What’s in a name?

The hand-painted, block-letter front sign for Luncheonette evokes old-school lunch counters serving simple fare from a simpler time: tuna salad sandwiches, chef’s salads, ham and egg plates, hot dogs and baked beans.

Nostalgic and hiply generic, the name is also understated and self-assured, implying that there’s something special and far more sophisticated on offer within. The often superb food at this thoroughly charming daytime bistro more than lives up to that promise.

A deli case by the door greets you with vibrant prepared salads mounded in colorful ceramic bowls, sandwiches neatly half-jacketed with parchment paper, and a variety of spreads in small mason jars. Some salads (1 for $8, 2 for $14 and 3 for $18) are more classic, like creamy, crunchy celery root remoulade with hazelnuts and a hint of apple. There’s also nicely seasoned, herby potato salad bound with egg yolk- and umami-packed Japanese Kewpie mayo, surely one of the best versions of the humble dish you’ll try.

Other Luncheonette salads are more inventive, such as the gluten-free, vegan cabbage “Caesar.” “We don’t like to put too many things in quotes. We don’t want to be a hypothetical restaurant,” LeBlanc deadpanned.

They add quotes here because it’s a very loose riff on a traditional Caesar. The dish marries crisp-tender roasted cabbage and creamy tahini dressing that’s seasoned with fruit-sweetened tamari and gochugaru chili flakes. Nutritional yeast supplies eggy, cheesy taste, while a garnish of seaweed-sesame seed furikake with fried Maine Grains rye berries stands in for crouton crunch.

Chef-owners Angela Lee and Alex LeBlanc deftly deploy global seasonings in their eclectic melting pot cooking; indeed, the restaurant’s concept was inspired by Lee’s travels abroad. Her boldly flavorful, North African-influenced roasted sweet potato salad gets mild heat from harissa, tang from pomegranate molasses and salty citrus from preserved lemon, along with crackling texture from crumbled buckwheat tuile studded with pepitas.

Luncheonette specializes in seasonal vegetable salads — using produce from Stonecipher Farm in Bowdoinham and other local growers — rather than the leafy greens type. Lee wanted Luncheonette to show that “we can do interesting things with vegetables that’s not just putting them together raw with lettuce and dressing.”

“It’s like meze meets banchan (Korean side dishes),” LeBlanc said.

Bibimbap ($18) was historically a way to use up leftover banchan — kind of a Korean Girl Dinner. The dish is very much at home here, even beyond Lee’s Korean-American heritage. Luncheonette’s visually striking version, served over a warm multi-grain rice blend, uses some traditional components like housemade daikon and napa cabbage kimchi. But it adds fresh takes: roasted koginut squash with vinaigrette, za’atar-spiced tofu, and, instead of the usual fried egg topper, a golden centerpiece of deviled egg yolk that coats and balances the funky punch of the banchan.

A lot of expert technique and finesse is at work behind the scenes to coax the best flavors and textures from these dishes, but the food comes to your table without fanfare or fussiness. Among the hot dishes cooked to order is chicken sausage ($16), where a serrano, tomatillo and marjoram salsa verde brightens up the saucy, creamy cranberry beans and smoky split link. It’s homey and familiar as a plate of franks and beans, just so much tastier.

Tofu katsu sando ($14) puts cabbage slaw and a slab of panko-coated fried tofu from Rockport’s Heiwa Tofu between two thick slices of sourdough milk bread. The filling is a winning combo, even if you’re not a tofu fan, but LeBlanc’s almost impossibly soft, moist bread is the best part.

Luncheonette is a homecoming of sorts for LeBlanc, a South Portland native. He’s cooked at esteemed chef April Bloomfield’s Sailor in Brooklyn, New York, and at Manhattan’s Michelin-starred Bâtard. In Maine, he worked under Matt Ginn at Evo Kitchen + Bar and Abby Harmon at Caiola’s. Lee left a digital advertising career several years ago and put herself through an ambitious culinary curriculum in New York City, learning baking and pastry at The Chocolate Room and Petee’s Pie Co., and butchery at The Meat Hook and Osakana fish market.

The couple launched Luncheonette last summer in a tiny and adorable century-old building on Cumberland Avenue that most recently housed Union Bagel Co. “The building does so much work for us,” said LeBlanc. “It’s so disarming, and people are smitten by it.”

They found a way to fit about 15 table seats and counter stools inside without making the 300-square-foot space feel cramped. (A back patio provides up to 30 more seats in season.) The retro decor — white-and-black mosaic floor tile; Tiffany-style light shades over vintage wooden tables; chairs, plates and silverware from antique and second-hand stores around Maine — hangs together in a stylishly mix-and-match way.

Luncheonette’s concise beverage program offers quality and value, with Speckled Ax coffee, Teafarers tea, Wild Root kombucha, a Lone Pine draft ($8) and two natural California wines, a red blend ($10) and a chardonnay ($11). Add warm, attentive counter-service staff to the equation — and the endearing fact that the chefs often deliver plates to tables themselves — and it’s no surprise that Eater last November named Luncheonette one of the 15 best new restaurants in the country.

I had quibbles with a couple of dishes. While I enjoyed the restrained sweetness of the financier-style Matcha buckwheat cake ($6) and its white chocolate-matcha ganache, the moist cake was slightly grainy. A layer of rhubarb and tarragon jam atop velvety chicken liver mousse ($8) masked the organ meat, and some of the sourdough crackers were overbrowned.

But scrumptious dishes like roasted pork ($18) more than counter-balanced any small disappointments. LeBlanc miso-cures a Niman Ranch coppa cut (the most marbled and tender part of the pork shoulder) for two days before a 12-hour slow roast. Paired with sweet-tangy cider and mustard gastrique and chunks of poached Maine apples, the well-seasoned meat is supremely succulent, with a delectable savory crust.

Then there’s the outstanding cinnamon roll ($6), which uses a sweetened version of LeBlanc’s milk bread dough. “Often the outside of a cinnamon roll is dry and not great,” LeBlanc said. “We really wanted to make the whole thing the center.” They succeeded. Exceptionally tender, rich with cinnamon and glazed with crème fraîche frosting, it’s understandably a house favorite.

Last summer, Lee and LeBlanc regularly saw passersby across the street taking pictures of Luncheonette’s storefront. Sometimes folks who apparently expected a Woolworth’s-type lunch counter would pop their heads inside for a closer look. “It’s just not what they thought it was,” LeBlanc said. “And they turn around and leave.”

Boy, did they ever miss out. But fine — more seats for the rest of us. This cozy restaurant subverts conventional expectations and raises the bar for what a neighborhood lunch spot can do. By any other name, Luncheonette would still be an absolute delight.

RATING: ****
WHERE: 147 Cumberland Ave., Portland, luncheonettemaine.com
SERVING: 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Thursday through Monday
PRICE RANGE: Salads and spreads $8; sandwiches $14; entrees $15-$18
NOISE LEVEL: Medium-low
VEGETARIAN: Several dishes
GLUTEN-FREE: Several dishes
RESERVATIONS: No
BAR: Beer and wine
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: No
BOTTOM LINE: Chef-owners Angela Lee and Alex LeBlanc opened Luncheonette in a cute little corner building on Cumberland Avenue last June. Their concept pays homage to vintage lunch counters, but the modern, globally influenced food was inspired by eateries Lee enjoyed on trips abroad, like La Buvette bistro in Paris and Kiki’s Tavern in Mykonos. The menu includes premade sandwiches and several hot dishes cooked to order, but the heart of their offerings is a selection of meze-style prepared vegetable salads. Among the best are roasted sweet potato salad with North African seasoning, cabbage “Caesar” with creamy tahini dressing and puffed rye berry furikake, and potato salad with French fines herbes and Japanese Kewpie mayo. LeBlanc’s sublime milk bread puts the tofu katsu sando over the top, and the dough also serves double duty in one of the best cinnamon rolls around. Get there early before the cinnamon rolls and first-rate roasted pork with mustard and apple gastrique sell out. Of course, like many dishes on the menu, the roasted pork is a seasonal item that’ll change out soon — get them while you can, before Lee and LeBlanc wow us with fresh spring plates. It’s a snug space, though the back patio has more seating in good weather. Even better: Much of this menu travels well, so when the warmth finally returns, pack yourself a spring picnic to remember.

Ratings follow this scale and take into consideration food, atmosphere, service and value and type of restaurant (a casual bistro will be judged as a casual bistro, an expensive upscale restaurant as such):

* Poor 

** Fair

*** Good

**** Excellent

***** Extraordinary

The Maine Sunday Telegram visits each restaurant once; if the first meal was unsatisfactory, the reviewer returns for a second. The reviewer never accepts free food or drink.