The Ultimate Sandwich?

In the cold weather, I can rarely motivate myself to travel very far for lunch and I often end up eating turkey sandwiches from the deli next stoor or pizza from across the street day after day after day. Today it was chilly out, but an errand on upper Nassau Street forced me to venture far from the office at lunch and I decided to take the opportunity to try someplace I would usually consider too far for lunch. I went to Lenny's - home of "the ultimate sandwich."

I was craving a sandwich today after I saw this sad post on Serious Eats. I have eaten sandwiches from the Crosby Connection several times and was sad to hear it may close.

Lenny's first came to my attention because they frequently set up a little mobile shop/stand right near my office on the corner of Broadway and Exchange Place. There are usually two guys manning the stand, but it was never clear to me what they had to offer. Did you have to order in advance? Did they simply carry a selection of sandwiches available to buy? Why would anyone buy sandwiches from this random street stand with the proliferation of nearby delis? I was curious, but not enough to investigate. In the months that have followed, I find hardly a lunch break goes by when I don't see a Lenny's bicycle delivery man riding around near the stock exchange. I started to think there must be something to this place, but what was it? And where* was it?

An article in the New York Times piqued my interest further, and I finally got around to researching where my nearest Lenny's actually was. Sadly, it was not close. I figured it would be quite a while before I would make it there. But chance (and my cats' appetite, which requires me to replenish their food - wtf?) conspired to take me to that general neighborhood on a day when I was craving a sandwich.

I had the Chicken Cheddar sandwich, which is a breaded chicken cutlet, cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, and tomato on bread of your choice (my choice: sourdough). And it was delicious. It was on the small side, which is perfect for me, but might disappoint some - especially given the $7.25 price. With a bottle of seltzer and tax, my meal came out to $9.60. The price seemed high, but my biggest complaint about Lenny's was the seating, or virtual lack thereof. I was too far from my office to bring a hot sandwich back and have it still be hot when I got there, so I ate there. They have only a very small counter in the window area, which was not the most comfortable place to enjoy my sandwich.

Overall, I would definitely recommend Lenny's sandwiches, especially if you have somewhere besides Lenny's to eat them. I don't know when I might make it back there, but maybe I'll try out their delivery or investigate further the stand that occasionally pops up on Broadway.

Lenny's only lower Manhattan location is 108 John Street between Gold and Pearl Streets. They have several other locations throughout Manhattan.

* I am, for reasons that I cannot really understand myself, generally opposed to ordering food in for lunch. Maybe because lunch is (when I actually take it) practically the only time I leave my desk over the course of a day.