Green Restaurant: There’s No Place Like Home
I love to eat out. I love the hustle and bustle, and I love someone else preparing my food. (Doesn’t it always taste better that way?) I especially love the process of finding a restaurant, being charmed by the wait-staff, chefs and owners—the people who make a restaurant irreplaceable. I love getting to know a restaurant owner on a first-name basis. In a special place, it’s like finding family you didn’t know you had. A great restaurant is a home away from home, a refuge.
That’s what I felt recently in Texas, with my Friends of Animals co-workers, Priscilla Feral and Edita Birnkrant. We were there to visit Primarily Primates, but we were introduced to an equally charming treasure, San Antonio’s first vegetarian restaurant, Green Vegetarian Cuisine and Coffee.
Priscilla has worked in San Antonio part of each month for more than a year now. During this time, she has almost always eaten at the restaurant that, in its own words, seeks “to serve delicious and affordable vegetarian comfort food to our diverse customers."
Chef Mike Behrend owns the restaurant along with his mother, Luann Singleton. Although it just opened in January 2006, Green has already been named Best New Restaurant in the San Antonio Express-News Critics Choice Awards.
The refreshing iced hibiscus tea was expertly monitored by our friendly and generous server as we sampled sweet potato fries, a popcorn tofu po boy, buffalo tofu fingers, and chicken-fried wheat meat. Gorgeous salads too, and we had plenty of time to try the lighter fare, such as portobello steak and zucchini enchiladas. Both were exceptional. The raw hummus -- a spectacular combination of red peppers, cashews and Brazil nuts -- comes as an appetizer or a main course, so there’s no excuse for missing it. There’s a nifty “neatloaf” and mashed potatoes, and a tempting taco salad with greens, beans and salsa. Of course. This is Texas. And to cool off, Green offers house vegan soft-serve ice cream, a swirl of chocolate and vanilla.
With its commitment to using wind-power and bio-degradable containers, its stylish interior and delicious food, Green is a place to watch. Although Green is not a vegan restaurant, nearly all dishes can be made vegan; tofu scramble can be substituted for the eggs at breakfast.
Most remarkable are its people. They’re what makes Green a home away from home.
Hot off the press: Mike Behrend’s recipes for Sweet Potato Gnocchi and Sweet Potato Pancakes appear in Friends of Animals’ forthcoming cookbook, The Best of Vegan Cooking…coming this Spring!
Green Restaurant 1017 North Flores Hours of Operation:
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Green at Alon10003 NW Military Suite 2115 (Corner of Wurzbach and NW Military) Hours of Operation
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