Comet Cafe - Milwaukee, WI

 

 

 

It had been a long time since I had been to Milwaukee, and it is pretty close so I decided to take a day trip.  There are a lot of Amtrak trains that run between Chicago and Milwaukee, so it was easy to arrange a trip that arrived in the morning and left in the evening that gave me enough time to see what I wanted to see. Milwaukee is much smaller than Chicago, so I could have walked to the different areas that I wanted to go, but there were some legs that would have been pretty long walks, so I decided to employ a shared bike a few times.  There are a lot of good off road bike paths that are able to get you where you want to go, so riding a bike was advantageous.  I was able to see some cool spots that I may want to visit in more depth, like the Milwaukee Art Museum and I was able to get where I wanted quickly and inexpensively.   Milwaukee has been known for beer forever and I was going to try some of that, but I figured that if I was going to do that, it would be smart to eat first.  It was recommended that I try out a place called The Comet Cafe, located in the Lower East Side.  It has been featured on both the Travel Channel and on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, so I expected that the food would be good and even a little offbeat.  The shared bike parking was a few blocks away, but it's a nice neighborhood with a lot of art on the walls and light traffic.  Walking up to the building, I was very happy to see a lot of bike parking which I will have to file for future reference for when I come back on another day trip.  Walking in, it retains its retro look.  The entrance is on the corner of the building and the dining area is L-shaped with a counter/bar on the inside of both sides of the L.  In front of the restaurant is patio dining.  There are tables in front of the window on the inside at the front  and booths behind the counter as you walk toward the back of the restaurant.  There is a Specials Board featuring both savory specials and what cupcakes and pies are on the menu for today.  There were several sweets that sounded good, but as I was already going to have a high calorie day, I decided to wave off and just get brunch.

For brunch, I was looking for something hearty and some fruit.  Luckily they had both.  I also had coffee and Orange Juice.  I was very happy with their Fruit Bowl which contained a lot of seasonal fruit, Strawberries, Blackberries, Raspberries, Blueberries, and Bananas.  I was especially happy to see that the fruit bowl contained no canteloupe.  What was there was fresh and goodand involved no picking through (because I really dislike canteloupe).  For the savory portion of my brunch, I had what they called a Commuter Sandwich.  I will guess that it was called that because it has everything that you might want in a good breakfast in sandwich form, which is good for a commuter.  The standard sandwich has eggs, either scrambled or fried, I went for Scrambled, and Cheddar Cheese , on Grilled Multi-Grain Bread.  You could also add Grilled Ham, Sausage, or Bacon, and I added bacon.  The sandwich was also served with Hashbrowns on the side.  This is a little bit of a fail in reference to the commuter, but I wasn't commuting anyway and they were crispy, buttery (actually everything was cooked in butter), and very good.  This was filling, a lot of fun to eat, very good, and I will definitely return, so I can try some of their pie.