Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Green Bowl


That's the name of my fantasy restaurant. It was Green Tree, but I changed it. Actually, it changes a lot. Although, I should really be thinking about a name for our farm, not my never-restaurant. (Which reminds me, if you have any good farm names, send them our way.)

Background story:
I have wanted to open my own restaurant ever since I started making good food from our own garden. Having special eating requirements myself, I realized that when you eat out, you really have to throw a lot of your food consciousness out. Honestly, a lot of people don't really even care what they eat but here in Bham, I think that is a little different. People want fresh, local, healthy, organic, and maybe even veggie or vegan options. There are many places that offer these things but Bham does lack the veggie and vegan only restaurants and I really do think they could survive financially if you knew what you were doing. Alas, I do not know what I am doing (about most things in fact) so I never plan on opening a place, I just like to think about how good it would be.

Another reason I got inspired was because Bellingham just got their first vegan-only restaurant, Bloom. In minimal words, it was bad and uninspiring.
In more words, Bloom offered only a couple dishes. A quinoa bowl and a rice lentil bowl. Now...being a veggie/part vegan, I like to impress people with the delicious things I can make. I don't want to bore them with the stuff they KNOW is vegan. People know rice, is vegan. They know salad is usually vegan (with the right dressing). I think you should give them fake meat, be creative. Give them waffles but make them vegan. Give them killer gourmet that is vegan. That's how I believe you do it. Bloom was not that way. They offered wraps and these two bowls. No one said, oh man, this is good. That is sad to me. Making non-vegans appreciate the food is what my mission would be.

So maybe someday Green Bowl will come out of the woodworks (very doubtful) and it will serve breakfast and dinner. Give me waffles, biscuits with mushrooms gravy, faux sausage. Give me squash pasta, portabella burgers, sweet potato fries, hell maybe even killer veg stir fry. (my menu is diverse right now. haha)

Some people want that. They do!

12 comments:

Cherl said...

I want it! Start it! All that stuff sounds awesome!

Melody said...

Em - this is awesome, you should open a restaurant in Bellingham and I will open a climbing gym. That is sad about the new vegan restaurant, people who think
vegan food is gross will continue to think that way. Do you have a good muchroom gravy recipe? I tried making some for bisquits the other day but it wasn't great.

-Mel

P.S. bet you didn't know I read you blog huh?

-Melody

Gevan said...

I'll come to your restaurant for biscuits and gravy! Yum!

Gevan said...

Oh yeah - I'll be working on a farm name too...
You know I'll be good at that, right?

Farmers Veggie Wife said...

haha. Mel - oo good idea. When you open the climbing gym, I will open a restaurant next door! And...I haven't perfected my mushroom gravy recipe but I will send you what I do use. I do make killer easy biscuits though. :)

Gevan - Yes, I know you would be good at farm names. Tyler thought of Idyll Wild which is pretty good. But...most people don't know what Idyll means. I am still not even 100% sure.

Farmers Veggie Wife said...

oh yes, and Mel, you had mentioned once you read it but I forgot. Thanks though!!

Gevan said...

Maybe Ty meant "idle"...

Sierra said...

I'd come to your restaurant! I haven't had a good breakfast in 15+ years. I can manage dinner, but I've never mastered meat and egg-free breakfasts. I like the name green bowl!

I'll be thinking of possible farm names, too.....

Christina said...

Ugh! I wish we had more time while you were here. There are SO many good veggie restaurants and a fair amount of really good vegan restaurants. I could take you to every meal for quite a few days!
My dad is a vegetarian so we have been trying restaurants in the greater Seattle area for many years and I LOVE a good vegetarian or vegan place :)

Maybe you and I should open one and I could run the coffee bar! ha!

The Momma said...

I think that before the restaurant opens, you should teach vegan cooking classes and have everyone cook with local produce so they even learn where to shop. Those earthy college students & town folks would love it!
Cook me something special this week...something I can learn to cook too.

Clarissa Mansfield said...

Bummer about your Bloom experience. Although the last time I was there, they had a killer vegan waffle that was absolutely amazing. I have not been there for awhile though and I will have to check in on them again and see how they are doing. Also, I have assumed their menu was a little limited because they are just starting out, and that hopefully they will expand in the future. A few months back when I was there, both the soup and the quinoa bowl were really good. Hopefully the time you were there was just a bad night and they are doing better now. I just want a local all vegan place so badly!

Farmers Veggie Wife said...

Christina, No worries, my parents took us to a veg restuarant that night in Seattle. It ws really good! It was the Noodle Bowl place on Olive.

CM, I really wanted to like Bloom too but I even saw the owner be rude to his employees. They were hating their job, even his decorator stormed out all angry. It was odd. I was hoping they would expand the menu too, which is why I waited to go there but I suppose maybe their do it in the summer. Hopefully

And Gevan, Ty definitely spelled it Idyll. Maybe it was a play on the words, I can't even remember now.