Tip of the Tongue
Cafe Central
I had a Slovenian Mushroom
Pastry, so-called, at the new
and fashionable Cafe Central a
few days ago, which brought
back to mind the last time I ate
anything that passed for
“Slovenian.”
I was in a neighborhood bar
in the South Side of Chicago.
This corner bar was not
what you'd call a genteel
place, but after a long drive,
my friend suggested the local.
I don’t remember much, ex
cept that after the Reuben and
beers took hold, I do
remember staring at the guys
at the bar digging into big
fresh pickles, pig’s knuckles
and ghostly-white hardboiled
eggs, while munching on
some kind of steaming dum
plings that my friend called
“standard Slovakian” fare.
From the way these 50 year
old-guys were putting the little
blimps away, “standard
Slovakian” looked popular. As
a matter of fact, the whole
place had a nice at-home
feeling about it, the kind of
place a man could stop off for
a beer, a few laughs, and then
head back to work with a new
attitude.
That’s the kind of place —
very roughly — that Eugene’s
Cafe Central seems to want to
be.
It was started a short time
ago by a couple of the men
who own the Wagon Works
auto repair shop next door at
13th Avenue and Lincoln
Street because, Dick says,
they wanted some place
nearby for a good beer, and a
good sandwich.
Good beer they have in
abundance — just about any
kind you could want.
Sandwiches they have, too,
and a pedigreed selection that
includes both a Quarter Pound
Reuben and Veal Liverwurst.
But the special interest of
the place is the items that fit
more into the image of an up
town cafe than a neighbor
hood bar.
The Slovenian Mushroom
Pastry, for instance, is one of
their three “Select” items;
Finnish Meat Pie and Dilled
Ricotta Quiche are the others
($2.90 to $3.20). They are all
stylish preparations: I mean,
making a quiche with ricotta
cheese is not your most ob
vious choice, and seasoning it
with nutmeg, lemon rind and
dill is positively outre.
But that’s why it's often hard
to get inside the Cafe Central
LPs
THE PLIMSOULS
The Plimsouls
Planet P-13
Tongue Twister
Shoes
Elektra 6E 3
The Plimsouls and Shoes
both play pop music tor which
the main inspiration is the music
of the Beatles.
Not exactly a new concept —
the British Invasion was built to
no small degree upon bands
which took their cue from the
Fab Ones.
The Plimsouls could be
accused of trying to cash in on a
trend, having been together
since 1979, but Shoes, on the
other hand, recorded its first LP
nearly seven years ago
The word on Tongue Twister
seems to be that Shoes has
“consolidated” its sound. In
simple terms, this means that
while John Murphy, Jeff
Murphy, Skip Meyer, and Gary
Klebe are playing pretty much
the same kind of music they've
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tern.
these days. The place is just a
sliver of a storefront anyway,
with only space for four tables,
a counter and a short bar But
the decor is trim and modish
with soft edges on the cabin
etry and fluted glass
lampshades, and it seems to
draw people who are attracted
to diamonds in the rough.
I have yet to go when there
isn’t a line of people waiting
played on previous disks, they
are in some way doing it better,
or more distinctively, or more
intelligently, or something.
Tongue Twister is a strong
album, but there’s nothing on it
to match Present Tense's
“Tomorrow Night,” “Somebody
Has What I Had" or “Now and
Then." Shoes may have run into
a dead end.
The Plimsouls (their name is a
play on the British slang for
“sneaker”) is a Los Angeles
based quintet whose debut
album manages to succeed in
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happily for a Smoked Salmon
Pate, Marinated Steak Salad
or one of the indecent liqueur
flavored Truffles handmade by
Bob the mechanic, who other
wise likes to think of himself as
Euphoria Chocolate.
The cafe and deli menu
favors a mid-day business, but
in fact the Central is also open
for breakfast, supper and
starting recently, for special
“theme” dinners on Tuesday
evenings. This Tuesday looks
especially amusing: A “1968
Revisited — Come As You
Were” Party, featuring a prize
for the "most authentic cos
tume." Look for me in the blue
blazer, tab collar, white Levi’s
and penny loafers. Hey, this is
no ordinary neighborhood bar.
— Joe Cone
spite of the fact that there’s
absolutely nothing distinctive
about it.
Singer-songwriter-guitarist
Peter Case, an ex-Nerve (the
Nerves are most often remem
bered as the originators of
“Hanging on the Telephone”) is
a good pop-rock craftsman and
an emotional John Lennon-style
shouter, and he leads a band
.MMmn
which owes every note they play
to someone else.
Eddie Munoz’ guitar imitation
of a divebomber on “Lost Time"
has been done to death before
(the Jam’s Paul Weller even
reversed it to imitate a car en
gine), but Munoz seems to have
just figured out that he could
make his guitar sound like that,
and his thrill is contagious.
In fact, everything about THE
PLIMSOULS is secondhand,
and could probably be found on
albums which could have come
from the past decade or two, but
in the past six months, done by
other bands intent on resur
recting the same sounds.
With the group’s next album
or two, the Plimsouls may grow
to the point where they actually
make a contribution of their own
to the music, or they may fall
into the trap which may or may
not have snagged Shoes.
The Plimsouls sounds won
derful regardless.
— Phil Bernstein
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