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Lunchbox Food Co.

357 West St. Between Clarkson and Leroy

Tucked neatly amid the industrial dross of the West Side Highway is Lunchbox Food Co., a quiet converted Pullman diner redolent of chrome, lacquer, and squeaky vinyl floors. The supposed stars of the show at Lunchbox are the various pastries and desserts proffered by the owners, whose bakery business preceeeded the opening of their little slice of retro in the Village. Unfortunately, after knocking down a hell of a good sandwich, I had no room left for dessert, so I can't really tell you anything about the sweets.

About the sandwich though, and the rest of the menu: The lunch menu features almost exclusively salads and sandwiches, although you can get breakfast anytime that you want to, lunch or dinner. The braised hanger steak sandwich, served on an eggy, slightly sweet brioche, features morsels of tender, moist, and flavorful steak with spinach and a pan-sauce aioli. The bitter punch of the spinach offsets the sweetness of the bun and the aioli, marrying quite well with the slightly peppery pieces of steak. A Thai Chicken Salad wrap comes bursting with creamy, coconut milk tinged chunks of white meat in a thin asian crepe, made to order, flecked with black sesame seeds. The sandwich won both thumbs up from mom, and she may have dealt a spoken endorsement were she not polite enough to not talk when her mouth was full. We'll really never know. All sandwiches come with your choice of homemade potato chips or excellent, salty french fries and a rather inconsequential side of greens.

With such good lunch prices, and a cheery, nostalgic atmosphere, I imagine this place does pretty well for dinner also. The breakfasts, while we're at it, cover a pretty basic scope--eggs, pancakes, maybe waffles--but give the opportunity to sample the notorious baked goods. Eggs come with a home baked cranberry almond toast. My dad, never one to reinvent the wheel (at least as far as toast is concerned), fought the toast as hard as he possibly could, badgering the waiter for some plain ol rye toast. When roundly disabused of his toast prejudice though, it became known that the cranberry almond toast was alright (in dadspeak that means pretty damn good) if not really alright. Which is probably the best way to summarize the Lunchbox: The food is alright, really really alright, the atmosphere camp, the service iffy, but the overall value great. So should you sojourn to the west side higway ever or often, keep this joint in mind, you won't leave dissapointed, and you might even have a good dessert. Actually, please do have dessert, and let me know how it is, I'm really curious to know.