Fresh Tastes at Lisa Marie's Are a Testament to a Memory

Lisa Marie’s Café nestles like a hidden oasis in the former lounge area of the Forty Winks Inn at 11017 W. Blue Mound Rd.

The cozy café opened in June, two years after Laurel Red Cloud and her daughter, Lisa Marie, started talking about opening just such a business and perhaps offering in-home cooking classes.

“We were going to team up and wow the world,“ Red Cloud said.

Red Cloud, however, opened the café without Lisa Marie, who was killed in a traffic accident in September 2009, scant months after they began their café planning earlier that summer. The café is named in her daughter’s honor.

“It’s more than just a little café,” said Red Cloud’s husband, Robert Penny, who helps in the kitchen.

The focus at Lisa Marie’s is on simple things. Fresh ingredients. Artisan breads. No preservatives. No artificial substitutes, only real butter, real cream.

The soups, salad dressings, sauces, oatmeal, grilled chicken, bruschetta, quiche, pecan caramel rolls and more all are made fresh from scratch. There is no frying – not for the grilled cheese, the bacon or the French toast – so the café’s offerings have a healthier bent, Red Cloud said, like she and her daughter envisioned when chatting about their café plans.

“We’re going to be true to what she wanted,” Red Cloud said. “Sometimes, I can feel her smiling.”

Her daughter’s ideas and spirit have come to life within the new enterprise, although Red Cloud doesn’t dwell on the past inspiration in realizing this revised dream. She and Penny share a common outlook on this and other aspects of life – that it is important to look forward rather than remain mired in the past.

Or, as each would say in some way on a variety of current-day topics with some type of history, “That was then. This is now, and we have to go forward.”

Growing the gourmet focus

Red Cloud said she plans to offer gourmet coffees and teas, and for now is providing patrons with sample tea tastings to learn their preferences. The new coffees and teas will come as the restaurant grows and gains firmer footing.

“It’s all baby steps, with the economy and with the road construction” on West Blue Mound that began two weeks before the restaurant opened and will continue through its first six months of business, Red Cloud said. “It’s not quite as busy as we like.”

But Red Cloud is not worried. She said it is merely a matter of time until people learn about the small restaurant housed in lounge space that sat empty for nearly 15 years.

“People aren’t used to anyone being in here,” Red Cloud said.

Red Cloud, born of Sicilian parents and adopted by Chief Red Cloud’s family of the Sioux Nation in South Dakota nearly two decades ago, said the restaurant business is in her blood. Her parents opened one of Milwaukee’s first pizza restaurants in 1957, Francesca’s, which closed in the mid 1980s.

“That is how I got my start,” Red Cloud said.

She has been a caterer and operated an outdoor restaurant and food stands at festivals, among other ventures, before opening Lisa Marie’s Café. Marcia Thekan, the restaurant’s main server, has been with Red Cloud for 12 years, and is confident the café will be a success.

“They know how to run a high-volume business,” Thekan said. “This place will make it.”

The café, decorated in warm hues with Native American art, a fountain and a twin-faced fireplace, seats 20 in the lower level dining room, plus another eight at a former bar converted as café counter. The upper counter area has become a popular perch for regulars who gather to chat and sip coffee, juice and other non-alcohol beverages. There also is room in the upper area that can be set up for parties of up to 12.

Cuisine earns rave reviews

Lisa Marie Café is open for breakfast and lunch, from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. week days, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays, and 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. Sundays. Prices range from $3.95, for “oatmeal your way,” to $9.95 for a breakfast or lunch entrée that feature beef tenderloin.

Breakfast offerings range from French toast baked in a creamy custard, to eggs Benedict. The lunch menu includes spinach, Mediterranean and Asian salads; “grown-up” grilled cheese made with blue cheese, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes and Kalamata olives; and chicken, salmon, turkey and beef tenderloin baguette sandwiches, with a Friday fish special of baked cod. Each dish has a gourmet flare, even the egg salad, which is served with a lemon caper mayonnaise on grilled bread brushed with rosemary oil.

Those who have discovered the restaurant are quick to offer rave reviews, a few of which can be seen on the café’s Facebook wall.

Red Cloud is pleased with the praise, but modest, preferring to let her actions – and her food – speak for her. Penny and Thekan are quick to fill in when Red Cloud falls quiet.

“Eating is a necessary thing, and since it is a necessary thing, we should try to make it as pleasant as possible,” Penny said.

Red Cloud is not shy to point out one of the most important things offered and experienced at the café: warm and genuine hospitality. It is noted on a sign upon entering the restaurant and it tops the menu: “Enter as guests. Leave as friends.”

Although the café may be off to a slower start than expected due to the Blue Mound road construction, Red Cloud said, the measured start has allowed for a deliberate easing into the space and business operations.

“Everything is tight. We’re making our rent. We’re buying our food. We’re paying our people,” Red Cloud said. “I think once all this (construction) is done, I think we’ll be OK. We’re going to ride the storm.”