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Owner Ben Aschinger and some of the vintage lunchboxes that decorate the restaurant
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In the corner of an industrial park, behind a tree, you'll find Maggie's Lunchbox
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Clockwise from top left: chocolate-chocolate cupcake filled with chocolate ganache, a fudgy “super-chocolate brownie,” apple pie, German chocolate cupcake, chocolate-chip cookie, peanut butter cookie, peach hand pie, and carrot-cake blondie
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Pancakes with bananas and pecans
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The capacious restaurant has 3 seating areas. This is the view right as you enter.
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The Cuban panini is porky and righteous
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Beneath the menu, the Aschingers' children have drawn on the wall
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A spinach salad comes with plenty of bacon
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A jackalope with coconut bra hangs out on the wall
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Beats the hell out of the Mr. Softee truck
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Ice cream sandwiches include (left to right) the vanilla-bean sugar cookies with peach sherbet; the “Chili Caramel” with chocolate-chili cookies sandwiched around dulce de leche ice cream; and the “Coffee House” almond-biscotti cookie and chocolate cookie with espresso ice cream
Maggie's Lunchbox is in an industrial park in Fenton. In the particular strip of businesses where you'll find it, it's jammed in the corner, next to an office-equipment company. The restaurant's sign is partly hidden behind a tree. It's almost comical. This joint could only be harder to find if it were a speakeasy.
And yet for more than five years now, those who work in Fenton have come to rely on it as an oasis where owner-chefs Ben and Kari Aschinger offer delicious fare in a desert of “meh” dining options.
Ben said it's customer word-of-mouth that has built business to this point. It's also the way everything is made in-house: entrees, sides, dressings, house-smoked meats, desserts, and even the breads for sandwiches.
Tasty fare on the daily menu includes a Cuban panini stuffed with more pork than the big bad wolf. The pork shoulder is smoked in-house. The Aschingers use an extra-strong Dijon to wed the ingredients.
A spinach salad is made with red onion, tomato, hard-boiled egg, poppyseed dressing and tons-o-bacon.
A popular breakfast choice, pancakes with crispy edges repose under pecans and sliced bananas.
The Lunchbox's success also comes courtesy of the hundreds of different specials they offer. The daily soup, chili, frittata, sandwich and blue-plate specials afford the Aschingers the ability to be creative. The daily choices might include a chicken and waffle sandwich, pretzel-wrapped bratwurst, Wiener Schnitzel, an egg salad sandwich, French bread pizza, or “smoked and fried chicken,” for instance.
Desserts are Ben's specialty. Check out his whoopie pies in flavors like carrot cake and red velvet; pies in buttermilk, cherry-cheesecake crumb, and strawberry-rhubarb; hand pies with seasonal fillings like peach, blueberry, cherry, and chocolate-pecan; cupcakes in strawberry margarita and lemon-lime curd; English toffee blondies; chocolate-marshmallow moon pies; oatmeal/raisin/maple syrup cookies; and breakfast pastries like croissants, Danishes and cinnamon rolls.
The eatery can get busy, Ben said, but a bare-bones staff of four serves a capacious dining room that seats 85. The Aschingers and two employees serve as cooks, waiters, busboys, hosts, dishwashers and any other roles needed.
When they're not serving happy customers who've managed to figure out where they're located, Ben or Kari might be pedaling “Maggie's Icebox,” a refurbished '40s Cushman vending scooter they use to sell ice-cream sandwiches. At area festivals like the approaching Fenton Days, Art in the Park and the Historic Shaw Art Fair, the couple sells ice-cream sandwiches in flavors like chocolate-chip cookies with vanilla-bean ice cream; chocolate cookies with vanilla-bean ice cream; chocolate cookies with Thin Mint ice cream; vanilla-bean sugar cookies with peach sherbet; the “Dark and Stormy” ginger-snap cookies with rum-raisin ice cream; and the “Coffee House” almond-biscotti cookie and chocolate cookie with espresso ice cream. The “Chili Caramel” is a minor revelation: chocolate-chili cookies made with ancho chile and cayenne pepper bits are sandwiched around dulce de leche ice cream. The zing of the heat is immediately soothed by the sweet coolness of the ice cream for a bit of a carnival ride. Each fall the Lunchbox does a pumpkin ice-cream sandwich starring pecan sugar cookies cradling pumpkin ice cream, too. The novelties are available at Maggie's Lunchbox daily as well.
Ben said he loves to talk with customers each day.
“When I'm back in the kitchen baking, it can be a solitary job,” he said. “Talking to people is what makes this fun.”
Maggie's Lunchbox
867 Horan
Fenton
636-326-4411
Mon - Fri: 6 a.m. - 4 p.m.
