A coffee and sandwich shop has opened in what was once M&M Diner on Franklin and 11th Street in Michigan City.

Brew Box is in the shadow of the new apartment building going up near the 11th Street South Shore train station. Michelle Dickman, who owns it along with partners Levi McDowell and Joseph Tagler, has also just opened a Brew Box in the lobby of The Banc, a bank reimagined as apartments and an event space in Hammond. Dickman also owns Downtown Delights yogurt shop in LaPorte.

Dickman has pastries delivered to Brew Box from Dolce Art, a coffee shop in Chicago. There are muffins, cornettos (an Italian croissant), cookies, and panini, including a couple egg sandwiches.

M&M opened in 1956 in what is called a Valentine Diner, a a prefab, mail-order small restaurant manufactured in Wichita, Kansas, after the Great Depression. The buildings were named after Arthur Valentine, a lunch room operator who came up with the idea as a way to serve drivers taking to the U.S.’s new interstate system. It’s thought that fewer than 100 of the Valentines survive today; most are in Kansas and elsewhere in the midwest.

The one in Michigan City, after serving as a diner for many years under a few owners and names, saw its original diner fixtures torn out when it was converted to a barber shop in the 1990s. It then stood vacant since 2002.

Brew Box’s owners have restored the exterior and interior, though instead of vinyl diner booths, there are a benches, a few stools, tables and chairs and lots of outlets for charging phones. The small shop is bright and airy; it feels a bit like you’re in a train car. The owners obviously are counting on business from commuters getting on the South Shore train but it’s a great quick stop for anyone wanting a hot cup of joe.

Brew Box, on Franklin St. at 11th, is open weekdays from 6 am to 4 pm; weekends from 7 am to 3 pm.