By Ben Orcutt -- Daily Staff Writer

FRONT ROYAL — If you're too busy to go out for lunch and want a little something different, J's Gourmet owner David Gedney has got you covered.

Gedney, 42, and his wife, Stacy, 34, also own the dinner restaurant Apartment 2g, which is above J's Gourmet, and the more casual bistro, the Element, located at 206 S. Royal Ave.

The Gedneys purchased the business from Jorie Martin three years ago and decided to expand. Surveying the lunch market, Gedney got the idea to deliver gourmet sandwiches in his 1973 Volkswagen Beetle, which is called the "Blue J.," and sports the J's Gourmet logo.

"It's a mobile billboard," Gedney says. "So that was sort of the beginning of this whole concept."

Gedney says he was encouraged in his lunch delivery concept after reading some statistics published by American Express.

"They said about 78 percent of Americans actually eat lunch at their desk," Gedney says. "I don't know if that's solely because they can only afford to brown bag a ham and cheese sandwich or if it's because they just don't have time. If it's me, they don't have time. They can't go out. So my idea was that if there is 78 percent of Americans in Front Royal that aren't coming here, then let's see if we can't go to them and that was sort of the idea."

The plan, Gedney says, is for customers to call in their orders and then he'll try to accommodate the times they would like for lunch to be delivered Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"This service, I don't know that it's actually going to save anybody any money except for maybe gas," Gedney says. "I think what it's going to save them is possibly time."

Gedney says he believes he will offer a different and healthier alternative to the regular lunch fare.

"If you wanted turkey or if you want a salad or if you wanted something that's different, then maybe we fit into that," he says. "I like to think we do. I like to think we fit very well in between Spelunker's or Burger King or McDonald's or Wendy's."

Although he's constantly monitoring the menu to determine what changes are necessary, Gedney says some of the sandwiches on J's Gourmet menu have become traditions.

"People come day after day after day and have the J's Favorite," he says.

The J's Favorite features curried chicken salad, with chutney, topped with ham, lettuce and tomato on a French roll for $7.95. All sandwiches are served with Route 11 Lightly Salted potato chips and come with a pickle. For 50 cents extra, J's Gourmet will substitute with sweet potato chips.

"There won't be a minimum order on this because the idea is we will be doing kind of a loop," Gedney says. "If we have everybody's orders by say 10:30 a.m., we can sort of prepare, have this stuff lined up and I can go out and do like one, or two or three loops around the town of Front Royal and hit all these stops. It's all going to be predetermined based on who orders."

The Gedneys are native Pennsylvanians who met when they worked at the Inn at Little Washington. Gedney went to culinary school in San Francisco. He and his wife have a 9-month-old son, Wyeth, and they live in Front Royal.

For now, since there are only a few employees who know how to drive a stick-shift, Gedney will be making deliveries and another employee, and possibly Mrs. Gedney, once the Gedneys can install a car seat in the back seat of the Blue J.

Although J's Gourmet does sell wine, Gedney says that until he can determine what licenses would be required, spirits will not be available for delivery.

"It would be a great service if I can do it," he says.

While he doesn't have a favorite sandwich, Gedney highly recommends one called the New Guy.

"I think the New Guy is a fabulous sandwich, but I don't eat it because it's so big," Gedney says. "It's ham, bacon, pastrami, peppers and onions, and then lettuce, tomato and our sauce and cheese. It's on a Romano roll."

The New Guy sells for $9.95 and is a good sandwich to split, Gedney says.

Not to be outdone by government incentives, one of the specials on the lunch menu is the "Economic Stimulus Package," which sells for $6.95 and includes the quiche of the day and your choice of a cup soup or a side salad.

There are an array of desserts on the menu and fun drinks to wash it all down, including Fizzy Lizzy sodas without corn syrup or Virgil's Root Beer, which sell for $1.95.

"I'm a product-based person," Gedney says. "I hope that what I make is good enough that you'll tell people it's coming from J's and that's the way I've always worked. It worked for us for several years, but now this is a totally different ballgame we're playing in. We're trying as hard as we can to be as open to people's needs as possible because I think it's true of what defines this industry."

Enter the Blue J.

"I think it's fabulous," says Mrs. Gedney. "Hopefully it'll bring in a lot [of] new business, and I think it'll be great for the Blue J."

To place a lunch order or for more information, call J's Gourmet at 636-9293. The entire lunch menu is available on-line at jsgourmet.com.