Stuff I Ate from the Crosstown Arts Cafe

As I mentioned a few weeks ago in this post, Crosstown Arts, the nonprofit arts org where I work, now has a plant-based cafe. And that means gourmet vegan food is available right outside my office door.

I've tried to limit myself to eating in the cafe just once a week because a) I have a budget for eating out and 2) I like to cook at home too! Since I also manage the cafe's Facebook page and photograph the daily specials as they're plated, this is a challenge. But so far, I'm making that self-inflicted limit work.

Here are a few meals I've eaten in our Crosstown Arts Cafe lately. We had our monthly Vegan Drinks meet-up there a few weeks ago, and I got the daily special of Vegan Chili Cheese Fries with seitan beef and cashew cheese. YUM!! Washed down with a Crosstown Brewing Co. Traffic IPA (brewed just a few doors down at our on-site brewery).

Here's the Curry Tofu Salad. This has grapes, chickpeas, and chunks of firm tofu in a curry mayo. I ordered a slice of baked-in-house rosemary bread to scoop this up with.

Last night, I met some friends for dinner and ordered the Seitan Bourgignon, which is sadly going off-menu. It's being replaced with something else, but man, it was so good! Mashed potatoes, seitan beef stew, and asparagus. Chef Raymond said he may make it again one day as a special though!

Here's a savory Cashew Ricotta & Chive Scone baked by our baker, Ali. She makes fresh vegan pastries, scones, croissants, and other sweet treats daily. I have an especially hard time resisting those.

The next pic isn't something from the cafe, per se. But this plate of deliciousness was prepared by our cafe staff for our last staff meeting. We served ourselves buffet-style from a spread of baked tofu, hoisin eggplant, sauteed green beans, spicy cauliflower, sauteed peppers and mushrooms, brown rice, sesame noodles, and sauteed bok choy. 

We also have vegan cupcakes (from Muddy's Bake Shop) for every staff meeting (they're monthly) to celebrate staff birthdays. I grabbed a Mint Chocolate Grasshopper Cake to eat later in the afternoon with a cup of Maple Walnut Green Tea that I purchased from our cafe.

By the way, Crosstown Arts Cafe has a Facebook page now! Follow us!