Café Evolution
22 Chestnut Street, Northampton
586-0200
Hours: Breakfast and lunch Mon.-Wed. 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Open all day (until 9 p.m.) Thu. and Fri. Brunch Sun. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Jazz on Saturday nights.
Sandwiches and entrées: $6.95-$8.95.
No reservations.
Waiter, there’s a raisin in my soup!
You’ve been there: the thick worn coffee mugs, the dizzying array of herbal teas, the tattooed, dreadlock-wearing counter staff, the complex flavorings in the soup. If you haven’t had the fourth part of that experience, check out Café Evolution in Florence.
In a large white brick building that formerly housed International Auto Parts at 22 Chestnut Street, this restaurant answers the question, “What is this world coming to?” Café Evolution serves food for vegans and everyone else who loves a good salad. Vegans eschew dairy as well as meat in favor of treating animals with respect.
If you are wondering why, check out some of the literature spread out on a table near the entrance. “Factory Farming Destroying the Environment” describes the impact of daily life on natural resources. “You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year…” As for the conditions animals live under in a factory farming environment, river rats in China have it better.
The restaurant is large and open with counter service. Its secret weapon, if a vegan restaurant can have a weapon, is a pastry bar. Using wheat-free ingredients, Oh Sweet Mama bakery supplies the café’s desert menu. The scones fly off the shelves all day and cupcakes with peaks of pastel frosting make it difficult to move on to the daily specials.
Offering homemade bread, soups and salads, Café Evolution uses the standard soy products to provide protein, heft and flavor. The dishes that are primarily salads are awesome. Standards like spicy peanut noodles ($1.50 extra for baked tofu and mesclun greens) and an “organic groovy green salad” with a choice of miso ginger, lemon tahini or Japanese carrot dressing are healthy and delicious. Because the ingredients are so pure, it’s the kind of food you can eat on a daily basis and not get tired of. The soup of the day the day I was there was Flight to Morocco, made from a base of coconut milk, seasoned with curry and containing chick peas, greens and raisins: very good, as gourmet as you can get in the Valley and for under $5.
Dishes like that fakin’ bacon BLT (grilled tempeh) and the bagel sandwich breakfast special (tofurkey, vegan cheddar cheese, tomato and veganise) are another story. (Tempeh is merely fermented tofu.) These dishes are great if you’re accustomed to soy-based alternatives, but the real thing, even if it might involve senseless slaughter, might make more sense at a different venue. There is an organic sunshine burger made of chickpea, which tastes mostly of condiments.
The good news is that in summer, the vegetables come from the chef’s garden. That gives Café Evolution the highest locavore rating in the Valley. All of the food served is 100 miles or less from farm to table.
In the words of Slow Food Nation author Carlo Petrini, “Tastebuds are neither conservative nor liberal.” Food should be good no matter what the politics. This restaurant pulls it off with its fresh food and relaxed atmosphere. In a world where one-fifth of the population is ordering its food from inside a car, there are alternatives.
