LuLu, I love you

I don't really know Lulu, or even know if there is a Lulu but I've just returned from Lulu's Cafe and I had one of the best meals I've ever had. 90% of that was the food, the other 10% was the atmosphere, service and the solitude. I'm in Milwaukee tonight, in town for some training and I'm by myself again. I have no siblings so I really like spending time alone when I get the chance. I was here a few weeks ago with a colleague and instead of finding something interesting to do we played the "I don't care, what do you want to do?" game. We made the best of it but we really should have eaten better. This time I did some research beforehand and found out that MilVinMoto meets at this place called Lulu's cafe on Tuesday nights. I missed the bike night night but decided to go down to that neighborhood and see what all the cool kids were doing. Lulu's is in the Bayview area of Milwaukee. That's the kind of neighborhood I like to find in a big city. The place where all the queers and freaks hang out. My people. There's always good food, bookstores, coffee shops, interesting people. You know, groovy man. Meanwhile, back at Lulu's... The place is split into two areas, one side is a bar with a lot of restaurant seating and the other is a small, quiet lunch counter type deal. I went into the quiet side with my new copy of BIKE. There were some pretty cool tunes playing, too. At one point, I heard the theme from Rockford Files followed up by a Sugarcubes song. My kind of place. I started out with a cup of the soup of the day which was spinach artichoke. I didn't think I'd like it but I was feeling adventuresome so what the hell. The soup was out before I could even crack the magazine and WOW what a soup it was. I ordered the Mooney Blue which is a tuna steak sandwich that came with a side of slaw or chips or a combo of both. I chose the slaw, more on that in a minute. The sandwich was a nice big steak cooked to order with a mildly spicy seasoning and some very tasty bleu cheese sauce. The sauce was on the side and had just a touch of the bleu flavor for those who don't really dig the sharp flavor. The sandwich was damn good, almost as good as the soup. The slaw that came on the side was freaking amazing. It's an Asian slaw with your standard cabbage and carrots but also had ramen noodles and peanuts and had a wonderful sesame flavor. I know that sounds gross. Trust me, if you are in Milwaukee or are going you'd be a fool not to go to Lulu's just for the slaw. That shit rocks. Oh, and the chips are big thick homemade chips, not something out of a bag. (Not that bag chips are bad, they do sort of pay my mortgage and all. ) This was all well and good, but the best was yet to come. Pie. Not just any pie, either. Made that day fresh, fruit pies. My waitress, the lovely Rita, rattled off the list and when she got to rhubarb I almost fell off the chair. I had a bit of a wait for my pie but it came out on a dinner plate as a man sized piece of pie, warm with powdered sugar and two scoops of vanilla bean ice cream. (I ordered the ice cream with the pie but the additional scoop was a surprise). Of course, the pie was killer. The only thing that could have made the experience any better was if I had ridden my bike.