If the great inventor Thomas Edison would have come up with this first, we would never have the lightbulb. Picture this: You order a shake. It comes in a cup with a straw, and — I advise you to sit down for this part — the straw has cookies on it. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it too, but apparently it is one of the features of a new chain sandwich and dessert shop that plans to open on 23rd Street.

Plans have been filed at City Hall for Potbelly Sandwich Shop at 1618 W. 23rd St., which currently is the location of Dunn Brothers Coffee.

My understanding is that Potbelly is a big deal in Chicago, where it got its start as a mom-and-pop sandwich shop that started in an antique store. Sandwiches are its main thing, but it also has a dessert menu, and I would have my journalistic credentials revoked if I didn’t immediately share information about straws with cookies on them. Here’s a picture:

As for the sandwiches, the hook there is that they are all toasted. The menu is full of traditional offerings, such as turkey, roast beef, meatball, an Italian, and a chicken salad that the restaurant says is made on site each day. But the restaurant also offers a few that you may not find at other chain restaurants, such as a grilled chicken Mediterranean with hummus, artichoke hearts, feta cheese and several other ingredients. The restaurant also offers a special brand of sandwich called a Skinny. It features less meat and cheese and skinnier bread. The selling point is that each sandwich is under 400 calories.

The restaurant also offers a half-dozen salads, including a few that are beyond the ordinary, such as a chickpea veggie salad and an “Uptown Salad” that includes grilled chicken, grapes, apples, dried cranberries, candied walnuts and blue cheese. Soups also are on the menu, and the breakfast menu features breakfast sandwiches and steel cut oatmeal.

The company’s website also touts that each restaurant is a bit different too. I noted that the original restaurant was started by a couple who owned an antique shop and started selling sandwiches to their noontime customers. As a result, each restaurant now has a little bit of an antique store look. In addition, the website indicates that most restaurants typically have live music at various times, often during the lunch hour.

As for the Potbelly part of the name, every restaurant in the chain includes a potbelly stove. (This is much better than how I tried to pull off the concept. I had no idea a potbelly pig could become so unruly, especially around the sight of bacon.)

The restaurant chain expanded into Kansas City a couple of years ago. The closest locations are in Overland Park and Mission.

No word yet on when the Lawrence restaurant will open. The project needs to win some site plan approvals to do a small addition onto the building. Plans call for about a 360 square-foot addition to the dining area, an approximately 600 square-foot patio area and changes to the configuration of the drive-thru lane.

As for Dunn Brothers Coffee, there is a sign on the door saying the business has lost its lease. It says the shop’s last day of business will be June 24. The sign makes no mention of a new Lawrence location for Dunn Brothers, which has been open in the location for a little more than 10 years.

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In other news and notes from around town:

• There is other news on the cookie front. Hot Box Cookies has closed its store in downtown Lawrence and has reopened inside The Oread hotel at 1200 Oread Ave. In case you have forgotten, Hot Box Cookies was located at 732 Massachusetts St. I have no official word about what will locate in that space, but word on the street says to keep our eyes open for a wing-oriented restaurant. I’ll let you know if I hear more.

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• If you have been in the Oread neighborhood lately, you perhaps have noticed a few yellow yard signs that the city requires to be placed on property when new development has been proposed. When I say a few signs, I mean 308.

There are yellow signs everywhere in the Oread neighborhood currently, but, no, plans have not been filed to build a giant cookie factory in the historic neighborhood. Instead, new design guidelines have been proposed for the neighborhood. Actually, the design guidelines already have been approved once, but city officials realized after the fact that they had not met the letter of the law when it came to notifying residents of the proposed changes. City code requires the yellow signs to be posted on property that will be affected by zoning or development code changes. That wasn’t done the first time the design guidelines were heard. If the city placed a yellow sign at every property in the Oread neighborhood, that would be several thousand signs. My understanding is city officials have determined that placing a sign at every intersection in the neighborhood will meet the requirement. More specifically, every corner of every intersection has been the thought process. That means that there are eight signs at every intersection.

In case you are wondering, the signs advertise public hearings that will take place in June and July about the design guidelines.

Although the design guidelines were approved previously, there was dissent, especially from some landlords. Concerns were raised about parking requirements and zoning regulations that would limit the number of residents in each home.

• A quick housekeeping note: Town Talk will not appear on Friday. I’ll be conducting experiments with straws, cookies, yellow signs and an overly perturbed potbelly pig. I hope to return on Monday.