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Most people know the Sylvan Beach Café in Mount Vernon for its ice cream: rich, homemade, creamy, and full of tasty add-ins like cookie dough, chocolate chunks, or hunks of Key lime pie. But in addition to the dairy delights, Sylvan now serves salads, sandwiches, and bagels.

In a neighborhood where you're unlikely to find a decent sandwich for less than $7 or $8, Sylvan's lunch menu, on which nothing is more than $5.50, is truly appreciated. Choose from such staples as ham and cheese, turkey, or roast beef and cheddar, or give in to something warmer. The menu features a fancy grilled cheese ($3.50), with mozzarella cheese melted over tomatoes and two thick slabs of white bread grilled with garlic and butter. If you're looking for something heartier, the pesto chicken sandwich ($5), also served on grilled bread, is a half-breast of chicken marinated in pesto, grilled to a golden color (we suspect that there is a George Foreman grill hard at work in that kitchen), topped with cheese and spinach, and served with chips and a pickle. Yummy, filling, simple, cheap.

And of course, no trip to Sylvan would be complete without some kind of frozen sweet stuff. On our last trip, we ordered a sweet and refreshing piña colada fruit smoothie ($3) instead of the usual ice cream. Tasted great, less filling.