Review Mon Jun 15 2009

Don't You Forget About Me, Says Lula

Even though fans of Lula Cafe are heading down to the restaurant's newest southward incarnation, Pilsen's Nightwood, DT staffer Andie and I sat down to dinner tonight at Lula for a bite of what made this restaurant so good in the first place, and weren't disappointed.

We started off with a spinach salad with baby fennel, egg, grilled spring onions, and romesco; the dish was a bit small for the $10 cost, but the tradeoff of quality ingredients was obvious. Lula's gone a bit crazy with plating sauces in a bold, paint stroke-like motion at the base of dishes--the look of both the salad and seafood appetizer that we ordered reminded me of a very cool t-shirt that I used to wear in the 80s. But I liked the 80s, right?

I also ordered an asparagus soup with Oregon morels and hazelnut appetizer, as I am fond of Lula's theatrical presentation for its soups: in this case, a wide, shallow bowl with a fussy diorama of nuts and herbs that is placed on the table for your adoring eyes, followed by the awkward gesture of the server flooding the scene with soup poured from a dainty little pitcher (this is the new Bananas Foster, I guess). The soup itself was a beautiful bright green, although the nutty tones of the dish overpowered the asparagus. Like everything at this place, it eats.

After finishing the meal with a dessert of sheep's milk cheesecake with dried apricot and basil, we looked around and saw that the perimeter of the patio was quickly filling up with people waiting for a table. Well, not everyone's up for the trip to Pilsen just yet.

In related news, Lula recently launched a blog that lists wine pairings for their Monday Night Farm Dinner, and chefs/owners Jason Hammel and Amalea Tschilds will be giving a cooking demonstration at Saturday's Green City Market.

— Robyn Nisi / Comments (4)