Recession Relief: Milano’s Mixerini Bar

​A “Mixerini Bar” sounds like something where alcoholic beverages are prepared and consumed. It’s booze-free at Crown Center’s Milano Italian Dining restaurant, but if you’re hungry and budget-conscious, it’s a potent deal.

The Mixerini Bar is what Milano’s calling its express lunch bar, where

different Italian dishes — squares of panini sandwiches, slices of

freshly baked pizza, small calzones, a fine prepared Caesar salad

or a make-it-yourself salad and custom-created pastas — can be mixed and

matched, buffet-style. The $10.95 price includes a loaf of bread for

the table and soda or iced tea. And yes, you can go back to

the bar until you’re stuffed.

Milano offers the Mixerini Bar seven days a week: from 11 a.m. to 3

p.m. Monday through Saturday and all day Sunday (the restaurant is open

Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.)