Grow Your Roots Café
220 Terence Matthews Cres., 613-271-3777, growyourrootscafe.com
Open: Tuesday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Weekends 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: salads $7 to $12; soup-and-sandwich combos $14
Access: wheelchair-accessible
How can April be the cruelest month when there’s November?
After all, what’s there to like about flu shots, days that grow shorter, below-zero mornings and, this year, a deeply disturbing U.S. election campaign? (Actually, I’m fine with flu shots.)
Lately, we’ve needed something restorative, maybe even virtuous. We found it in Kanata South, tucked among the office parks on Terence Matthews Crescent, at a three-month-old vegan, and often gluten-free, eatery and caterer called Grow Your Roots Café.
Open basically for breakfasts, lunches and morning and afternoon snacks, the café is a bright, quaint place that seats 25 or so on metal seats, surrounded by big windows and a mirrored wall. It’s hard to stop gazing at a showcase of tempting baked goods. When I’ve visited, the café’s clientele and staff have been almost exclusively women.
Mel Boudens, a 26-year-old who embraced veganism six years ago, opened Grow Your Roots in early August, building upon the lessons of running a vegan food stand in 2014 at the Carp Farmers Market.
“I really do believe that my purpose on this earth is to advocate a cruelty-free, healthy way of living that doesn’t harm the planet,” Boudens wrote on her business’s blog. “Grow Your Roots is my way of doing that.”
In this season of Trump, cruelty-free eating that doesn’t harm the planet sounded great to me.
And yet, ethical considerations aside, Grow Your Roots has done a good job of meatlessly satiating this more-often carnivorous gourmand.
First, its servings were generous. Second, there were deep-fried indulgences. Beer-battered avocado wedges with cilantro-lime dip ($9) — a hit at the Carp Farmers’ Market, Boudens wrote — were a smash when we had them. Crisp “punchy” fries tossed in sea salt, lemon zest and fresh parsley and served with lemon garlic mayo ($6.50) also went a long way to alleviating any feelings of deprivation.
Famous avos (deep-fried avocados) at Grow Your Roots
Mel’s Fav panini with punchy fries at Grow Your Roots
A third snack, kale artichoke dip with house-made tortilla chips ($9), was nearly as good. While the chips were exemplary, the dip was a little heavy on the kale — and I like kale, but more so in the café’s kale salad ($8) with apples, walnuts and red onion. I also liked the cafe’s maple vinaigrette, which was made in-house, as are all sauces and dressings.
Kale artichoke dip with home made corn chips at Grow Your Roots
Kale salad with maple vinaigrette at Grow Your Roots
Beyond those snacks and salads, there are sandwiches and pressed paninis, made with focaccia from Nat’s Bread Company or gluten-free bread from Strawberry Blonde Bakery.
Some sandwiches feature with faux “cheeses” made of nuts and other meatless stand-ins for meat. The panini called Mel’s Fav ($14 with fries, soup or salad) is also my fave, with its contrasts of spinach, sliced apple and caramelized onions, although its cashew “mozzarella” appealed less to me.
Among other sandwiches, I’d rank, in descending order, the marinated tofu burger, the GYR burger made with textured vegetable protein, and then the mashed chickpea sandwich, made and finally the tempeh-bacon “TLT” sandwich that asked too much of tempeh, which was simply salty, smoked and crisp.
Barbecue tofu sandwich with side salad at Grow Your Roots cafe
GYR veggie burger with fries at Grow Your Roots
Not really a BLT sandwich with miso mushroom soup at Grow Your Roots
Friday’s sspecials here have included riffs on pub favourites that elsewhere are meaty or at least dairy-dependent. Panko-crumbed Mac and Cheese, made with a blend of soy and cashew standing in for cheese, was not truly cheesy, but it was still tasty and just fine texturally. I thought a little less of the vegan chili. I honestly wish that I’d tried the “fish” (actually beer-battered, kelp- and seaweed-enhanced tofu) and chips, but I was craving one of the paninis.
Mac and cheese with fried kale at Grow Your Roots
Chili with mashed chickpea sandwich at Grow Your Roots
While the café isn’t licensed, the beverage options here are myriad. But I’ve twice passed over coffees, smoothies, bottled kombuchas and the like for “golden milk” — a froth of the non-dairy milk of my choice with turmeric (above all), warm spices such as cardamom, maple syrup and more. GYR claims that the beverage boosts the immune system, and I guess it’s worked. The only thing that’s sickened me recently has been crowds chanting “Build the wall!” or “Lock her up!”
Golden milk at Grow Your Roots café
I digress. Better to end on sweet notes, meaning the baked goods in that showcase. If I’ve been mixed in my enthusiasms for the café’s sandwiches and hot lunches, I can’t fault any of the homey, yet somehow vegan, desserts that I’ve brought home and tried.
Coffee cake, Nanaimo bars and chocolate coconut truffles were first-rate — good enough to make you forget every bad thing about November.
Coffee cake, chocolate coconut truffle and Naniamo bar at Grow Your Roots café
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