Tales From The Loon Town Cafe

Swindling speculators, mutant fish, young lovers, visiting aliens - you never know what will come up at the Loon Town Cafe. Just be assured a cup of coffee at this small town spot always comes with a story.

It's the go-go 1980s when journalist Wally Pearson gets mugged in Times Square. It's a jolt that prompts him to throw away his career and open a cafe in his small hometown. Little does he know that in doing so he's about to get entrapped in the collision of fame, fortune, ambition and love in the northwoods of Wisconsin--all tempered with more than a little delusion.

His Loon Town Cafe is the common meeting ground for many different forces. Chicago millionaire Henry Van Elkind plots from his lavish summer camp a transformation of the region. The Native American tribe, whose reservation edges the town, is about to flex its muscle on fishing and gambling rights. Wally's young wait staff is more interested in romance, and his oddball trio of regulars spend much of their time arguing over visiting space aliens, mutant fish and the availability of wild strawberry jam.

"Tales from the Loon Town Cafe" captures the unique character and rhythms of small Midwestern towns. But it also recognizes the undercurrent of despair and sometime downright loopiness that emerges when most everyone thinks they know most everything that's going on.

But of course they don't really know all, and that's why "Tales from the Loon Town Cafe" is ultimately a mystery of life. (This is an updated version of the title.)