a new café in downtown Sumner and it has, in my personal and humble opinion, a business plan that works all too well. It is an easy one and if you look at the restaurant itself, the menu choices and the selections at the salad bar, a common theme is apparent.
It’s simple.
One of the great downfalls of many restaurants is that they try to over-do everything. There are too many ingredients, too much money spent on flair and artistry on the décor and then there is the ever fatal attempt to make their restaurant a worldly adventure featuring cuisines from several countries. What’s wrong with just a simple all-American café that serves simple dishes with fresh and plain ingredients at a more than fair price?
Absolutely nothing—it’s that simple.
For those of you who think that I may be overusing the word ‘simple,’ I am. In our busy and hectic day-to-day adventures in work and life, it is nice to experience something that is uncomplicated and easy. This brings me to Sabrina’s Lunch in a Box.
The menu offers breakfast with traditional egg, bacon and sausage, and hash brown selections, scrambles, bagels and hash. Breakfast is not served all day; it is served for three hours only from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday through Saturday. There is no crab benedict with sprinklings of chive, portabella mushroom omelets with crumbled bleu cheese, or crepes with mountain berries only found in the Himalayas.
It’s bacon and eggs, pure and simple.
Lunch options are also straightforward as there are sandwiches, soups and salads. (Oh, there is the highly popular Chicago Dog which is AAAHmazing!) The salad bar is slight and manageable and it should be. At Sabrina’s you are paying for what you get with the basics of a salad bar. For $5.75 you can even have two trips to the bar!
The sandwich options are all the standards and also reasonably priced. I indulged in the roast beef and cheddar and was quite happy, especially with the slightly tangy horseradish sauce layered between real cheddar cheese and medium rare delectable beef slices. All the ingredients fit perfectly within the bread and layered almost maniacally even.
Along with the perfect little sandwich came a just right size side of homemade potato salad. I am definitely not a fan of other people’s potato salad but this was the right combination of yellow mustard, mayo and perfectly cooked chunks of potatoes. The sandwich and the side came in a little white box with one (not five) napkins and a little black plastic fork.
The presentation was, well…stark and yes, simple.
All in all, this is definitely a place I will come back to for a quick and easy lunch. I will know what to expect and what I will spend and an extra bonus is the friendly service of the restaurant’s own Sabrina.
By the look of the foot traffic in and out of the restaurant, I am not the only one who will be returning to this simple sandwich shop and that, my friends, is a good thing.
A copy of Sabrina’s Lunch in a Box menu can be found on www.restaurantspuyallup.com.
