The new Sgt. Peffer's at 137th Street and Millard Avenue differs from the original Saddle Creek location in several ways, including the owner.

But on the basics -- the food, service and atmosphere -- the new location delivers the same kind of quality that fans of the nearly 20-year-old Saddle Creek business have come to expect.

In the new restaurant, there's a yellow submarine painted on the wall and a "Let It Be" poster in the lounge.

And Sgt. Peffer's original recipes are used for the selection of pizzas, pastas, seafood, signature sandwiches and other options.

It's not surprising, considering that owner Charlie Thompson was an 18-year employee at Sgt. Peffer's and worked for owner Tim Peffer at Pefferoni's for seven years before that.

Thompson knows how to make pizza Sgt. Peffer's style, and his family-heavy staff is welcoming and helpful. The restaurant's layout is a bit odd -- the lounge, with a bar, and the dining area, where you order from the counter, seem like separate bays. But the walls are festooned with a mix of Beatles material, local school logos, Italian maps and original framed artwork by members of Thompson's family.

The real art, of course, is the pizza. As part of an agreement with Peffer, Thompson got the Sgt. Peffer's recipes along with the name when he opened his store, and he re-creates them faithfully.

Our five-cheese red pizza ($13.95 for a large) featured provolone, parmesan, cheddar, mozzarella and romano atop a red pomarola sauce (crushed tomatoes and olive oil with basil, pepper and oregano) on a not-too-thin crust. The cheddar dominated the pizza visually -- looking a bit odd with its orangish-yellow color -- but the cheddar didn't dominate the melange of cheeses -- the mozzarella seemed strongest to me.

The vegetarian lasagna ($7.50) was rich and thick, and didn't suffer from its lack of meat. The initial bites were a bit salty, but that taste seemed to subside deeper into the dish. A robust tomato sauce (the pomarola, minus the oregano) covered the two pieces of lasagna, melding nicely with the ricotta cheese and spinach. The three layers of pasta gave the dish the traditional substance, but it seemed to melt in the mouth.

The salad with the lasagna was a traditional iceberg lettuce mixture including red cabbage and shredded carrots. It was chilled and included a hunk of broccoli and two large baby carrots. The house vinaigrette, red wine-based with Italian spices, was light and tangy.

The meatball sandwich ($5.25) was a hoagie bun loaded with big, mildly seasoned meatballs and dripping with sauce and melted mozzarella. It was a bit loose to pick up but went down nicely with the help of a fork. The pomarola sauce provided a sharp tomato flavor.

The Italian chili ($2.50) was a soupy, bean-heavy chili with mancini peppers, parsley, basil and ground beef and Italian sausage. The mancini peppers gave the dish a nice bite, and the spicy Italian sausage did give the chili a distinctively -though not powerfully -- different taste than traditional chili.

The children's spaghetti ($4.50) can be served with a red sauce or in a garlic-free Alfredo sauce, heavy cream and parmesan with black pepper. (The kids' menu also includes ravioli and homemade pizza.) And for dessert, there's a selection of cookie bars (49 cents to 99 cents) and brownies ($1.59), baked by Thompson's sister.

The total on the dinner meal was $22.47 before tip; a second lunch visit was $14.39. Sgt. Peffer's now has another location, but its fans will find it hasn't strayed far from the things that turned the Saddle Creek original into a big success.