Lunch for One
3 min readOct 15, 2020
Find yourself having gotten off work early? Is it a lovely fall day in Wisconsin? One of the last of the year? If I may suggest, go out for a lunch for one. I find myself at Uncle Wolfie’s Breakfast Tavern (also serving evening dinner). Although like all small local restaurants it recently has faced tough times at the hands of COVID-19, it along with its humble employees have pushed onward. The inside may be closed to the public, but you can still walk up to the window, order, and enjoy right alongside the historic cream brick building as bistro sets line the sidewalk. I find it amusing that this is my first experience lunching at the Tavern, considering I’ve lived less than a block away from it for several months now. In the back of my mind perhaps I was fearful and weary. I didn’t want my first experience to be tarnished by the unfortunate but necessary standards and precautions that COVID has set in place. Takeout only served in a classic cardboard box with plastic wrapped utensils. Not ideal (but better than styrofoam and worth the go). Go at it alone. Why? Because food can be intimate. Least it be squabbled by noisy interruption and forced conversation. When you’re by yourself, there isn’t anything to get in the way. You bring your own atmosphere and you can settle in. Cappuccino in hand, I settle in with my reading, the page being perfectly illuminated by the warming sun. I wait patiently, excitedly to hear my name called. The Big McAllister and fries. Two patties with onion, pickle, cheese, lettuce, special sauce, bacon—on a sesame seed bun. More than delicious. The fries golden brown, crisply fried with flakes of paprika and other seasoning, fluffy and potatoey still, inside. I devoured the beast. Sitting back I feel warmed. More than the sun on my face, more than my stomach full, there’s an aura of calm and an aroma of food yet explored (waiting to be experienced) which linger peacefully. The walk-up counter providing just enough of a whiff of the scented aroma of a well seasoned kitchen, open to view from the bar and even the street. Beautiful smelling olive oil and onions, the soft background of freshly brewed espresso. A staff not too modest to recognize a place that’s got it. A place that knows it’ll last, however painfully and enduringly through this hellish time. The food is just that good. My meal finished I linger, too, reading away into the late afternoon. Stay long enough and without much effort you might be lulled into staying for a five o’clock happy hour drink. What could be better than that? (With breakfast dishes ranging from citrus berry French toast, to dark meat only chicken sandwich, and genial takes on salads (ex; the “you CAN make friends with salad"—pickled blueberries, sunflower shoots, ginger roosted sweet onions, toasted pecans, fennel + beat dusted goat cheese, creamy lemon + tarragon dress on on merlot lettuce) along with the regular assortments of breakfast accouterment, Wolfie’s is sure to light your taste buds with dazzling flavor. $11-$16).