Comet Cafe Freshens Up With New Menu

Comet Cafe is a notable eatery here in Milwaukee, situated on Oakland Avenue, just up from the bars of Brady Street. The restaurant has won over a dozen awards and been featured on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. But the Milwaukee staple is also not afraid to make changes to its tried and true formula, and recently overhauled their menu.

New Comet Cafe menu items include several vegan options such as the French Dunk and a return of some classic items that were popular with vegan diners in the past, like the Vegan Gyro. The waitstaff is eager to serve these new and returning options.

Kyle Linehan is an assistant manager and chef at Comet Cafe. He says the changes to the menu keep things interesting for diners and staff.

“It’s just nice to keep things fresh,” he said. “We switch our products up once a year by looking at what isn’t selling super well.”

“It stirs up some excitement, and brings in new customers. Plus it makes it more interesting for us cooks in the back.”

Since menu items that are new are responsible for the buzz around the restaurant,  the staff has had difficulty keeping some items available all day, which is good news for the business, but not so much for diners. One such ingredient is the seitan used in the French Dunk.

Seitan is a wheat gluten meat substitute, colloquially called ‘wheat meat’ to some. The product is made by mashing wheat flour and water to eliminate all of the starch, leaving a stringy and somewhat elastic compound meant to simulate the texture and flavor of meat, most often duck.

Seitan is a popular meat replacement here at Comet, but it’s not the only option. Hazelnut based ‘meat’ patties and porcini mushrooms are other savory selections that can replace many of the meats in Comet’s dishes.

The French Dunk consists of blistered red peppers, sautéed mushrooms, and caramelized onions. The seitan is sliced thin to imitate the texture and style of roast beef you would find on a standard French dip sandwich. Vegan au jus is served alongside it, and the liquid serves the same use it would in a French dip, soaking into the lightly toasted Italian roll and amplifying the meaty flavors.

 

 

Not every adjustment is welcome, though. Several salad options left the menu, along with the Colonel Comet Chicken sandwich. One of the more divisive changes to the menu was the replacement of the Big Johnson Burger with the new Big Boss Burger. The new burger features lettuce, tomatoes, onions and pickles, topped with thousand island dressing, akin to a Big Mac.

“I just hope they didn’t get rid of the burger,” said Jared Cohen, a student at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, “I used to love that.”

Linehan says the burger didn’t change as much as some customers fear. “The only real difference is the sauce, which used to be a vegan mayo spread, is a more traditional burger sauce now, and it has pickles.”

Alongside the new permanent menu changes, Comet is offering some limited time cupcakes that feature Girl Scout cookies, now that cookie sales are booming with local troops. The two available varieties are Caramel Delite and Thin Mint. Both cupcakes, like all the desserts on the Comet Cafe menu, are baked every day by two women who supply the restaurant to meet demand. Because of this, Linehan said the availability of these Girl Scout cupcakes is very up-in-the-air, but the restaurant sells around two cases of them weekly.

The restaurant isn’t just popular with locals, either. A University of Wisconsin Madison student, Jenna Mann, has made a ritual with her dad to visit the popular diner.

“After my first roller derby practice, my dad took me there,” she said. “We got the poutine, which I loved, and their godly bacon.”

The bacon at Comet isn’t just godly to Mann- the restaurant’s neon signs proudly boast BACON alongside DRINKS and FOOD.

Speaking of drinks, one thing that hasn’t changed with these menu adjustments is the cocktail selections. Diners who like to have a drink with their meal can find options from the Ale Asylum and New Glarus breweries on tap and in bottles every night.

Comet Cafe is at 1947 N Farwell Avenue, and if you want a table, you’ll have to go in person. The restaurant kitchen is open till midnight seven days a week, and the bar is open until 2 am if you’re in the neighborhood looking for award winning food and drink.