Le Rêve is a voyeur’s delight. Closest to the railing on the balcony dining room, there’s a two-top table with the best view of the ground floor of this cafe-patisserie, whose Euro appeal buoys a quiet, commercial side street in Wauwatosa.
Between bites of salade niçoise, I watch a server slowly mount the wooden steps to the balcony. The tray of pastries, wine and coffee she hoists jiggles, but nothing spills. On the ground floor, diners stand rapt in front of the glass pastry counter, pointing to a chocolate-glazed tart here, a macaroon cookie there. The cappuccino machine shrieks. Dishes clang. Faces are animated, brightened by red wine and conversation.
A local chef used to tell me cooking isn’t rocket science. I don’t think dining should be rocket science, either. If the economy isn’t stopping women from buying lipstick, this is the time to have an indulgent dessert. It won’t break the bank, and it will bring you so much joy. Piping hot pommes frites? A toasted ham and cheese sandwich with a rich béchamel sauce? Mais, oui. Le Rêve (whose name is French for “The Dream”) can supply all of the aforementioned – in a well-executed fashion – along with an uncontrived charm.
Owners Therese Hittman and Andy Schneider, both of whom have working histories at Sandy D’Amato-owned enterprises (Hittman at Sanford; Schneider at Sanford, Coquette Café and Harlequin Bakery), officially opened their own place last summer after months of searching for the right venue. An old bank building on Harwood offered the details they were looking for – the high ceiling, exposed Cream City brick and remnants of terrazzo flooring. Someone intending to open a tapas bar had already fixed it up, so they didn’t have to start from scratch. The mostly ocher-colored walls set a mellow mood.
Schneider started out doing the pastries; now he’s working the front of the house, while Hittman pitches in on desserts. Chef de cuisine Bryan Phillips is also a Coquette Café alum.
I have only a few quibbles about the restaurant. It’s full of hardwood, brick and tile, so it’s noisy. If you’re waiting for a seat – which will very likely happen on a Saturday at 7 p.m. – there’s no bar or any unobtrusive place inside to bide your time. The prices are commensurate with quality. A $9 sandwich and $20 for lamb stew seems fair, but I think they could throw in some gratis hunks of baguette and butter. Charging $1 for them is parsimonious.
But all in all, it’s hard not to settle in and enjoy. All those childhood lessons about sharing are lost during the charcuterie experience. It amounts to piling duck confit, chicken liver mousse and a country pork terrine on warm toasted baguette slices with sweet cornichon pickles and sharp Dijon mustard ($11.95). So good.
I can do without a soup du jour like the thin, grassy-tasting parsnip ($3 and $4.50), because there are very good green salads – especially the chopped beets with frisée, toasted pecans and twin ovals of panko-crusted chèvre ($7.25). Instead of the traditional tuna, the niçoise can come with shrimp or salmon atop the greens, red potato, medium-cooked egg and green beans dressed with a sweet mustard vinaigrette ($13.95).
Salmon and Edith Piaf – or any performer, for that matter – have something in common. When they’re on, they’re “on.” With the salmon, it comes down to the right filet (fresh and, preferably, thick) and the method of cooking – seared so that there’s a thin crackly coating and juicy, fleshy middle. I found all of those qualities in the Le Rêve salmon – and not a bit of fishiness – accompanied by a rather bland square of goat cheese polenta and rich Brussels sprouts cooked in brown butter ($19.95).
The pork en croûte looks like a challenge – a puff pastry ball filled with pork loin and Brie ($20.95). You just cut into it and voilà, contentment. But it’s really the clovey red wine cranberry sauce over spinach that makes it. I have a vision of a duck (canard) fighting a chicken (poulet). Which wins? The chicken, by a thin margin. Cooked on the bone, skin intact, this bird is pure tenderness – and it sits on a respectable garlic risotto ($18.95). The medium-rare duck breast, bias-cut and fanned on the plate, is good, but not as good as the luscious cranberry-chestnut stuffing ($21.95).
While our meal is winding down one evening – and a thoughtful employee dims the overhead lights – other diners have decisions to make. My friend leans over to offer unsolicited advice to the table next to ours.
“You need to have the lemon tart,” he says, pointing to my plate, now dusted with pastry crumbs. Desserts are posted on a chalkboard on one of the mezzanine walls. The tarte citron topped with clouds of meringue is a blinding star ($5.25). I also like the exquisite dome-shaped confections. One is chocolate mousse separated by a thin layer of raspberry filling and covered with chocolate glaze ($5.25). How easily it’s gone.
Dessert could be a starting and ending point here, nothing but dessert in between. And I wouldn’t feel a shred of guilt. Le Rêve, barring a few niggles, offers many reasons to just hang out. Let dining be a purely visceral experience.
Le Rêve Patisserie & Cafe,7610 Harwood Ave., Wauwatosa, 414-778-3333. Hours: Mon-Thurs 8 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri-Sat 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Prices: appetizers $9.95-$12.95; salads $5-$13.95; sandwiches $7.50-$9.25; quiche and crêpes $6.50 and $9.50, respectively; entrées $16.95-$21.95; desserts 95 cents-$5.75. Service: No snootiness. Dress: A beret might be nice. Handicap access: yes. Credit cards: M V DS. Smoke-free. Reservations: only for eight or more.
