LUNCH COUNTER

Address: 1663-5 Savannah Highway.

Phone: 556-1811.

Hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Mon.-Fri.; Lunch served 11 a..m.-3 p.m. daily.

Today's special is marinated pork loin with roasted rosemary potatoes. The sides: green beans, collards, fried okra and corn.

Southern Occasions, wedged between Advance Finance and Classy Nails and across from d.d. Pecker's on Savannah Highway, honors its name by delivering mostly Southern fare for all occasions.

Johnson and Wales graduate Mark "Spoon" Thompson and wife April create party platters, gift baskets and catered lunches and receptions for weddings, rehearsal dinners, reunions and more.

Carry-out lunches are also served Monday to Friday, the menu changing weekly.

On Friday, we tasted a large piece of flounder, gently fried and nicely seasoned, along with savory macaroni and cheese and red rice flecked with bits of sausage. We also tried the marinated, grilled chicken strips, fried okra and collards.

A review of last week's and this week's menu shows a degree of variety: Hamburger steak with grilled onions, burgundy beef tips over egg noodles, pulled pork and baked beans, lasagna with garlic bread and country fried steak and mashed potatoes.

Each special costs $7.50, the side items available separately for $2 each.

Other offerings include wraps ($6.95) - club, roast beef, grilled chicken, cheeseburger or chicken fajita - and sandwiches of the week, also $6.95. Last week, Southern Occasions featured an open face roast beef or chicken salad, this week, patty melt or chicken salad.

Cold plates ($5.95), salads ($6.95) and desserts - bread pudding and peach cobbler for $2.50 - are available.

And you even pick up specialty coffees, jams and salad dressings from the store's small retail section.