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Cafe Lola

Rob Young

The sky dropped and the rain began just as we entered the restaurant, a little coffee and edibles shop next to nowhere.

Cafe Lola, said the sign. Hungry, said our stomachs.

We scanned the menu, ordered quickly, the rain scarcely stopping.

Black bean soup, we told 'em. The "House Favorite." Roast beef sandwich.

We sat and admired the place, small and handsome, swathed in rich earth tones. Then our order arrived, ample sandwiches nestled beside homemade pasta salad and small green salads; the soup a cup of warm, aromatic joy poured into a blue coffee mug.

Turkey breast constitutes the "House Favorite" ($7.25), the meat finely chopped into a salad, and sweetened with dried cranberries, toasted pecans, and served on a flaky, buttery croissant. The roast beef ($7.50) marries a tangy, mild horseradish mayonnaise with red onions, tomato and spring greens on Kaiser. Both are delicious triumphs, just like the soup, zesty and crawling with black beans.

Cafe Lola, open for 2 1/2 years and owned by Doug Satzger, functions as a full-service coffee house, the drinks made from Arabica beans, the pastries baked fresh.

Clearly, the restaurant shines under the direction of chef Jim Cafaro, whose specialty sandwiches and homemade soups, such as tomato gorgonzola, Tuscan white bean and ham and seasonal butternut squash bisque, have inspired the cafe's regulars.

Try the grilled chicken panini with sun-dried tomatoes, provolone and roasted red pepper aioli, the Asian chicken salad ($7.50), or an old favorite, the ham and brie ($7.50), dressed in a house-made rosemary-apricot mustard.

And no worries: Cafe Lola isn't exactly next to nowhere — that's writerly gobbledygook. Rather, it's next to delicious, a couple of miles down S.C. Highway 41.

Address: 1903 Highway 41, Mount Pleasant.

Phone: 388-6160.

Hours: 7 a.m.-1 p.m. Sun., 6:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat.

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