Fancy Plants Cafe - Chicago
Fancy Plants Café is living proof that vegetarian restaurants have come a long way in the past few years; from drab restaurants serving brown rice with everything, they’ve become worthy destinations, offering finessed, finely tuned veg-forward offerings, many times with a fine-dining attention to detail.
Kevin Schuder, chef/owner of Fancy Plants Café, explains his kitchen philosophy, “We’ll start with the best fruits, grains, spices, and vegetables that we can, and then use inspiration, fermentation, and preservation, as well as ancient and modern techniques to make it memorable.”
Fancy Plants Café specializes in vegetarian/vegan cuisine, which is progressively becoming more mainstream. One of the most popular items on the menu is probably Avocado Toast, a current hipster favorite, but Chef Keven Schuder works his cheffy magic upon this standard item by adding to smashed avocado a delectable tomato confit, as well as pickled radish, togarashi, and olive oil, and then serving it all on house-made nut and seed bread.
Many times, the vegetable-based creations at Fancy Plants Café are meat-free versions of popular dishes that everyone knows. The Smoked Lentil Bolognese Lasagna contains a sauce of the eponymous smoked pulses, layered between pasta sheets, filled with tomato and cashew mozzarella. Believe us: you won’t miss the meat.
Cured Smoked Carrot Lox and Bagel features the smoke-kissed red-orange root vegetable standing in for the fish, with cultured cashew cream cheese, capers, red onion, cucumber, and mixed greens on an *everything* bagel (or you can have it on gluten-free nut and seed bread).
If you’re looking for vegan/vegetarian dishes that are likely to please carnivores, we’d suggest the Heirloom Tomato BLT with house-smoked tempeh bacon, romaine, aioli and, of course, big, beautiful heirloom tomatoes. Then…there’s the Burger; as reported in Eater, “’Using lentils and nori as the main ingredients, the burger is grown together with tempeh and a koji culture, a process which not only creates new proteins and vitamins,’ says Schuder, ‘but also adds umami and helps bind the burger to give it that essential chew. A lot of the plant-based burgers out there use harsh chemicals and are working really hard to fight with nature. Our approach uses a process already in nature. It takes less energy to produce and it’s environmentally a knockout.’”
Fancy Plants Café also has an excellent selection of baked goods, including house-made croissants (chocolate, almond, and original) and muffins. Many of the most delicious muffins are also gluten-free: chocolate-cherry and morning glory.
Cashew-Mozzarella Balls and Almond Ricotta are the dairy-free “cheeses” offered, and you might be surprised how much you like these innovative vegan offerings.
To drink, there are specialty lattes prepared with house-made syrups as well as some incredible flavor combinations like Maple-Citrus Crème Brulee Latte (maple, vanilla, burnt sugar, nutmeg and citrus) and Breakfast Club Latte (maple, fennel, coriander, and black pepper).
If it’s been a long time since you’ve eaten at a vegan/vegetarian restaurant, check out Fancy Plants Café to see what a twenty-first century vegan/vegetarian restaurant is really like.
Eat at Fancy Plants Café will become a memorable experience for vegans, vegetarians, carnivores, and omnivores alike.
