Thursday, February 07, 2008
Local ingredients a specialty at Grandin cafe
We love the locally grown food concept -- and the terrific butternut squash soup.
Rives Elliot, formerly of the Happy Belly Deli, and April Yancey, a nutrition counselor, own Local Roots Cafe.
A salad from Local Roots Cafe
Local Roots Cafe
- Menu: Soup, salads, sandwiches and more made with organic, locally grown ingredients
- Where: 1731 Grandin Road, S.W., Suite 310, Roanoke
- Prices: $5.95 to $8.50
- Hours: Lunch is 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; Coffee and grab-and-go deli case from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday
- Alcohol? No
- Plastic? Visa and MasterCard
- Smoking? No
- Wireless Internet? Yes
- Takeout? Yes
- Delivery? No
- Handicapped accessible? The Blue Ridge Independent Living Center has determined that this restaurant is accessible.
- Kid friendly? High-chairs and booster seats available
- Patio seating? No
- Reservations? No
- Live music? No
- Vegetarian dishes? Yes
- Call: (540) 206-2610
- Net: www.localrootscafe.com
Related
A cafe specializing in dishes made from local ingredients opened in December beside Roanoke's Grandin Road Post Office. Rives Elliot, formerly of the Happy Belly Deli, and April Yancey, a holistic health and nutrition counselor, have launched the Local Roots Cafe offering locally sourced foods such as butternut squash soup, Reuben and barbecue sandwiches, and pizza. Four friends joined me for a recent weekday lunch to see whether an organic-centric menu could satisfy without being too "hippie."
THE VIBE
The formality of the large columns on the front of the blue, multistory building belies the relaxed surroundings once you ascend the front steps and enter the cafe to the right. You're greeted by a lounge area with sofas, chairs, a few window-side tables and wireless Internet service. Several businesses share the building, including a massage therapist, which ought to be a good sign of the laid-back atmosphere. Passing through the lounge, you enter the back dining room painted in an earthy brownish-orange tone.
THE FOOD
One friend chose the butternut squash soup ($6.95) served in a rosemary and sun-dried tomato bread bowl. I love butternut squash, and this soup was terrific -- thick and creamy with distinct tastes of cinnamon and curry. One quirk: The menu did not mention that it is served in a bread bowl, which would make $6.95 seem much more reasonable.
Another in my party chose the grilled cheese sandwich ($5.95), which had crispy rye bread and creamy Emmentaler Swiss. It was good, but then again, it's hard to mess up a grilled cheese sandwich.
I chose the Reuben ($8.50) with locally raised, grass-fed beef from Mountain Run Farm in Sedalia. Topped with the melted Swiss, homemade sauce and raw sauerkraut, the Reuben was not the dressing-drenched, sloppy sandwich you might be used to, but it was tasty. The ample pile of beef was crispy in spots and tender in others, giving the sandwich a nice texture. Be warned: Elliott corns the beef in-house and without preservatives, so it doesn't have the bright pink color you might expect. The sandwiches are accompanied by crispy (but a little greasy), organic kettle chips.
My friend's Harvest pizza ($3.95 per slice), once it finally arrived (see below), contained a delicious mix of flavors. A soft, warm crust cradled fresh mozzarella, garnet yams, feta cheese, green kale and whole roasted garlic cloves. The yams combined with the roasted garlic imparted a sweet, creamy taste to the pizza. It's different, and it's good.
Also worth noting is that Local Roots shuns both Pepsi and Coca-Cola products. Instead, it offers kombucha fermented teas and local Star City coffee. Also offered are bottled sarsaparilla, a carbonated soda akin to root beer, and ginger beer, a nonalcoholic ginger ale with a more pointed ginger taste. There's just something about these "old-timey" drinks that fit the place.
THE SERVICE
We waited too long for our food -- approximately 30 minutes from the time we sat down until the first entree, a salad, arrived. It was then another 10 minutes before any additional dishes came, and we discovered there was a mix-up: The kitchen had made a grilled cheese sandwich instead of the pizza. The server apologized and offered the sandwich as a replacement, but my friend opted to wait another seven minutes or so for the pizza. She then brought an extra-large serving to make up for the delay and gave my friend a delicious walnut oatmeal cookie on the house. The waitress was very nice and apologetic about the situation, which goes a long way, but even though Local Roots is not a downtown lunch-hour kind of place, the wait was excessive.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Although order accuracy and speed of service need improvement, Local Roots Cafe's concept of serving locally raised organic meats and vegetables is something to feel good about. The food is fresh, local farmers benefit and it tastes good to boot. The trade-off, and there is always a trade-off, is that prices may be somewhat higher. Spend a lazy Saturday lunch here.
