Vegtastic Voyage

So Vita Cafe’s finally open again. This is right across the street from the old location, at Alberta and 30th. It looks like they’ve lost the outdoor seating but gained several tables inside—they were pretty busy so I didn’t ask what prompted the move. Whatever, the food’s still solid. I even tried something new. Tom ordered the vegan nachos (again), and for once they were not two meals’ worth. He was able to finish them without that “I shouldn’t be doing this” face.

Here’s my fishwich. The first time we went to Vita, back when we were just visiting, Tom got this and I’ve always meant to try it. So good. It’s just a slab of tofu, battered and fried, but it’s so delicate and not at all greasy. You can get tartar sauce, but in the immortal words of Hall and Oates, I can’t go for that.

Here’s the other something new: cucumber and basil limeaide. Super A+ Number One! Not just a tarted-up lemonade (yeah, I don’t spell it with an I like they do), this is cucumber juice and basil shaken up with limeade, for a mildly sweet-n-sour quencher with body. Tom and I split this and it still took us a while to finish it. It could take the place of dessert, or it’d be the perfect nonalcoholic beverage with which to talk a summer afternoon away with friends.

Of course, the limeaide did not take the place of our dessert, as we split a piece of lemon-coconut cake. Not on the dessert menu, I spied it in the case by the door. The texture and flavor is almost a banana cake (that’s cake, not bread), and the very vanilla cream cheese-y frosting prefectly complemented it. Supermoist and not too sweet, it was a nice little cap to our lazy Saturday lunch.  Thanks for reopening, Vita.