Respecting the expectable

Navigation may confound you at Tarazza, but at some places, you know exactly where you stand. Natalie's, the little cafe with the heart-warming story behind it (it was started by a school principal and dietitian) has flourished by doing precisely what everyone would expect. Natalie's is open for dinner, but...

By Mary Brown Malouf

January 9, 1997

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Navigation may confound you at Tarazza, but at some places, you know exactly where you stand. Natalie's, the little cafe with the heart-warming story behind it (it was started by a school principal and dietitian) has flourished by doing precisely what everyone would expect. Natalie's is open for dinner, but this is really a lunch spot. During the hours surrounding noon, every table is taken, and not just with the blonde- and blue-haired ladies one would expect from seeing the chintz-swagged and ruffled windows. There are plenty of men eating at Natalie's too. But though their presence might seem unlikely, it's actually predictable--once you study the menu, the attraction is obvious. Natalie's is really a unisex tea room, a liberated lunch spot providing predictable comfort food for both genders. And a look around at everyone's plate just proves that, although Natalie's serves something for everyone, everyone who eats here seems to know what they're supposed to eat. All the ladies are dutifully eating the salad plate, and every man's plate has gravy on it. There's no gender-bending here--instead, clear separation of the sexes right there on the plate.

Southern-style, Natalie's starts by serving you a basket of hot breads, including at least a couple of cinnamon rolls, the white icing still smoking. Then, from the menu on the blackboard, you can order sandwiches; soups; perhaps some fish; certainly chicken; fruit, green, or tuna salads; and hot entrees like pot roast and meat loaf. Pot roast, a good example, will be precisely as you expect, with a flour-thickened gravy the color of brown shoes, a big hunk of last year's carrot cooked to tenderness, and slabs of beef braised to forkability. It's a working man's lunch, and it's a good day's work just to eat it and still be ready for dinner. Not a problem for the girls who lunched on salad.

--Mary Brown Malouf

Natalie's, 5944 Royal (at Preston), (214) 739-0362. Open Monday-Saturday 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Mary Brown Malouf

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