diff --git a/memcache.inc b/memcache.inc
index ed511a6..77facc6 100644
--- a/memcache.inc
+++ b/memcache.inc
@@ -18,12 +18,15 @@ class MemCacheDrupal implements DrupalCacheInterface {
 
     // If page_cache_without_database is enabled, we have to manually load the
     // $conf array out of cache_bootstrap.
-    static $bootstrapped = FALSE;
-    if (isset($GLOBALS['conf']['page_cache_without_database']) && $GLOBALS['conf']['page_cache_without_database'] == TRUE && !$bootstrapped) {
+    static $variables_loaded = FALSE;
+    if (!empty($GLOBALS['conf']['page_cache_without_database']) && !$variables_loaded) {
       global $conf;
-      $bootstrapped = TRUE;
+      $variables_loaded = TRUE;
+      // Try loading variables from cache. If that fails, we have to bootstrap
+      // further in order to fetch them.
       if ($cached = cache_get('variables', 'cache_bootstrap')) {
         $variables = $cached->data;
+        // Make sure variable overrides are applied, see variable_initialize().
         foreach ($conf as $name => $value) {
           $variables[$name] = $value;
         }
@@ -31,7 +34,6 @@ class MemCacheDrupal implements DrupalCacheInterface {
       }
       else {
         drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_VARIABLES, FALSE);
-        _drupal_bootstrap_page_cache();
       }
     }