The Central Coast is known for its wine, beaches and rocky coastline, but also its produce. For proof, just walk down Higuera Street on Thursday and take in the sites and smells of Farmers’ Market. And just as the health-conscious culture of San Luis Obispo takes advantage of these local farms, many restaurants in the city cater to the vegetarian lifestyle.
Big Sky Café and Natural Café have been the staples for vegetarians and vegans in San Luis Obispo for years. However, newcomers like Smiling Dog Café, Pizza Fusion and Evos are proving there is a demand for variety.
For those wanting to enjoy the restaurant-like atmosphere while eating a meat-free meal, Big Sky Café at 1121 Broad St. is the place to go. Offering a wide variety of foods from American to Asian, it provides many options for the vegetarian as well as the omnivore.
Whether you’re coming in for breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert, Big Sky uses organic, locally-grown fruits and vegetables to provide a healthy meal for everyone, manager Ana Vega said.
“We try to accommodate our customers,” she said of their service. “Whatever they want or need, we try to do as much as we can to make sure they’re happy.”
For a restaurant with more of a café atmosphere, you could head over to the Natural Café on the corner of Higuera and Broad streets. Order at the counter where you can review the menu, which has just as many vegetarian dishes as it does non-vegetarian.
The search for the perfect table begins after you order one of the many vegetarian options, which include basic salads, enchiladas, burritos and grilled vegetables over rice.
“(The restaurant) encompasses all sorts of different angles of hot foods and cold foods for vegetarians,” manager Jennifer Stucky said.
Steering away from the downtown area to a more nestled location near the corner of Archer and Higuera streets is the relatively new Smiling Dog Café, which opened for business in June 2008.
The café complements the Smiling Dog Yoga studio, which offers five to six daily yoga classes covering many different styles.
Tucked away between the studio and the little boutique store is the café’s courtyard. Appealing to those wanting to experience a natural, vegan meal in a soothing atmosphere, Smiling Dog Café offers food that is straight from the earth. Everything the café serves is organic, locally-grown food that is usually picked up each Thursday during Farmers’ Market, said chef Brandie Michelle, who runs the café.
Because they work mostly with local produce, Smiling Dog Café has an ever-changing menu that features three to four items a day.
“It depends on what I can get from Farmers’ Market, what’s seasonal,” Michelle said of choosing the menu.
However, the Peaceful Plate, which consists of fresh organic greens served with a selection of pƒtés and crackers, the super-food smoothie and green juice are served all day, everyday. The Pizza of the Day, enchiladas and nori rolls are among the few that often make an appearance on the chalkboard menu.
According to Michelle, the café opened in 2008 because San Luis Obispo was “needing a good place to eat that is all organic and wanting a desire to support local farmers.”
Smiling Dog Café serves lunch and dinner 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and brunch from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
Follow Higuera Street for about another two or three miles until you get to the Trader Joe’s parking lot, where South Higuera Street and Tank Farm Road intersect. The shopping center there welcomed the two newest members to the vegetarian scene just a little over three months ago: Pizza Fusion and Evos.
Pizza Fusion is, you guessed it, a pizza place. However, it’s different than most because its pizzas are made with fresh, organic ingredients and the business practices environmental responsibility. Everything from the insulation, which is made from recycled blue jeans, to the counter tops, which are made from recycled glass bottles, to the artwork, which is printed on recycled plastic bottle material, is eco-friendly.
Not only does Pizza Fusion practice sustainability, but it also offers food for everyone, including meat eaters, vegetarians and people with wheat allergies.
“We knew the community needed something like this,” Borene explained. “Not only do we offer vegetarian, but we have vegan, gluten-free products, for people with wheat allergies, and organic food, which is good for everybody.”
Although Pizza Fusion does not use products that are grown locally on the county level, it keeps close tabs on where its products are coming from and doesn’t venture outside state lines.
“It’s hard for us to buy on a very local basis because we use so much in the way of organics that some of these small farms can’t keep up with what we are doing,” Borene said.
When Borene and his wife, Susan, opened this Pizza Fusion in San Luis Obispo in December 2008, they wanted to provide a place “where everybody can feel welcome, and not isolated.”
“We needed to have something here for everybody,” Borene said.
In 2008, PETA voted Pizza Fusion into its Top 10 Vegan Friendly Restaurants and Co-Op America said it’s “one of the greenest businesses in America.”
A few doors over from Pizza Fusion, Evos has made its home. Evos is a healthy alternative to fast food restaurants that offers the same types of food, but with 50 to 70 percent less fat.
Evos selects only organic and natural foods and there are no hormones and no additives in its products. The restaurant only purchases free-range beef that it can track from birth to production in their stores, owner Tom Maupin said.
In Evos’ kitchen, no fryers or grills can be found. It only has convention-bake ovens and air bakes everything that it serves. By preparing the food this way, it prevents any unwanted greases and oils from getting into the foods.
Evos has many options for the vegetarian or the vegan. Vegetarians can get anything from the Champion Burger, which uses a soy patty, to the Vegan Chile, any of the Fruitshakes or Airfries. And if those don’t work for the customer, Evos can mix and match anything to satisfy their needs, Maupin said.
“You can take a primary item and move it to another and we’ll accommodate you,” Maupin explained.
Between these five restaurants, vegetarians and vegans in San Luis Obispo can enjoy a variety of different cuisines, while staying true to their dietary yens.