Park's Edge and the 8-Minute Lunch

The ubiquitous workweek lunch.

For most in the 9 to 5 set, "lunch is usually paired with "hour," but in the traffic web that is Atlanta, it probably means a quick 30 minutes or ordering to-go for eating at one's desk.

Right Management, a human resources consulting firm, says 65 percent of American workers eat lunch at their desks or don't take lunch breaks at all.

With that time crunch in mind, the owners of Park's Edge, the Inman Park restaurant, have created a lunch menu designed to bring meals out to the table in eight minutes.

"We want to respect our guests and we want to respect their time," executive chef Jorge Pacheco, one of the co-owners of the restaurant, said.

The idea was to create a menu with enough variety and flavor to appeal to broad palates, while being cognizant that the lunchtime crowd is pressed for time, co-owner Richard Wadlington said.

"With lunch, traveling time and eating time are the most critical times," Wadlington said. "We are well aware of that fact."

Nearly everything on the menu, which the restaurant began featuring last month, takes about eight minutes to prepare, with a couple of dishes taking 12 minutes.

Anything longer than that was scratched off.

The menu — dishes range in price from $8 to $16 — includes fried oysters, salmon BLT sandwich and spinach and berries salad.

Lunch is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday at the restaurant, which is located at 913 Bernina Ave. NE.

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