Logan Square's Farm-to-Table Reference
Lula Cafe on Kedzie Boulevard is the Logan Square farm-to-table room that helped define the modern Chicago neighbourhood-restaurant format. James Beard recognition has followed; the kitchen continues to source from named Midwestern producers.
The cooking is seasonal Midwestern American with a confident regional sourcing thesis: vegetables from named farms, considered protein cookery, the kind of weekly-changing menu that rewards regular visits.
What to Order
The farm dinner on Monday nights — a fixed price, multi-course, single-farm celebration that has become a Lula Cafe institution. The seasonal pasta; vegetable-forward starters; the brunch on weekends.
The Format
The dining room is unfussy and warm. Counter seating handles solo diners and walk-ins; the dining room takes reservations. The Logan Square neighbourhood handles a post-dinner walk along Kedzie Boulevard's trees.
Best Occasion: First Date
Lula Cafe is one of Chicago's most natural first-date rooms. The neighbourhood register, the farm-to-table thesis, the unhurried pacing combine into the kind of evening the city's better neighbourhood rooms have always done well.