The Frugal Foodie: The Bronze Cafe

I’ve read Mad Cowboy and have seen Food Inc. a few times so I try to eat a lot of vegan meals, but completely eliminating animal products from my diet is a step in life I can’t commit to at this point. I do believe in filling my body with good nutrition, however, and for that I turn to my favorite place for a healthy meal, the Bronze Cafe. located in The Center off Charleston and Maryland Pkwy.

Though the Bronze Cafe has a wide variety of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options, the focus is really more on health than pushing a way of eating. Everything is made from scratch, and for the most part it’s all pretty great.

My favorite items on the menu happen to be vegan, The Good Earth pita and The Bizness salad (both $9.95). The Good Earth is made with roasted vegetables, mixed greens, housemade romesco, hummus, alfalfa sprouts, lemon vinaigrette, and cayenne-spiced caramelized sunflower seeds, all snuggled nicely together in a soft warm pita. It’s completely satisfying and comes with a tasty but unnecessary side salad. The Bizness can take on any personality you like, as you get to top chopped kale massaged in a lemon vinaigrette with three toppings of your choice. I recommend the agrodolce brussels sprouts, curried chickpeas, and mini beet salad with quinoa, but I sometimes sub with the roasted broccoli with hemp hearts or curried quinoa salad. You can’t get much tastier for something as healthy as this.

Since the cafe is located in the Center, you will find a bit of gay humor in the menu, such as the Blueberry Boy Bait bar and The What What (if you haven’t seen the video this is named after, check it out here). The L BGTQ sandwich is quite popular, probably due the the addition of very un-vegan bacon jam, maple-glazed bacon, and basil aioli.

There are a lot of drink options to choose from, including smoothies, coffee drinks (available ‘creamers’ include soy milk or house-made almond milk), and fresh juices like Cantaloupe Turmeric and Pineapple Mint Chia ($3.75). The daily soup can be bland at times, but they always offer samples so you can see if it’s a full flavor day or not. Bakery goods are always fresh but hit or miss (mostly miss), and I actually kind of like that. I’d feel guilty about not being Vegan if butter wasn’t necessary to make desserts taste really good.

When I want to feel extra great about what I’m eating while doing my part for the Earth and its creatures, I make my way to The Bronze Cafe. I hope you, do too. Together we may save at least one cow (or perhaps something smaller like a chicken).