Kevin A. Roberts
When her name is Lola, you expect, well, a showgirl. And around the start of the year, when Lola traipsed into the downtown digs that had been home to Crepes in the City, a delish spot that inexplicably managed to both be remarkably popular and woefully underperform, well, you couldn’t help wondering whether her chow would stack up. And when Lola got herself a website on which she come-hitheringly referred to herself in the third person—“Lola loves to sip, Lola loves to taste,” la-di-da, et cetera—well, you started to worry that maybe Lola was a bit bonkers.
What Lola is: a friendly, cozy, casual eatery, topcoated with an urbane sheen, courtesy of a number of clever menu items that similarly boast flashes of panache.
A starter of mussels Pernod, to wit, presents a plentiful portion of Prince Edward Island bivalves bathed in a sweet, delicate broth that’s spiked with anise liqueur. A rarity around these parts, though not an entirely unheard of dish, mussels Pernod is often served with a cream sauce, rather than a clear broth. The former is my favorite, as the cream mellows out the Pernod’s pungent flavor. Yet somehow at Lola, the liqueur doesn’t throw the broth off balance, and the whole of the dish succeeds quite well, stocked as it is with cherry tomatoes, fennel, and shallots.
The polenta fries are another obvious example of Lola’s whimsy: square-sided two-by-fours of lip-smacking, deep-fried cornmeal that are just begging to be dipped into something. It was a bummer that their only accompaniment was a neat mound of ratatouille. I didn’t really want to put a knife and fork to my fries and politely ask them to share tine space with stewed vegetables. I wanted to roughhouse with ’em, push ’em around a ramekin of something tangy and spry. (I would’ve happily made do with one of the three aiolis that come with the pommes frites—roasted garlic, tandoor, and tarragon—which combine forces, superhero-style, to elevate everyday French fries into an event.) Basically, these polenta fries were so cute I wanted to actually play with them (and then, yes, definitely eat them). Clever execution doesn’t get much better than that.
Perhaps as a shout-out to Crepes in the City, or perhaps because crepes are an “in” item right now, or perhaps just because Crepes in the City left some crepe-making equipment behind, Lola’s got crepes. They are good, and they’ve gotten better since Lola opened. I had a mediocre one many months ago made with asparagus and pancetta; this combo seems to have been swapped out for the Athena, a crepe that has a lot going for it—and by a lot, I mean sautéed lobster to accompany the asparagus. The Athena seems to be the lone menu item that still comes topped with what was once a frustratingly omnipotent “Lola sauce,” which is pretty much a roux in showgirl’s clothing, and which works very well with the velvety lobster.
For a neighborhood spot—albeit one that certainly deserves a destination visit—Lola’s bill of fare is extensive, chock-full of quirky goodies that I’m still eager to try: spanakopita-stuffed portabella, New Zealand lamb “lollies,” a lobster-tail corn dog sided with mac and cheese (which indeed seems too good to be true). Sometimes the trouble with idiosyncrasies is that, much like showgirls, they’re better left to the imagination.
So far, though, Lola lives up to her name.
The Bottom Line: Have your quirk and eat it, too.
500 N. 14th
Downtown
314-621-7277
Lunch Tue–Fri, brunch Sat & Sun,
dinner Mon–Sun
Average Main Course: $15
