Restaurant of the Week – Blue Moose Cafe

Weekend!Food: Vegetarians find big flavors in a little cafe

By ERIC BARTELS

The Portland Tribune, Jul 13, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Sarah Toor / Portland tribune

At Blue Moose Cafe, the only animal around is the one in the marquee. Inside it’s all vegetarian, all the time.

Outside the Blue Moose Cafe, on Northeast Fremont Street, the sign says “Wholesome Vegetarian Food,” which seems a bit silly. Most people assume that vegetarian food is wholesome. What they don’t necessarily know is that it also can taste really good.

But they’re learning, owner Sheila Gilronan says. In the year and a half since she opened the place, people are showing up not because they’re vegetarians, as she expected. They’re coming because they’re hungry.

And they’re liking what they find.

Gilronan arrived in Beaumont Village after 10 years at the popular veggie takeout spot Dogs Dig in Old Town, and she brought her entire skill set with her. That includes the gentle, tongue-in-cheek militancy that shows up on fruit crate label-style posters that line the walls.

One says, “Kids never cry when they find out where tomatoes come from,” while another reassures us, “Don’t worry, yams can’t be force-fed other yams.”

More important, she was able to expand her menu into a hearty, adventurous and affordable portfolio of sandwiches, soups and salads that could make you conclude that ingesting animal flesh at every meal is not a required part of American citizenship.

There’s nothing wimpy about the Grilled Kraut sandwich, which gets a nice tang from sauerkraut, onions and brown mustard and feels substantial stuffed with tomato and cheddar cheese (with no rennet, a binding agent taken from the lining of a cow’s stomach).

Miss the corned beef? Maybe a little. But this packs much of the punch of a real Reuben, and won’t kill you.

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