Carol Deptolla
on flavors at Kickapoo Coffee, Steaming Cup
Big salads benefit from dressings made in the kitchen, like the mustard vinaigrette for roasted beet and arugula.
People can’t live off coffee alone, even if some have been known to try. Here are two coffeehouses where I’ve particularly enjoyed the food lately, one a newer Third Ward cafe that brews coffee roasted in Viroqua, the other a longtime Waukesha coffeehouse that changed hands last year.
Kickapoo Coffee Cafe
Kickapoo Coffee Cafe gleams like a coffee laboratory, washed over in sunlight that passes through enormous glass windows across the front of the building.
In this clean-lined cafe owned by Scott Lucey and the Viroquabased Kickapoo Coffee Roasters, the menu is minimalist, too, though it spares nothing when it comes to flavor and quality.
Biscuits are at the center of this brief menu, and they’re terrific: light and tall and tender.
Served with butter or sweet toppings for breakfast, the golden biscuits are turned into sandwiches for lunch.
Smoked trout ($9) made an especially fine sandwich, layered with roasted red pepper, microgreens and some crème fraîche.
There are two more: avocado, shredded carrot and sun-dried tomato pesto ($8) and roast beef, red onion and horseradish ($8).
The soup lately is smooth, soothing carrot curry ($6, or $8 for a bowl with a biscuit); the soup, from Bavette, changes every few weeks.
At the counter are jumbo cookies ($2.50), including the Blind Date, sweet with dates and coconut.
Streusel-topped mini coffeecakes are a natural with any of the precisely made pour-over coffees and the notable, excellent cortado, served in a petite jar.
Biscuits and sweets are baked on site from recipes developed with Allison Sandbeck of Crumb in Viroqua.
The cafe is sort of a best-ofViroqua showcase — it also sells Wisco Pop soda, including honeysweetened cherry.
If all you want is water, two self-serve taps in the counter dispense sparkling and still, a thoughtful detail.
232 E. Erie St. (414) 269-8546. kickapoocoffee.com Hours: 7 a.m.- 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.
The Steaming Cup
It was a good sign last summer when the buyers of the decade-old Waukesha coffeehouse the Steaming Cup were a couple with years of fine-dining experience.
Jason and Cristina Tofte met at Eddie Martini’s; he was the chef for 10 years, and she later managed restaurants for Sanford and Angie D’Amato.
These days, made-from-scratch soups and more are prime reasons to visit the Steaming Cup, aside from the coffee from Minneapolis’ Up Coffee Roasters.
Soul-satisfying soups vary by the day, like grilled eggplant one day, chili with sweet potato and red quinoa another ($3.75 cup, $4.75 bowl).
Big salads benefit from dressings made in the kitchen, like mustard vinaigrette for roasted beet and arugula with almonds, goat cheese and tomato ($8.75).
Roasted meats are sandwich stars, such as beef stacked on a ciabatta roll with caramelized onion, arugula, tomato and horseradish ($9.25), or pulled pork with ham, cheeses, pickles and mustard ($9.25).
But the cafe combines jack, cheddar and Muenster for a perfectly gooey grilled cheese ($7.95) with bacon and tomato, and brightens a grilled hummus wrap ($8.25) with pickled onion.
Sandwiches come with tart house pickles and sides like redpotato salad or fruit salad in fine cubes.
The bakery case might hold the excellent house coffeecake ($3.50) flavored with coffee, fittingly, among its offerings.
Wednesday to Saturday nights, musicians play at the cafe, one of several spots within a block with live music. It’s a completely pleasurable evening for the cost of a bite or a sip and a stop at the tip jar.
340 W. Main St., Waukesha. (262) 522-3605. thesteamingcup.com Hours: 6:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 6:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday.
Contact Carol at (414) 224-2841, cdeptolla@journalsentinel.com or on Twitter @mkediner.