Lenny’s is a sandwich chain in New York city, currently operating over a dozen restaurants. Each one is more-or-less the same in layout and design. There’s nothing particularly charming about Lenny’s. You won’t come away with a story for your friends. You won’t feel compelled to spread the word about Lenny’s and you won’t feel you have to hold it as a personal secret. It’s a chain, someone takes your order, assembles your sandwich and passes it off to the person you pay. Eating at Lenny’s would never be considered an experience. But none of that matters because Lenny’s does something very well and it is the most important thing, the thing that many other chains lose in their constant expansion: Lenny’s makes a very good sandwich.
The Jimmy T, high on the list of Lenny’s signature sandwiches, is a breaded chicken cutlet, melted mozzarella cheese, grilled onions, sweet peppers and honey mustard on your choice of bread. It’s a fine sandwich. The grilled onions and the peppers are the featured ingredients and the mustard is just enough to keep the sweetness from getting out of hand. I do not mean to sell the sandwich short but what is especially notable isn’t that it’s good it’s that you can get it at a substantial number of locations. At far too many chain sandwich shops any chucklehead with $5 is served a pile of salt between two pieces of bread. It is nice to know that at least in certain places there are people who don’t think that availability is a substitute for edibility.
On Sandwiches 
If I remember correctly the coffee isn’t bad either. I should have saved that post for “On Coffee”.
please read what you just wrote and take a second to think about it..”Eating at Lenny’s would never be considered an experience. But none of that matters because Lenny’s does something very well and it is the most important thing… Lenny’s makes a very good sandwich”
of course its an experience and thats why there are 13 stores- because NewYorkers love the freakin’ place and tell everyone they know about it like its there job! You cannot get a consistently better sandwich anywhere in NY except possibly at some rare, great one-off deli’s that are few and far between, Lenny’s brings the ruckus like no other sanwich shop on our lovely isle of manhattan and thats a fact, it seems like a chain because of its multiple locations but its food is anything but and thats b/c everyone of those magnificent sandwiches is made to order- you ever watch the guys working the slicer or grill while your waiting in line at lunch- oh my- mad skills.
PS- agreed the Jimmy T is special but nothing tops the #1 for sheer flavor and enjoyment, that thing is a bombshell
TSO,
I simply don’t believe Lenny’s offers much in terms of atmosphere. 13 stores doesn’t prove it’s an experience, 13 stores proves people like to buy their sandwiches. It isn’t an experience and I wouldn’t talk it up as such. This is On Sandwiches, friend. I’m going to spend my life looking for “some rare, great one-off deli” and paying grudging compliments to places like Lenny’s.
P.S. “Seems like a chain” my eye.
pholby,
Don’t get worked up about TSO. He’s obviously a child (cf. “there job”, “brings the ruckus”, “oh my- mad skills”) and unfamiliar with the broader world of sandwichcraft.
I have never eaten at a Lenny’s, and I might never, but your review of the Jimmy T has presented me a fine picture of what I would expect and what I would find there. This is not a sublime sandwich, nor is it a sandwich lacking in virtue, and I should expect a good sandwich at a reasonable price. It is a compliment, however grudging, that you pay to Lenny’s, and I trust your judgment in paying it.
Keep fighting the good fight, I appreciate your efforts.
Thank you. That you would value my input so charges me with a great responsibility in how I view sandwiches. I do not intend to let you down.
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I usually go for the Chicavo, grilled chix+avocado, good for breakfast and lunch.