Plum Tart. Who would have thought?

Lula Café (Logan Square) “Hmmm…Wonderful”, really that says it all. Margarite and I went out the weekend after my Birthday, to celebrate and catch up with each other after an eventful summer for the both of us, and Lula Café in Logan Square, Chicago was the perfect place to go for a mid- evening desert and coffee combination. This café is going on my ‘ Comfortably Chic’ restaurant list. I enjoyed it immensely. Lula’s is on Kedzie at Milwaukee and Logan Boulevard, it seems to be a neighborhood staple for a comfortable, laid back neighborhood café. This laid back atmosphere is not to say that this is…. Lets put it this way, Lula’s is the perfect blend of the casual and the sophisticated, without being stuffy or pretentious. Because the evening was a warm one, bistro tables ringed the door outside Lula’s, and as we approached, were greeted by a smiling hostess, dressed in an exceptional, lipstick red, a-line shirt-dress. The hostess let us through the outdoor space into the entry of Lula’s companion bar and after a moment hurried off to find us a table while we walked out past the patio seating to wait. I must say, that I’ve never really seen a slow day at Lula’s the several times I’ve walked by failed to stop in. And when I say failure I really mean it, this place is one that I plan on going to much more frequently and wish I’d discovered sooner. Well… that was a bit of a rabbit trail if I do say so and with that I think that I should move on to the food, the service and the interior. After waiting about a minute, maybe two, the Hostess returns motioning us to come closer as she asks if we minded sitting at the counter, and since neither Margarite nor I had any particular preference we said “sure! The counter is fine”. It was completely perfect, the counter stools weren’t too high and although some people might not enjoy sitting in front of the service counter, I enjoyed having a voyeuristic view into the inner workings of Lula’s kitchen, not to mention the fact that our waitress always checked in on us whenever she came through from assisting the many other satisfied people filling up every other table and chair in the whole space. I especially appreciated the fact that, although Margarite and I were only indulging in some coffee and dessert, we were given as much attention as any other party in the place and were continually met with smiles and friendly questions and conversations. As I just mentioned, Coffee and a shared dessert were what was on the plate, and since neither my friend or I’d ever been to Lula’s we decided to be a little daring and try something we’d never had before and after a bit of discussion and menu reading we decided on the Ricotta Plum Tart that is prepared with Klug farm plums and a limoncello zabaglione. Zabaglione- as I have learned, is a dessert or sauce made from egg yolks, sugar and whine or liqueur that is beaten until thick and is served hot or cold and apparently has Italian roots… and Limoncello is a sweet lemony Italian liqueur, which makes up the Liqueur portion of the dish. The crust of the tart was perfect… the plating was wonderful, and the presentation close to exceptional and with a plate that looks that good, it would make perfect sense that the dish would taste as good as it looked, if not better. The smoothness of the ricotta paired with the slight tartness of the plum was a wonderful thing. My only complaint was the coffee. It’s sad. Maybe I’ m biased, But given the fact that Intelligentsia Coffee is supposedly the best coffee place in the Chicago area, with 3 locations and a roasting facility where they roast their own ‘fresh’ beans, one would expect them to have the most amazing coffee, but unfortunately they didn’t impress me. In fact I did something that I’d never even think about doing at my coffee shop in Tulsa, I put cream and sugar in it! I know, I know. Most people wouldn’t bat an eye at this statement, but if you’ve ever had coffee at Doubleshot Coffee Co. you would know that it is almost sacrilegious to even consider putting these things in Doubleshot coffee, yes, it’s that good! Anyway, so the coffee was sub par, but… don’t let that stop you from being blown away,by Lula.