and Portland and now we’re glad that we can drink it just minutes from our home. What’s even cooler is you can get a big box of the coffee for just $24 or even get the big box coffee and a dozen zeppole for just $30. You’ll be the most favorite person in your office if you hook up your buddies.

Panini

Kristien’s steak and egg panini…molto bene

And, then there are the excellent panini. They have five breakfast panini and five other lunch/dinner panini to pick from. All of the panini come on this amazing grilled bread that is perfectly crispy and just a bit smoky from the grill. And, you can’t get much fresher bread. Why? It’s made just a few hundred feet away at The Kneaded Bread…totally awesome place!

Dan went with the bacon, egg, and cheese that was just the right size and had a nice balance of ingredients. Kristien had the steak and egg, caramelized onion, provolone, garlic aioli, and frisée panini. The strip steak was cooked nicely, the onions added a nice sweetness, and the egg was fresh and cooked perfectly with some yolk oozing out after a bite.

Service was good, but was a bit slow as they figured out where items were on the cash register or what a certain item on the menu was. After all of that was taken care of, though, service speeded up. They didn’t do bad at all for their first busy Sunday morning. What we liked is that they brought over our zeppole and panini when they were ready so we could begin the feast.

Final Thoughts

Zeppoleme seems like a no-brainier to us, paisanos. Coffee, zeppole, panini, and even wine at night? How can you go wrong? We’ll be back many, many (too) many times and are interested in trying Zeppoleme for dinner. They open up early at 6 am, too, so you can get some coffee and dough to go on the way to work. What might be even worse for us (and our waistlines) is the fact that they plan to deliver soon.  Feel like two dozen zeppole?  Sure, just call em up!  Feel like placing an order for your two favorite bloggers ready for pick up?  Sure!

Zeppoleme

Noms: 3.75

Cost:  $$

Address:  321 North Main Street

Port Chester, NY

Phone: (914) 481-5900