Lay’ Vince restaurant in Palm Springs offers breakfast, lunch, snacks and mystery dinners

You could be forgiven for assuming the new deli and restaurant on the south end of downtown Palm Springs is something else entirely.

After all its name, Lay’ Vince, doesn't exactly scream, well, anything — but certainly not "here's a place where I can pick up some oranges and chips, get a fresh-made salad or breakfast, then maybe come back one evening for a mystery dinner."

Then there’s the storefront, which would be rather easy to overlook if not for the striking black and white image of a woman with wild curly hair gazing mysteriously over her shoulder that takes up much of the exterior.

“Everyone thinks we're a hair salon because of it,” said owner and chef Jon Merchain, who said the image is of his grandma.

But the unusual name (a combination of his daughter's and son's names) and exterior in some ways provide a fitting first impression of a business striving to offer something unlike anything else in Palm Springs.

As the business' Facebook description puts it: "Lay' Vince is a deli by day and private dining by night." And even that description seems to fall short of describing the sheer variety of goods and experiences on offer.

Merchain, who runs a catering company and previously owned a high-end restaurant in the Desert International Horsepark in Thermal, said he didn’t have a specific concept in mind when he took over Lay’ Vince’s space at 540 South Indian Canyon Drive, which is in a small building that also houses a barbershop and a marijuana dispensary.

He knew the block’s copious foot traffic, however, was a definite draw and found a unique vision of a deli beginning to take shape as he thought about how best to serve the horde of people walking by. In particular, Merchain saw a need for a place where they could easily buy a variety of things in smaller quantities than they could from a grocery store.

“You go to Ralph’s in the wintertime and its packed, right?” he said. “But a lot of people don’t want two pounds of peaches and a whole bag of lettuce… I wanted to make a place that was very convenient but also had stuff that was fresh and organic and some unique one-off items too.”

Grocery shelves go beyond the expected

The result is a spot where one can stop in and purchase much of the produce you would at a traditional grocery store or farmer’s market — Merchain has teamed up with Desert Hot Springs’ Farmer in the Dale produce market to source the produce — along with pantry staples such a box of pasta or ramen noodles.

Lay’ Vince’s offerings, however don’t stop there: The shelves are also stocked with honeys, cookies and other items from Coachella Valley- and Southern California-based purveyors, plus a variety of multicultural offerings like curry mixes. Then there's also what Merchain describes as his nostalgic offerings, which include candies and snacks customers might recognize from their own childhoods or even their parents’.

Sprinkled throughout are other downright quirky items like old cookbooks and keychains shaped like Buffalo wings. There's also a bevy of items prepared on site, which range from jars of fruit jams and pickles to bagged margarita mixes, granolas and popcorns. The one-offs, meanwhile, are just that and therefore not easily categorizable, although Merchain cites pink pineapples, which quickly sold out, as one example.

By day, a fresh meal

And Lay’ Vince is not just a place to pick up food, from also one where you can enjoy a fresh meal. Currently, Merchain is serving three $5 breakfast items daily (a coffee is included in the price): biscuits and gravy, a breakfast burrito and crème brulee French toast.

For lunch, the deli offers a daily “hot special” entrée item. Recent offerings have included a meatloaf sandwich and a jambalaya penne pasta with chicken and sausage, which Merchain will be serving this Saturday, Sept. 9. A menu showing each week’s specials, which are all offered for $13, is posted on the Lay’ Vince Facebook page at the start of each week.

Customers can also create their own custom salad by checking off ingredients on a sheet of paper.

The Facebook page lists Lay' Vince's hours as being 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday, although Merchain emphasizes that he intends to sell out of breakfast and lunch items each day and that “once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

By night, a mystery

At night, Lay’ Vince shifts to offering private dinners, catering and special events, including what Merchain is calling “blind dinners" which he been advertising on the business' Facebook and Instagram pages.

“You don’t know what you are going to eat, and you are not allowed to see it either,” he said. “We blindfold you outside… It’s a lot of fun.”

Lay’ Vince opened in July, which might seem a risky bet given the soaring temperatures and lack of tourists. However, Merchain says it was a great time given that he wants the focus to be on locals rather than tourists. To that end, he said, he has been focused on making prices affordable, including offering many of his daily specials as loss leaders.

“I don’t want somebody to feel like they can only come here once a month, which is the way a lot of restaurants downtown are,” he said.  “I want people to feel like they can come in every week and spend 50 bucks, but they’re getting chips, a watermelon, a lunch special (and more), and then all week long they are thinking about us and how they’ve got to come back and get something else."

Paul Albani-Burgio covers breaking news and the City of Palm Springs. Follow him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and contact him via email at paul.albani-burgio@desertsun.com

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Springs' Lay’ Vince offers deli, lunch, mystery dinners