Yesterday I did go to the Green Sage for brunch, as promised in my entry on Friday. Overall it was a great experience and I recommend it as a great place to stop for a bite. However, there were a couple of things, good and not so good, worthy of note.
Being that the Green Sage is on the corner of Broadway and College Street, well, it's crowded in there! The set-up works though - order and pay at the corner, find a seat, and runners from the kitchen bring your food. Though there was a pretty long line, we didn't have to wait for a seat - and there were 4 of us! On the downside, there's no separate counter for people who just want a quick cup of a coffee, so you'll have to wait through the line of folks ordering their food.
Of course, the most appealing part of the Green Sage is the natural, organic foods and drinks. This includes fresh squeezed, organic juices & fair trade, organic coffees and teas. It's hard to tell what exact food ingredients are local organic, but they promise to use what they can. All of our meals were really tasty, most notably the trout salad (think tuna salad but made with local mountain trout), fresh fruit salad, and sweet potato home fries. Beware of the bland biscuits - go with grits or toast instead.
Overall, the place is really clean, fresh and enjoyable. I love the 'compost center' for busing your own table. Patrons are instructed to divide their trash into dishes, fully separated recyclable bins (glass, plastic bottles, aluminum, paper, etc), and finally... the unavoidable trash receptacle. You leave the Green Sage thinking This is how everyone should do it!
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8 comments:
I'm really looking forward to dropping by this place. Thanks for your review!
ps: I would have TOTALLY ordered a biscuit had you not told me they were bland. Good deal.
that was a huge disappointment for me! i'm such a big biscuit fan... and that's something you never think to ask - "are the biscuits good?" - because they're an old standby! grits can be too gritty, too gloppy, too salty, too buttery, too plain... but biscuits are always good! guess i learned my lesson, always ask for the wait staff recommendation at a new restaurant :)
I talked to someone on Twitter who said their sweet potato fries were greasy and soggy, but maybe it was just an 'off' day. They said their hummus veggie wrap was EXCELLENT and that they were definitely going back.
I'm trying it out this weekend!
i had the sweet potato home fries, my companion had the regular sweet potato skinny fries and both were the right texture - mine soft, his crispy - and full of flavor. they must have just had an off day, or maybe perfected them since (hopefully they'll work out the biscuit situation too). i'll have to try the hummus veggie wrap next time, sounds really good!
I hope they make it. With the Firestorm cafe opening last weekend and others I hope the "green model" sets them apart.
Some Twitterers have told me they feel like it's a little bit snobbish when you walk in, making you feel like a tool for not bringing your own mug, and so forth.
I hope the owner's are careful their green evangelizing doesn't border on snobby or elitest. As this same activist twitterer noted, the elitism of many enviro people has done more damage to their cause than anything.
anonymous - i didn't have that experience at all! and i think i'm pretty sensitive to elitism. whoever is on the barista staff may have a lot to do with that feeling, although in all honesty with no waitstaff i didn't feel like i had enough contact with anyone working there to get any sort of vibe, good or bad, from them! and i like it that way at my coffee shops.
i used to go to gourmet perks, but the barista staff there has gotten really snobby, just downright irritating, completely negligent, and increasingly bad at making drinks and food. so for me with green sage, it was nice to see a similar set up to gourmet perks but better quality. i still miss the drive-through at gourmet perks.
i also hope the green model sets them apart. of course, ideally it'd be great if it eventually sets a standard to follow.
My kind of place! I'm a big fan of eating local and wish we had more places like that around here.
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