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Volume CXXXII, Number 21 |
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Eating treats without the meat
KERRY ELSON
COLUMNIST
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| Little Lad's Bakery and Cafe is on Mill Street in Brunswick. As the name suggests, the establishment serves baked goods--eggless, milkless baked goods. Everything is vegan, including the cookies. (Karsten Moran, Bowdoin Orient) |
Just imagine what would happen if Aunt Voula, that lamb-loving Grecian of the solemn, Oscar-worthy indie hit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, were to enter Little Lad's Bakery and Café, the Maine chain's latest offspring on Mill Street.
"What do you mean you don't serve no meat?" Voula would inquire accusingly, after her requests for a lamb pita were tactfully denied.
"Silly Voula," the Foodie would say mysteriously over a loudspeaker. "You'd best get out of here before you find out that you wouldn't get feta or yogurt sauce with that lamb either. You see, Little Lad's is a vegan restaurant. No animal products here!"
Bewildered by this strange dining practice, Voula would then stagger out of the tiny café towards MacMillan's for a steak.
Maybe Voula would be right. The Foodie supports Little Lad's efforts to incorporate cruelty-free food into the Maine culinary landscape. However, while the offerings at this café are just as varied as those that include animal products, they are, sadly, not as filling.
Just over a month old, Little Lad's serves lunch during its hours of operation, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The owner advocated the $3.99 all-you-care-to-eat buffet, which includes various bean and vegetable hot or cold salads, an herbed tofu scramble and soups. Patrons may also sneak slices of Little Lad's own bread and scoop cups of its popcorn. The Foodie began to wonder if this Little Lad were following a good business model. The restaurant was empty and had probably been so all day; neat salad piles lay undisturbed in metal containers.
The buffet's apparent lack of freshness persuaded the Foodie to purchase a cup of warm chili, a blueberry-lemon "cookie" and a raspberry tart. None of the items she tried were superior to those that might have been made with butter and eggs or, in the case of the chili, beef. While the seitan and bean chili was overly sweet and lumpy, the imitation cookie was a hard, crunchy pancake of oats and sugar with only a hint of lemon. The Foodie was impressed, however, by the delicate crust of the raspberry tart and its tangy filling.
Foodie friends from Maine have introduced the Foodie to Little Lad's yeast and dill popcorn, which is sold in many Maine health-food stores. Yes, the Foodie did say "yeast" and "dill" together. The combination is an acquired taste, but quickly becomes addictive.
The Foodie supports any addition to the "slightly" stale Brunswick restaurant scene, and Little Lad's might be the ideal dining establishment for progressive consumers. Those of us looking for good food by any standard, however, would be better off snacking on Thorne Hall's Chocolate Wowie Cake.
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