Peacefood Cafe 09-30-2009

Location: 460 Amsterdam Ave.
Time: 1pm
People: Showtime Ops! (GB, PeeWee, BeBe, AP and myself)

Feelings: The wandering Showtime Ops crew ventured out to a vegan cafe in AP's neighborhood. Peacefood Cafe in Upper West Side is aptly named. It has a very serene atmosphere with clean, modern and minimalistic decor. Upper West Side restaurants have a reputation of having an older and more mature decor, however this place accomplished creating a young atmosphere. It is finally nice to see a modern vegan cafe without narcissistic hipster gentlemen and gentleladies.

I believe this cafe offers mostly counter service, but since we were five, they offered table service instead. The waitstaff was nice and friendly, however, since this was not really a table service type of establishment, they didn't seem fully committed. He seldom checked how we were doing during our meal. PeeWee did not get his tempeh avocado sandwich ($9.75) until everyone had finished eating, which made hungry PeeWee utterly miserable.

Despite the confusion of the table service, we all enjoyed our meal. As an ovo-pecatarian, finding a tasty sandwich is somewhat of a hassle. I actually started to believe that all sandwiches just taste bland and dry, and I had no idea why people eat them almost everyday for lunch. After trying a sandwich here, I now know that they can be flavorful and fun. I ordered roasted Japanese pumpkin sandwich ($9.75), which consisted of mashed Japanese pumpkin, caramelized onions, walnuts, vegan goat cheese and greens with toasted whole spelt rye bread. Unlike my preconceived notion of sandwiches, it was not dry at all. All the ingredients had unified and made one interesting yet harmonious flavor and texture. As GB and PeeWee mentioned, it was subtly flavored but quite tasty!

PeeWee thought his tempeh sandwich tasted a little bitter but overall quite good. "The tempeh was soft and the marinade tangy, sweet and savory," he added. AP ordered a mushroom pizza ($9.75), and it smelled and looked amazing with mushrooms, peppers, zucchini and onions. I would certainly like to try that for next time.

We finished our meal with some of their vegan dessert: coconut cream pie ($4.25) and a red velvet cake cupcake ($2.75). I have to say that I have had better vegan dessert before, but the coconut cream pie was creamy yet light without much sugar. The cupcakes were also just sweet enough, and the icing was smooth and creamy according to PeeWee.

The service is slow here, which seems to be a pattern for most vegan spots, and the price is high but within the Upper West Side standard. If you understand these two rules, you would enjoy this healthy, fresh vegan cafe.

-Would I go back? YES.