A Brand New Waitress

I want to tell you a funny story.  Wednesday night we went out to eat at Bahn Thai, a restaurant we used to frequent on 13th Street when they served a massive vegetarian lunch buffet.  They didn't only serve veggie-fare but because the husband-wife-owner-tandem were vegetarian, they were very careful about separation of church and state, if you know what I mean.  The husband was the only cook and very meticulous about whoever helped him, therefore he generally cooked solo.  Some years ago, they stopped the lunch program and became an evening-only establishment.  They were becoming too old, the wife said, to keep up with the hard work.  Over time, Chop Stix became the oriental fare of choice for us and Bahn Thai was all but forgotten.  Anyway a funny thing happened to me there Wednesday night.  Not hilarious but I got a kick out of it.

Now, Gainesville is not a big place and if you go out to eat enough, you quickly run out of options. Philadelphia, for example, has at least a dozen pure vegetarian restaurants, Atlanta has a good handful also, and New York, forget about it.  Gainesville has got a couple that are pure veggie and several that are veggie-friendly.  Still, if you live in this town and go to school and work like I do, sometimes you don't want to cook when you're under the gun.  And this semester with six classes and all, it always seemed like I was under the gun.  For it's population, though, there is a decent list of places you can find vegetarian meals.  The only pure vegetarian places that I know of are The Book Lover's Cafe (next to Mother Earth on 13th Street) and The Green Mango (an Indian place run by a Hare Krishna Indian couple).  Other than that, you have to sort through the meat-also places and hope nothing dead ends up on your plate.  I'm okay with both Chop Stix and Bahn Thai because they are very conscious.  Chop Stix claims they have a separate veggie-only kitchen and Bahn Thai's owners are vegetarian.  Merlion, next to Chop Stix also serves vegan oriental fare.  In fact, they not only have a separate section in their menu for vegetarian meals but a whole separate vegetarian menu that you can get by request.  On University Avenue, there is Suci-To-Go, which used to be called Saigon Cafe, which serves some vegan Vietnamese dishes.  

As far as pizza goes, there are a few places that are veggie-friendly.  Leonardo's has a vegan pizza and multiple forms of veggie pies.  The Original Pizza Palace has a tempeh pizza.  Satchel's has many options and is an experience in and of itself with it's strong 1970's feel.  You can eat of the back of a vintage van or visit their Lightning Salvage store in the back, drink Coke out of a glass bottle and listen to a live band.  New York-Pizza Plus on 23rd Ave. and Main Street has got me dreaming of a white pizza, just like the ones I used to know.

Right across the street from Satchel's, is The Jones.  The Jones is a breakfasty-coffee diner with many veggie and vegan options, including scrambled tofu, fried potatoes and a plethora of veggie soups and sandwiches.  Topp, a block north of University Ave on Main Street, has long been a favorite of vegetarians in this town.  They feature sandwiches, fries, pasta and vegan desserts that are likely to knock your natural-fiber socks off.  There are also always the usual array of gyro and burrito places that will fill you up with their veggie fodder if you are in the right mood.  If you want italian, Carrabba's is okay, as is Fresco's in the same plaza.  Don't order the marinara in Carrabba's, though, it's got anchovies in it, unless of course, you don't mind the possibility of becoming a processed fish in your next life. 

Anyway, there are more places to go, no doubt, but the purpose of this blog was not not make an exhaustive list of all the vegetarian places in this youthful college town.  The purpose, don't worry I remember, was to tell a funny story about Bahn Thai.  There was this girl named Elizabeth who served us there Wednesday.  It was her first day and her anxious demeanor was cute.  I ordered a baked tempeh preparation with broccoli.  When she came to check on us, she asked, "How is that broccoli, it looks good?"  "Try one," I said.  "Really?" she asked hesitatingly.   "C'mon," I said, pushing the plate toward her.  "I haven't touched this side of it and I won't tell anybody."  "Okay, but please don't tell because I'll lose my job."  I couldn't believe she was actually going to do it.  She looked over her shoulder and then reached down and grasped a piece of my broccoli with three of her fingers and quickly brought it to her mouth.  "Mmmm, pretty good," she said.  We all started laughing.  I couldn't believe I got a waitress to eat from my plate.  It was awesome.