Lunch

Don't let their low profile fool you. Savory tarts are perfect for entertaining. "They're so versatile," said master baker Nick Malgieri, author of numerous cookbooks including Bake! (Kyle) and The Modern Baker (DK Publishing). "They may be used as hors d'oeuvres, or as a first course, brunch, or lunch dish," he said. "Best of all, most can be prepared entirely in advance and served at room temperature. " Savory tarts certainly deserve more respect. While the humble pie is lavished with buttery streusel topping or sweet whipped cream or billowy meringue, cheese savories are relegated to the appetizer platter at catered affairs.

In 1976, as the city marked the Bicentennial mere blocks away, Carlo Sena and his family opened a posh Italian restaurant on Front Street in Old City. La Famiglia was a revelation - a luxe dining room floored in pink marble, redolent of flowers, and bathed in candlelight. The fireplace mantel held dozens of bottles of potent grappa. An impressive wine cellar had been assembled in the basement - where construction workers had uncovered wells dug when the property was owned by Ben Franklin's daughter.

There's more on the menu than tasty lunch dishes and homemade treats at the new Black Cat Cafe in Devon. Scattered throughout the yellow-and-lavender restaurant are pictures of cats in need of homes. The one-of-a-kind spot is run by PALS, a Main Line pet-rescue group, and is serving up food along with a feel-good mission: to find homes for unwanted cats. Earlier this year, PALS bought the former tea shop at 42 Berkeley Rd. intending to rent it out, but decided to try its own paw, er, hand at running a cafe.

The outdoor grilling/picnic season is in full swing. If you covet your free time as I do, you cook enough for 10 when only eight are coming to dinner. You're counting on leftovers. You say leftovers is an ugly word? Get over it. Leftovers can make a great lunch, especially if you want to squeeze sunshine time into the workday. So grill an extra chicken half or beef steak, pork chop, or vegetables, perhaps zucchini or red pepper wedges. Make a little extra German potato salad, bacon-studded baked beans, or chilled marinated vegetables.

MY FAVORITE gifts-to-lawmakers story this year involves Rep. Mike Vereb. He's a Montgomery County Republican and a former West Conshohocken cop who reported a gift from a Virginia-based coal company: lunch for him and his wife in New York - $1,017. This struck me as a tad high, even for the Apple. I figured lunch must have included a pretty good Bordeaux, a fat tip and some $100 bills to go. But Vereb tells me, no, it was "a reception and lunch my wife and I were invited to" by Alpha Natural Resources, the nation's third-largest coal producer.

Attorney Damon K. Roberts bowed out of the race for Anna C. Verna's Second District City Council seat in South and Southwest Philadelphia last week, but he may have been too late to avoid hurting the man he is now backing, Kenyatta Johnson. Roberts was told by the Board of Elections that his withdrawal came too late to have his name removed from the ballot or even to have a sticker placed over his name. A court order would ensure only that votes for him would not count, said Fred Voigt, deputy city commissioner.

WASHINGTON - During his day off in Washington, Charlie Manuel ate lunch and dinner with his daughter, Julie, who works in the city. She was able to take an extra hour for lunch, but only because of her dad's stature. "Her boss said it was OK as long as I get him World Series tickets," Manuel said. How many times do you think Manuel has been asked to do that favor? - Matt Gelb

Best-selling author and Inquirer columnist Lisa Scottoline's new novel, "Save Me," will be in stores Tuesday. Chapter Two will appear in the Magazine on Tuesday, and Chapter Three in Style & Soul on Wednesday.   Chapter One Rose McKenna stood against the wall in the noisy cafeteria, having volunteered as lunch mom, which is like a security guard with eyeliner. Two hundred children were talking, thumb-wrestling, or getting ready for recess, because lunch period was almost over.

PART-TIME vegans are cropping up everywhere. There's the veggie-themed Meatless Mondays, a wartime campaign revived in 2003 by Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health. And New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman has touted his daily "vegan until 6 p.m. " plan for a while. In February the trend truly arrived with Oprah Winfrey's One-Week "Vegan Challenge": 378 Harpo staff members went animal-free for a week - no meat, no dairy, no eggs - and many chatted about their experiences with food gurus Michael Pollan and Kathy Freston.

CONSIDER the Japanese bento box. The penultimate takeaway-lunch option in Japan, these snazzy, compartmentalized boxes contain a tapas style, easy-to-eat feast that provides sustenance to schoolchildren, factory workers and diners on the go. When Morimoto chef Hiroki Fujiyama thinks about bento boxes, he remembers his childhood in Kyoto, when his mother would pack a bento for him to take to school and for his father to take to the office....