It would be misleading to call Andre's Lounge one of Toledo's best-kept secrets, seeing as how there's a Standing Room Only crowd every weekday at lunch. Still, the bar-restaurant, located almost obscurely at Summit and Magnolia streets on the edge of downtown Toledo, keeps a low profile. It's safe to say that no matter how crowded things get at lunchtime, lots of people have yet to discover what a gem this place is.

For years, regular customers have sung the praises of Andre's to anyone who will listen. They talk about the long list of sandwiches on the menu, but they especially carry on about their favorite soups - from the "You've-got-to-have" seafood bisque to the "Oh-my-God" black bean & ham to the "Don't-fail-to-order" tomato soup.

The business, owned by Douglas (Andre) Staelos, is more bar than restaurant - a narrow room dominated by a bar that runs parallel to a long row of tables and chairs. A couple of dusty old midget roadsters hang from the walls amid the neon beer signs. At the back, near the restrooms, is a small dining area with a fireplace and an old-fashioned underwater diving suit overhead.

Staring down at the customers are sculptured busts of celebrities, fashioned from plastic wood by the late artist Eddie York, whose work also hangs at Mugshots bar, just a few blocks south. These you can idly peruse while waiting for a seat during the heavy lunchtime traffic.

Sandwiches, priced from $4.75 to $5.25, number in the dozens and, like the soups, can be ordered all day long. Use your imagination: Roast beef, corned beef, grilled cheese, fried bologna, turkey reuben, BLTs; egg salad, tuna salad, and chicken salad; coney dogs, and a so-so grilled hamburger for $5.25

(served only after 3 p.m. weekdays and all day Saturday). All are stacked high, accompanied by a dill pickle and a mountain of marcelle chips.

But the stock-in-trade is the soups, which are a big bargain at $2.20 a cup or $2.70 a bowl. The menu changes daily, but judging by several visits, you probably can't go wrong with whatever's burbling on the kitchen's back burners when you arrive.

Particularly impressive was the black bean and ham soup, the essence of Tex-Mex flavor with spicy vegetables and a nice dollop of sour cream. New England clam chowder, silky rather than sludgy, bobbed with clams. The chicken noodle overflowed with so much celery, carrots, onions, and chunks of chicken that the ingredients almost displaced the broth. And then there was the rich, highly touted seafood bisque which the barmaid candidly told us was topped with imitation crab meat. Still, I'd order it again.

But my favorite turned out to be the cream of mushroom soup, a sumptuous bowl that seemed filled with more mushrooms than grow in all the fertile woodlands of northern Michigan. What a feast of texture and earthy flavor.

Paying for your food is done on the honor system - you tell the bartender what you had and he'll ring it up.

Big warning: Andre's does not honor credit cards. The only accepted currency is cash or a personal check.

First Published January 2, 2004, 12:28 p.m.