I brake for focaccia

On a recent Sunday afternoon a few blocks from home, I was stopped in my tracks by a sign that read “LEMONADE. FOCACCIA. 50 CENTS.” Sure, lemonade stands are a summer classic, but a focaccia stand? “Italian kids,” the stand’s sign touted, and sure enough there was a brother and sister team of 11-year-old twins selling squares of homemade, olive-oily focaccia, fluffy and yeasty on the inside with a crunchy, salt-sprinkled crust. Their mom helped them make it, they said, as they wrapped up three squares for a bargain $1.50. I liked their budding entrepreneurial spirit, and I liked their focaccia even better; I was delighted to hear that they’re planning to be open several days a week for the rest of the summer, though I’m not sure what days. You’ll find them—if you’re lucky—in East Sac, at the corner of 33rd and L streets. And they really are Italian; as I took my focaccia squares, I called out a “grazie.” The young proprietress immediately answered “prego.”