They say you can't go back, and sadly, I tend to agree. Stuff never seems the same as it used to be, and time smoothes out the rough edges of most memories.
When I was a little kid, I regularly ate lunch at a place called JA's Café in a strip mall on the corner of Green Bay and Green Tree Roads. It was just a hop, skip and a jump from my grandparents' house, and I recall that some time in the '80s, it moved from one side of the mall to the other to 6823 N. Green Bay Ave.
It wasn't a fancy place, just cheap, simple soup and sandwiches. It fell out of my rotation as I got older, but I rediscovered JA's during college, when I had summer internships down the road at Johnson Controls. At that time, my friend Eron (who was working at the old Mike Crivello's at Brown Port) and I would regularly sneak out for cheap grilled cheese lunches and coffees.
After college, I found myself spending barely any time on the North Shore, and presumably JA's went out of business. But last week, a coworker and I were in the area and we decided to see what, if anything, had taken that space.
We were pleased to find the Glen Café had picked up where JA's had left off. In lots of ways, the place looked just the same (if cleaned up a little). And they still have the grilled cheese, and it's still good and cheap at $3.95. John had a tasty cheeseburger for $3.45.
Our waitress told us the restaurant has been around for five years, so I realize I'm not breaking any news in blogging about the Glen Café.
But JA's was a nice part of my childhood, and it warms my heart to see that, in a sense, it lives on with this quaint North Shore standby.
No, you can't go back ... but this is pretty close.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
