Restaurant Trappers

One of life’s great pleasures is going out to eat and trying new restaurants and dishes. This holds true for raw food and vegan restaurants too! There are, believe it or not, more than 5000 natural foods restaurants in the U.S. alone. Predictably many of these restaurants are in major markets and in college towns. You might not live in an area where you can visit a natural foods restaurant regularly, but if you’re traveling, do some research and see where there might be a natural foods place to visit. Here are a few notable restaurants around the country:

Delights of the Garden has gained amazing popularity in Washington, DC, considering that city is a haven of power lunches between lobbyists and the like. It features a cool-looking cafe with raw and cooked vegan favorites.

Arnold’s Way is located outside Philadelphia, PA in the Bucks County town of Lansdale. They have a raw café and also have classes in raw foods preparation.

Au Lac in Fountain Valley, California serves 7-course raw dinners, although you want to call in advance to give the chefs time to prepare.

Café Gratitude has two locations in San Francisco and one in Berkeley.

Quntessence in Manhattan features an all raw menu, all organic, salads, fresh juices, soup, guacamole, essene bread, almond shakes, and more.

Dining in the Raw in Key West, Florida features macrobiotic, vegan and raw foods.

The Organic Garden in Beverly, Massachusetts is a living and raw foods restaurant.

Suzanne’s Vegetarian Bistro in Miami, FL has a daily raw soup on its menu.

Enzyme Express in Anchorage, Alaska is a raw foods restaurant.

Golden Temple in Birmingham, Alabama is a vegetarian restaurant that features a juice bar.

These are just a few raw foods restaurants in some likely (and unlikely!) cities. Many cities have magazines with restaurants listed by categories.

Alvin Starkman, M.A., LL.B.

 

It took a reduction in Oaxaca’s tourism and an increase in staff to bring La Biznaga back into my good books.  While we never actually stopped patronizing the trendy, relaxed eatery in downtown Oaxaca, the painstakingly slow service coupled with a sometimes snooty attitude of the wait staff was enough to cause us to caution both our house guests and fellow residents.  But word does get around, and that, combined with the reality check caused by the social and political unrest in the latter half of 2006 resulting in empty downtown streets (all now long gone) must have caused management to take a step back, re-evaluate, and act.  And it’s worked.

 

The complacent attitude has disappeared.  Once again waiters have smiles on their faces and interact with clientele with helpful suggestions, even when serving new faces.  The staff complement has significantly increased, and now even includes a school-aged busboy-esque youngster.

 

Drinks and complimentary seasoned carrot sticks arrive promptly, orders are taken when you’re ready to proceed, with appetizers and main courses arriving without table discussion about how much longer to wait before just picking up and leaving.

 

And so a testimony to the always consistent quality and presentation of fare, and welcoming ambience, La Biznaga has managed to maintain a following of residents and tourists alike in the face of its earlier seemingly deliberate shortcomings. 

 

The atmosphere is open courtyard, with a fashionable retractable roof protecting from  mid-day sun and seasonal rains; tables and chairs are wood, á la simplicity of arts-and-crafts vogue, comfort enhanced by wicker seats and backs; a selection of palms willows off to one side, with tall leafy tree mid-court; the bar by design provides a focal point given that its selections are contained on an overhead blackboard; and a rotating selection of gallery art graces the walls.  Music is most often jazz, but eclectically ranges off to other similar genres, thereby maintaining an air of coolness in the beatnik sense of the term. 

 

Enormous chalkboards, one at either end of the restaurant, contain the menu selections, print somewhat cryptic … interesting to say the least.  Be sure to bring your glasses, or strain your eyes over the tables of others, or simply get up and walk closer to the cartes du jour and you’ll be fine.  On the other hand, our experience over the past three years has been that one cannot go too far wrong choosing blindly.  Appetizers, soups and salads range from about 35 – 100 pesos, and entrées (meat, fish or fowl) come in at 65 to 200.

 

La Biznaga is known for its cocktails, and in particular its margaritas and mojitos, served as in the case with all other beverages, in classic Mexican blue accented thick hand-blown glassware (vidrio soplado).  The mezcals are also noteworthy for the selections offered. Pretty well all of the bar servings are healthy, and prices across the board are competitive, mezcals beginning at, get this, 15 pesos.

 

But we’re here for dinner.  La Silvestre is a mushroom soup, more in the nature of a light broth devoid of dairy, containing a selection of wild hongos including setas, along with bacon, onion and chile poblano … a must for toadstool enthusiasts.  Rarely does a visit go by when I won’t indulge.

 

Las Calendas is a starter worthy of selection.  While described as tamales, there is no corn, but rather squash blossom and melted string cheese (quesillo) enveloped with tender hierba santa leaf, an herb with a distinct taste used in preparation of many Oaxacan dishes yet not often enough as a single flavor source.  You’re apt to recall, “so that’s  the exquisite essence I’ve been enjoying all this trip.”  The triptych is presented with sides of refried beans and diced spiced tomato, and topped with a drizzle of cream.  Another worthy triumvirate is the Cerro Viejo, crunchy fried tortilla horns stuffed with seasoned sautéed hibiscus (jamaica) flower, presented with a center of guacamole crowned with chipotle peppers.  It would be a mistake to not share each of these two tasters.

 

The grilled salmon is served over a bed of cilantro pesto, with lightly dressed side salad comprised of select lettuce, tomato and pineapple wedges which, together with pine nuts in the entrée provide complimentary crunches.  The tuna, similar to the salmon in terms of a good sized serving prepared to the exact degree of doneness as demanded, arrives on a sea of avocado salsa and is topped with pico de gallo, a flavorful traditional combination of tomato, radish, cucumber, onion, chile and cilantro, with an added tang of lime. Finally, my  own entrée on this outing consists of four filets of chicken breast each wrapped around a piece of cooked plantain with just enough walnut crumbles to be detected and welcomed, presented on a platter of puréed guava set off with swirls of cream. 

 

The distinctive flavors one has just experienced almost call out for further indulgence, and thus dessert is difficult to neglect:  on this evening healthy scoops of pistachio sorbet (nieve) are served in a margarita schooner, and chocolate truffle-cake (trufa) floats on a strawberry coulis.

 

It’s indeed a rarity for a restaurant to exhibit this level of consistency in quality of cuisine.  Now if La Biznaga can only maintain a degree of humility translating into value-added service, there’s no stopping its continued success, nor reason for patrons to ever again hesitate stopping by. 

 

La Biznaga, Garcia Vigil 512, Centro Histórico, Oaxaca (tel: 516-1800)

 

It is a saying that an entrepreneur who fails to act in time, is left behind by his competitors in the business race. Entrepreneurs, who have a good business sense, believe in winning the competition by acting smart first. They have revolutionized their businesses by making use of Internet technology in their products/services. Online food ordering system, inspired by Internet boom, is one such concept which is being adopted by all wise restaurateurs. By incorporating online food ordering software in their restaurant website, restaurateurs can provide more fast, accurate and convenient services to their customers thereby making them more happy and satisfied.

If we have a look over today’s market scene, we observe that most of the people prefer to shop online. Due to tight job schedules, tedious work and no time to live lifestyle, people choose to shop online while sitting at their homes/offices. Online restaurant ordering system enables a restaurateur to bring his restaurant online. By doing so, food menus can be uploaded on the restaurant website which is easily accessible by the users. All the details of the food offered by restaurant can be shown along with the pictures on the online menus. Paper/ brochure based ordering is led far behind by online restaurant ordering.

Online ordering system empowers a restaurant with the technology of ecommerce. Without nay time or distance constraint, a customer can visit the restaurant and order the food of his/her choice. Payment is also made flexible via various payment methods such as Pay Pal, Pay upon Delivery etc. Adding more to this is the ability of your online food ordering system to remember the last order details of a customer. As the same customer repeats order, the online restaurant menu renders it much quicker and easier. The system simultaneously creates a database of the ordering patterns of the customers that facilitates highly targeted marketing and promotion.

Not to mention, how online ordering service also helps a restaurateur in cutting down the budget by eliminating costs such as labor costs, maintenance costs, installation costs etc. Live sales report and online statistics assist restaurateurs in strategic plans and get ready for the effective marketing arsenal. Online food ordering systems provide potential to withstand the competition in food industry. A better public image can be sported as a smart and dynamic restaurant.