When I asked my friend Elizabeth, who has been in Chi-town for about 10 years, what her favorite restaurant was, she told me about Lula Cafe in Logan Square.
Now Elizabeth is way cooler than me, in a Wicker Park-hipster kind of way. As I looked into Lula (which is oft referred to as Cafe Lula, Lulu Cafe, etc.) I thought I really might not be beatnik enough to get served here. So with Elizabeth in tow for some street cred, we went for lunch on a weekday afternoon.
A word about timing. We walked right in and were promptly seated only because we arrived at 2pm on a Tuesday. On a weekend at the bewitching brunch hour, expect a wait of an hour plus, and a receptionist who will look at you in a way that will let you know what she thinks about you. That drawback aside, the crowd is here for a reason. The food is amazing.
Lula has a few different option for the menu. There is a brunch menu (Tom Colicchio of Top Chef fame said it was the best brunch he's ever had...apparently he ordered the stuffed french toast...I knew you would wonder), a cafe menu served all day, and a separate dinner menu. There is also a special Farm Dinner on Monday nights when the chef puts together a tasting of what is the freshest at the moment. The menus change seasonally depending what's available locally. Many (most?) of the ingredients come from independent farms. Liz and I decided to share a couple of dishes so I could see what this joint was really all about.
Other than the icy hostess (experienced on a later visit) I really don't have anything bad to say about this place. The waitstaff was attentive and friendly... particularly because we sat there for about three hours chatting over mugs of coffee, which they gladly refilled about every 3 minutes. The room was interesting. The ever-changing menu piqued my curiosity. And the food. Oh, the food.
We had a beet bruschetta with goat cheese that brought a tear to my eye. We followed it up with a slow-cooked pork breakfast burrito (off the brunch menu) and risotto with a 60-minute egg (which was beautifully cooked and had the consistently of custard. Yum.) There were PERFECT pea shoots on the risotto, and when I mentioned how much I loved them to the waiter, he told me that one of the sous chefs grew them in his garden. Shut. Up. (Footnote, this was a little "commune-y" to me, but yet crazy delicious.) For dessert, we tried a shockingly fresh-tasting apple sorbet and and a stupid-good carrot cake. For all the food we ordered, the bill was very reasonable.
Walk...no RUN... to Kedzie Blvd. and check this place out. You really won't be disappointed.
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