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Press
Read our write up in NewHampshire.com
Healthy fare blooms at Seedling Cafe
****½ FOOD: **** ½ GOOD FOR: A healthy kick-start to your day or nutrient-packed lunch.
I recently purchased Mireille Guiliano’s New York Times bestseller, “French Women Don’t Get Fat,” on the recommendation of a friend, who rightly assumed I would appreciate the book because Guiliano tells us we can eat bread and chocolate, and we don’t even have to exercise.
Of course, my friend failed to mention the guiding principle behind Guiliano’s diet, “Everything in moderation.”
There’s always a catch.
In her book, Guiliano also details the benefits of organic foods. Americans, she says, eat way too much prepackaged, heavily processed food. That may be true, but I’ve always equated organic food with health food, and if you’re going to eat health food, well, you might as well eat cardboard, right?
A recent trip to the Seedling Cafe in downtown Nashua proved me wrong, and I don’t mind admitting it.
The Seedling Cafe is a charming, little place tucked into Water Street, about halfway between Main Street and the Clock Tower apartments. It has just five tables and a counter along the back wall, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in quality food and personable service.
Two things set the Seedling Cafe apart from the pack. First is its insistence on using only ingredients grown by local N.H. farmers. Whenever possible, the cafe’s proprietors buy organic. Second, these proprietors, the husband-and-wife team of Joshua and Danielle Enright, are clearly passionate about their business. That passion resonates throughout the cafe.
I met my sister and a friend one afternoon on my lunch break. Joshua, preparing meals behind the counter, and Danielle, manning the cash register, gave us plenty of time to peruse their innovative menu.
The cafe’s unique sandwich offerings include the Heidi, with fresh-roasted chicken, Romaine lettuce, bacon, tomato, Parmesan cheese and the cafe’s own Caesar dressing in an herb wrap ($6.25), and the Bonnie, a mix of roasted red peppers, cucumbers, baby field greens, tomato, caramelized onions and homemade hummus on whole-grain bread ($5.75).
A chalkboard on the wall listed the specials of the day. After much debating, I settled on the Marc ($6.50), a delightful concoction of smoked turkey, smoked bacon, mozzarella cheese, organic corn, organic baby spinach, caramelized onions, tomato and a tangy barbecue sauce. These ingredients were all rolled into a red Southwest tortilla and grilled to perfection. I’ll go on record that the Marc was one of the tastiest sandwiches I’ve ever eaten.
My friend ordered the vegetarian special, dubbed the Jose ($6.50). His sandwich was filled with organic refried beans, organic black beans, organic corn, pepperjack cheese and salsa, all rolled into a flour tortilla and lightly grilled. My friend was pleased with his out-of-the-ordinary lunch, though he wished it had been grilled a little longer as the beans were still a bit cold.
My sister opted for one of the cafe’s more traditional offerings, tuna fish, which she ordered on whole-wheat bread ($5.75). Without exaggeration, her sandwich was a good 4 inches thick.
“It’s like Panera Bread,” she said, “but better.”
The portions were more than ample, and all three of us ate only half our sandwiches. (I saved the other half for dinner.)
Lunch entrees are served in terra-cotta plates lined with brown paper, and all meals come with a pickle and a heaping pile of organic potato chips.
So good are the potato chips, in fact, that I actually witnessed the following exchange:
Diner: “I have a bone to pick with you.” Joshua: “With me? Why?” Diner: “You served me those salt-and-pepper kettle potato chips, and then I saw them at the store. I bought them, and now I’m hooked!”
One could easily get hooked on the cafe’s desserts, too. The Enrights serve a rotating selection of cakes and pastries purchased from the Dutch Epicure on 101A in Amherst, but they also offer cookies and brownies baked on premises.
I ordered a chocolate brownie to go, and it provided a great pick-me-up as I was watching the clock later that afternoon at work. So thick was that brownie, I was inspired to measure it with a ruler: 1¾ inches thick. Now that is what I call dessert!
I work not far from the Seedling Cafe, and I have a hunch I might become a regular. So if you decide to drop in for lunch – and I think you should – you might just bump into me. I’ll be the one with the contented look on my face, murmuring, “Who knew healthy could be this good?”
Got a restaurant you would like to see reviewed? send suggestions to epicure@telegraph-nh.com.
(c) 2008 The Seedling Cafe Website by Simple Creative & Web
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