In the startling realization that the next few months may very well be our last in the Land of Brew, my good bud Will and I decided to embark on a local food tour for the rest of the semester in one last lunging attempt to try new tastes and spend some quality time with our dear old friend Milwaukee.

Our first week on the hunt took us to Cafe Lulu in Bayview. Both of us had heard of the place from a couple friends but had never ventured in.

When we first went in, we were greeted by a mid-century diner-esque atmosphere with a few small tables and a bar. Orange and white highlights. Not many souls to speak of. We had been sitting down at the bar for a couple minutes before Will noticed an open doorway leading to a much larger adjacent room and we walked over to check out. We were both glad we did.

The atmosphere was pretty hip, jive, stellar and the sunlight from outside made the room feel like an enormous outdoor café, sans the warm breeze of summer. We’d made it a point at the outset to try new things and order restaurant specialties, so we took our waitress’s advice and ordered a couple of the house classics.

I ordered the East Indian Chicken Pita with chips and Asian slaw. Totally great! One for the books!

Mmmmm. Yummy. (photo courtesy of Will’s Instagram)

Will ordered the Moroccan Chicken Sandwich which the waitress recommended, but noted that she wasn’t a big fan of the cheese it came with. Her warning was enough for me to order something else, but good grief was I sore with her afterwards because I had a bite of Will’s sandwich and it was absolutely tremendous. Next time, big guy…

Overall, Cafe Lulu rocks. On top of its funky character, the food is really top of the line. We both agreed it was a pretty great “first” to check off our list.

We’ll be making our way north and trying something new every Friday for the next few months. This week we went to Honey Pie – more on that next week…