For four years, Steven Zobel’s tiny theater-district restaurant, Triomphe, has served refined, seasonal dishes in its two jewel-like rooms. In February, Mr. Zobel opened a very different restaurant on the Lower East Side. Zozo’s menu (which is printed on metal and hangs above the counter) is largely limited to sandwiches and fresh fruit juices; it was inspired by a trip to Brazil, where grilled meats and juice bars are ubiquitous.

Zozo’s occupies a prime corner on Orchard and Stanton streets, which is quiet during the day but positively throngs at night with well-coiffed bar-goers. The restaurant does primarily to-go business, handing off bulging white bags of hot sandwiches to hungry young couples and groups, but there are a few tables and a comfortable banquette that wraps around the colorfully painted back wall. The floor-to-ceiling glass windows that run the length of the restaurant are thrown open on clement days, for a breezy, communal effect.

The concept is simple and smart – fast food, cooked to order from good ingredients – and the execution is excellent. Zozo’s sandwiches come in four basic breeds: burgers ($7), steak ($9), chicken ($7.50), and portobello-eggplant ($7). The burger, modest in size, has excellent juicy flavor, and comes on an English muffin whose resilience complements the tender beef. A long, firm roll suffices for the others. After a few experiments, the kitchen seems to have settled on New York strip as its steak of choice, a fine cut for grilling, with a fine taste-texture balance. Free-range chicken breast, likewise grilled with a mildly seasoned exterior, is moister and tastier than most chicken. The grilled vegetables, too, have very good, almost meaty flavor and firm texture.

Each sandwich can be dressed up in a handful of mix-and-matchable ways. A plain layer of Swiss or cheddar cheese suits the burger nicely, while a salty Cajun-style blackening, accompanied with a peppery pink mayonnaise, is most appropriate for the chicken. Smearing with chipotle sauce and layering with strips of avocado can hardly help but make any sandwich more delicious, and one other treatment, involving smoky/spicy North African harissa and sweet mango chutney, gives a faintly exotic panache to anything it touches.

A couple of other sandwiches add some variety: “very spicy Brazilian cube steak” ($9) is generously doused in a delicious tomato based hot sauce that’s not shockingly spicy but probably fiery enough for most casual eaters. A chicken salad sandwich ($6.75) makes a cool alternative to all the cooked dishes; it’s a pretty straightforward one, clean tasting and creamy, with just a splash of truffle oil to show the chef’s uptown roots.

The excellent side dishes ($3.75) are worth ordering even in the absence of a sandwich. Hot french fries, tossed with parsley and garlic, have a fine crunch; big, battered onion rings do too, and retain quite a bit of onion character as well. A dip of buttermilk batter before frying enlivens both broccoli and green beans; the latter especially, where it gives each fresh-tasting bean a beautifully crisp, light shell; they may be the best thing the restaurant does.

Zozo’s drinks (all $3.75) each consist of a fruit juice blended with milk, water, or soy milk, and ice. Any richness comes from the milk and fruit. Banana is a highlight, as is the mint shake and the pina colada. The avocado shake is very rich and sweetened, Brazilian style, where the fruit is typically treated that way. Fresh, refreshing, and sweet, these shakes could only be better if more of Brazil’s variety of tropical produce made it to Orchard Street.

Kyria Tokash, who is married to Mr. Zobel and works as a pastry chef at Le Tableau, makes an array of interesting ice creams for Zozo’s: salty-sweet white chocolate and pretzel; scintillating kiwi; and pure, exquisite cafe au lait. These are served in cups or cones ($3.50), or, best, in a sundae ($5.50), where scoops are layered on top of Ms. Tokash’s tiny hot doughnuts. The sugared, doorknob-sized donettes can be bought by the bag as well ($1.25 for four; $3.25 for a dozen).

The restaurant has some misses, to be sure: the soupy creamed spinach is more like spinached cream, and one chicken salad sandwich contained an objectionable modicum of gristle. But Zozo’s is a very welcome addition to the neighborhood, and any glitches are minor. The formula of sandwiches, sides, and shakes, all made to order, works excellently. Mr. Zobel’s cooking, which is simple and pure in Times Square, is even more stripped down here: fresh, pleasing flavors and no unneeded complexity.

Zozo’s Juice and Grille, 172 Orchard St., 212-228-0009.