The awards for best sandwich and best chicken salad are prominently displayed in Lagniappe’s.

Shelly Ross, who operates the sandwich shop in the bar area of Giovanni’s Italian Bistro, is confident the quality of food will ensure her business the same popularity it enjoyed in Decatur for four years.

Ross won the Best Sandwich award one year for “The Italian” and the Best Chicken Salad award for two consecutive years in the annual Taste of the Valley restaurant competition in Morgan County.

“Basically, we’ll have the same menu here that we had in Decatur except we’ve added a Caesar salad,” said Ross.

Lagniappe’s opened Saturday with many of Ross’s regular Decatur customers making the trip to Athens for her opening day.

“And Monday, we had a lot of Athens people here trying our sandwiches,” she said.

Having the two restaurants combine means diners have a lot more from which to choose. Up until 5 p.m. daily, customers can order from either menu.

“Lagniappe’s is the express menu when you don’t have a lot of time for lunch,” she said.

The most popular soup on the menu is the tomato-basil.

“This is a cream soup and we would sell out of it,” said Ross. “People just love it. We especially make cream soups in the winter when people like something heavier.”

She said the Southwest wrap is also very popular. The chicken salad is all white meat with bacon and pineapple and a honey-mustard dressing rolled in flour tortilla.

Ross said she also does catering and take-out orders and will deliver if the order exceeds $50.