By Tim Griton
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent

Beautiful days in Kentuckiana lead to more lunches out of the office. Yesterday, I decided to do something I haven’t done in the nearly 10 years that I’ve been working out of my current office: have lunch outside on Guthrie Green.

Guthrie Green is that little piece of road that was filled in during the days of the River City Mall. 4th Street reopened to traffic, but Guthrie Green remained closed off, giving us a plaza to hang out on. There are a few wrought iron tables and chairs there that have managed to remain despite the fact that they’re present there 24/7. The sun was shining and the new LEO Weekly with its curse word cover which was a surprise and was just begging to be read, so I made my plans.

Brian Deli is on the corner of 4th Street and Guthrie Green and is one of the hidden gems of downtown Louisville. It’s a small convenience store selling Oreos and lottery tickets and does a brisk business during the lunch hour because it offers a local oasis from the myriad of chain choices downtown. This day I skipped the salad bar, which is always fresh and purposely limited to the most popular items, and went for the weekly sandwich special.

The specials include a sandwich, chips, pickle spear, small potato salad cup and your choice of 8-ounce soup or 12-ounce can of soda. They’ll sell you other standard deli fare like ham and cheese or a BLT, but this week’s special, the smoked turkey, is excellent and, for only $4.25, the special is always a spectacular deal.

I was lucky enough to grab one of the tables in the Green and spread out my cursing LEO for perusal. I opened my Styrofoam container and unwrapped my mountain of a sandwich. That’s one of the other beauties of Brian Deli. When they build a sandwich, they don’t mess around. A certain chain deli restaurant ought to be ashamed of themselves for selling five dollar foot long sandwiches and then put a pittance of the meat on them. On the sandwich from Brian Deli, I had to squeeze bread and smash the turkey to get it in my mouth. Now that’s a sandwich.

The sun shone on me and my four buck lunch while I read that swear word article and enjoyed my time out of the office. If the days continue to be nice, I just might make a habit of lunch on the Green with my mountain of meat. For $4.25, it’s economical and really, really good.