Healthy choice

The Bakehouse Café goes vegetarian

By Jill Strauss

BAKEHOUSE CAFÉ, 433 Route 1, 205 Commercial Street, Portland, (207) 773-2215.

Lunch served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tues. through Fri., brunch served from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sat. and Sun.

Starting in May, dinner (and beer and wine) will be served. Patio service available, weather permitting.

All major credit cards accepted.

GREENHOUSE: new ownership brings a new menu to the Bakehouse Café.

Next door to me lives the most stimulating couple I know. The wife is a passionate artist. The husband is an avid environmentalist. They are thoughtful conversationalists, good listeners, involved in community politics, and concerned about world events. Whenever we meet on the street, we always promise to get together and discuss provocative subjects. And yet we rarely do. The impediment is not time, or geography, or personality conflicts. It’s food. Last month the artist loved tofu. This month she loathes it. She will eat naturally fed chickens, but red meat is out of the question. The environmentalist won’t eat anything with a face on it. Hormone-free dairy’s okay, but he’s not keen on eggs, even if they come from free-range chickens. I gave up trying to cook for them long ago, since I couldn’t think of anything that was safe to serve besides a plate of organic greens and a glass of non-carbonated, purified drinking water.

You would think that eating out might be the solution to our dining dilemma, but few restaurants in Maine happily cater to persnickety ovo-lacto-vegetarians who occasionally indulge in pampered poultry. Of those blessed eateries that do accommodate friends like mine, only a handful is open for breakfast and lunch. This is why I am grateful for the Bakehouse Café, especially now that vegetarian Katherine Shyka owns the eatery. Shyka, the chef who managed the Bakehouse Café since it opened in 1998, bought the restaurant five months ago from Nick Burnett, former owner of the Port Bakehouse and The Baker’s Table, and already Shyka has begun to make imaginative and productive changes.

The place is now a little bit gayer — the delicate new curtains that look like cheesecloths dipped in tropical fruit juices are brilliant beside the mango painted walls — and a little bit larger. In order to increase table space, the determined 38-year-old chef yanked out the bakery cases and counter area so that the inside could comfortably seat 36. The bakery cases, she decided, weren’t needed since the restaurant no longer makes its own cakes or breads. Wonderful slices of foccacia, semolina, and baguette are still being served at the bistro, however, thanks to Scott Anderson, Portland Greengrocer’s baker.

“He’s a great baker so I just go next door and buy what I need,” Shyka told me recently. I am particularly fond of Anderson’s luscious honey raisin bread, which is fabulous when fresh or toasted. But, wow, what a treat it is when sweet, cinnamon-infused slabs are soaked in eggs, pan-fried, and served with a little pitcher of real maple syrup, as it is during brunch at The Bakehouse Café.

With the bread and space issues resolved, Shyka is spending her energy on introducing healthy and flavorful entrées. My favorite, and the one I expect will please even my impossible-to-feed neighbors, is “Rice and Beans.” Shyka’s Jamaican sous chef, Dequhn Simms (the very same fellow who sings lead in the local reggae band Mystic Vibes) developed this hearty dish that consists of the following: a mountain of rice and pigeon peas, a square of cheddar cheesy macaroni, three slices of fresh avocado, some salad lightly dressed with balsamic vinaigrette, a few warm plantain wedges, a dollop of coleslaw, and your choice of marinated tofu or organic chicken breast steamed in a carefully wrapped banana leaf. Oh, yes, a bowl of Jamaican gravy (a peppery coconut milk sauce) is always served on the side. The entrée is so beautiful to behold and delicious to eat that you may feel like humming in between bites to the reggae that is sometimes playing in the background.

If Jamaican food is too exotic for you, the Bakehouse Café does serve a fragrant haddock chowder composed of homemade fish stock and cream, and accented with fennel rather than bacon. Lighter items, such as oven roasted vegetable salad with pan-seared chèvre, or mango shrimp salad with blood orange vinaigrette, are also available. I was disappointed with this last choice, however. When my meal arrived, the shrimp was warm, the mango was perfectly peeled, and the vinaigrette was tangy, but the lettuce leaves were gritty. Hopefully, this problem will be remedied.

The restaurant will be getting its liquor license in May. In the meantime, you can quench your thirst with “Naked Juices” or other non-alcoholic libations. My enthusiastic and attentive waitress wisely recommended a glass of iced Chai (a spicy milk tea for contemplative types) to accompany a ginger molasses cookie I ordered for dessert. Several cookies are available, but I am partial to the ginger molasses since they are chewy and chock full of candied ginger.

Red meat is not served at The Bakehouse Café because Shyka believes “unless it’s organic, meat is probably the most unhealthy thing you can put in your body.” I doubt that everyone who dines at The Bakehouse Café is as enlightened about nutrition as Shyka or my finicky neighbors (who, after listening to my recitation of the menu, promised to join me at the restaurant in a few weeks), but everyone I noticed on my many visits to The Bakehouse Café seemed to leave more than satisfied.

Jill Strauss can be reached at straussj@adelphia.net.