Underground music, plant-based cooking at Strange Town

Strange Town - Hummus with za’tar bread — Hummus with za’tar bread and pickled vegetables.
Photo: Andy Noble

What do music on vinyl and global cuisines have in common?

Ask Andy Noble.

Noble — owner of the now-defunct Riverwest record store Lotus Land — said the advances of the online music business encouraged him to close the physical location of his store after about 10 years and start selling solely online.

“I used to have a record store, and now I sort of am one,” Noble says.

Noble’s musical interests didn’t align with what was widely sought in Milwaukee, but selling online allowed him to break free of these sorts of limitations. It also gave Noble a lot more free time.

So, when one of his favorite eastside hangouts announced it was closing its doors, Noble had an idea.

“When I knew that Allium was going to go out, I was sad and I wanted to make sure that something good happened with it,” Noble says.

Allium, 2101 N. Prospect Ave., closed for good in January 2017. Noble used this opportunity to form a business plan with his brother, Tom Noble, and his cousin, Mia LeTendre, for opening a plant-based bistro. Tom Noble, living in New York, helped fund the project, and LeTendre took on the role of chef.

“Our opening costs here were more like what people would pay to start a coffee shop,” Andy says.

Strange Town opened to the public last October. The small budget and the minimalist space didn’t stop Andy Noble and LeTendre from putting together an experience that’s likely to surprise even the most stubborn omnivores.

Both have been vegan for years and have used every available opportunity to travel the world, taking recipe ideas and cooking techniques home with them each time.

“A lot of the stuff we bring here is just a product of our travels,” Noble says.

Strange Town’s approach to plant-based cooking creates dishes that have an identity of their own, rather than attempting to replicate comfort food or meat-centric dishes.

“All the omni eaters have had 10,000 hamburgers,” Andy says. “If you give them a veggie burger, they have a huge plane of comparison.”

For instance, take the aloo gobi chaat, which literally translates to potato (aloo) cauliflower (gobi) savory snack (chaat). The vegetarian dish originated on the Indian subcontinent and is popular in Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian and Nepali cuisines.

Strange Town’s rendition is served with spicy sev, an Indian snack food featuring crunchy noodles made from chickpea flour paste.

“Americans’ takes on many of these approaches to vegetarian cooking is often newer and not as developed and not as amazing of a cuisine to us as finding inspiration in cultures globally that have embraced vegetarian cooking much longer than we have,” Andy says.

Strange Town - Sicilian pizza — Sicilian pizza.
Photo: Andy Noble

The atmosphere at Strange Town is casual and conversational. Noble keeps an assortment of personal records that are played throughout the day. Since song-identifying apps like Shazam often don’t work in noisy settings (and since Noble has very niche taste), he displays each sleeve of the record currently playing above the bar.

Noble is often hanging out behind the bar, talking shop with customers just as he would at his record store. A weekly event showcasing female DJs happens Wednesdays and provides a change of pace while still putting an emphasis on underground music.

Also notable is Strange Town’s collection of small-production wines that won’t break the bank.

“We’re trying to bring it back down to earth and let people really sample weird stuff and learn something about themselves,” Noble says.

He can confidently say Strange Town has something that will appeal to vegetarians, vegans and omni eaters alike. It’s a space that allows people who aren’t used to eating vegan or vegetarian to try a meal that isn’t just a rehashed replication of something they’ve tried before.

“For us, with food, we have a place in our heart for old-school, underground punk-rock vegan food, but we’re not 20 anymore, and we’re not excited about knocking off comfort food anymore,” Noble says. “We want to go forward.”