Bonjour, friendly folks. On the advice of my roommate, I ate at Cafe Beaudelaire last Sunday afternoon.

Now, even though we seated ourselves, it would have been rude for the two of us to take the cafe’s only table for four.

The tables for two or three, although quaint, seemed far too small to realistically hold an appetizer, let alone a full meal. But I’m getting ahead of myself here …

(Note: sing these next lines to the tune of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland.”) “Well, the weather outside was frightful, but the neon sign inside was delightful; we ordered a lot of food, and it snowed, and it snowed and it snowed.”

Seriously folks, watching it snow all afternoon took its toll. I started to get cold.

My momma always used to say, “There’s nothing like a large cup of hot chocolate with lots of whip cream to warm you up.” Boy, Mom sure didn’t get out much.

Anyway, Cafe Beaudelaire answered my need for a mere $1.50. The hot chocolate was served warm, but not scalding hot — that was good. But, it was kinda watered down and didn’t taste very chocolatey — that was bad.

Cafe Beaudelaire smelled delicious inside, but after reading “The soul of Brazil in the heart of Iowa,” I had no idea what I was getting into.

I ended up ordering an omelet. But this was no mere run-of-the-mill ham ‘n’ cheese omelet, mind you. It was, in fact, a lamb and cheese gyro omelet.

The menu read: “an egg omelet with julienne seasoned lamb, tomatoes, mushrooms, saut‚ed onions and green peppers topped with mozzarella and tomatoes. Served with a slice of fruit and pita bread for $5.95.”

How was my meal? The pita bread was covered in some kind of warm olive oil and was absolutely delicious. And once I got over the initial “I’m-eating- lamb” uneasiness, the omelet was pretty good too.

No, it was great. In fact, Beaudelaire’s lamb and cheese omelet was so delicious that I recommend it to each and every one of ewe.

Cafe Beaudelaire has capitalized on the “I-wish-I was-outside” motif — the grass-hut bar combined with the numerous plants, hanging umbrellas and the corrugated cardboard-looking ceiling to make me feel kinda like I was outside.

Guess what, folks, in the warmer months (dang that stupid groundhog), you really can eat outside at Beaudelaire’s sidewalk cafe.

OK — my restaurant review would be incomplete without some reference to the funky, limbless bust displayed beside the larger-than-life pay phone. Trust me on this, folks — it’s worth walking inside the cafe just to check out these two oddities.

Word on the street (well in the Daily office anyway) is that Beaudelaire transforms itself into quite the smoke-filled lounge at night.

The transformation into a bar is so profound, in fact, that you have to be at least 21 to enter after 10 p.m. Sorry, under-aged folks.

I had a great time at Beaudelaire.

It was fast (under 10 minutes), friendly (extra whip cream) service at a reasonably priced restaurant where it’s OK to talk with friends, read a book or otherwise linger around.

In fact, I bet money those two guys we saw on the comfy, corner couch are still there.

Cafe Beaudelaire is located at 2504 Lincoln Way in Campustown.

4 stars out of five

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Kim Zangger is a senior in advertising from Mt. Vernon.