| Healthy Chat |
| Written by Lainey Seyler |
| Monday, 15 December 2008 03:34 |
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It’s what Morgan Spurlock has been drawing attention to since his 2004 documentary Super Size Me scared the country into eating at home or at Subway restaurants. Entrepreneur M.J. Zaremba opened her La Vista restaurant in response to the stifling lack of diversity in fast-food options. Let’s be honest, turkey clubs with a side of chips are only diverting for so long. The Chatty Squirrel Café and Bakery opened March 11 to sporadic but encouraging business in a strip mall on 96th and Giles. The restaurant has a drive-through window and a sit-down dining room. The interior is akin to a Panera, as are the soup-and-sandwich offerings but with a neighborhood-café appeal. “I felt that people are really looking for something fast but healthy,” Zaremba said. “We have a health crisis with obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The Surgeon General recommends seven to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day. There’s just no place you can get that on the run.” Sandwiches and paninis are the basis for the meal options at The Chatty Squirrel. These dishes all come with “a fresh healthy side” or a cup of soup made that day. Sides include a bulgur salad (bulgur is a grain popular in Turkey and Greece), brown rice and asparagus salad, black bean salad, coleslaw, pasta salad and a special that changes daily. Four soups are available daily: beef vegetable, chicken brown rice and tomato soup every day, along with a special. Italian wedding soup was the special when I visited last week. Each lunch comes with a “sweet treat,” something in the family of the petit four. “I think people want a little taste at the end of the meal, not a big dessert,” Zaremba said. Head Chef Barb Dickhute leads the kitchen, and a few others assist in playing with the recipes. “In the first weeks we were tasting and revising the recipes a lot,” assistant chef Isaiah Renner said. “We’re trying to do healthy, so we took out a lot of the salt and sugar and replaced it with honey and other ingredients.” The only oils used are olive and canola, and lemon juice is used to flavor the salads. In typical café fashion, The Chatty Squirrel offers an enticing variety of pastry, all made on site. Banana, pineapple and pecans flavor the hummingbird cake. The apricot truffle tart and the raspberry jelly roll, both chocolate-covered, will appease the sweet tooth. The restaurant’s signature is the cheese and jam-filled squirrel tail Danish, which the bakers invented in the weeks leading up to opening day. Zaremba brought her experience working in a bakery and delicatessen in her native Montreal to her new eatery, along with a few old recipes. The Russian potato salad comes from a woman she stayed with in boarding school. Mornings at The Chatty Squirrel resemble a coffee shop, with a full espresso bar, muffins and other morning pastries available to-go. Zaremba said she’s looking out for the fiber intake of her customers, something McDonald’s certainly lacks. And about that name … The Chatty Squirrel could be nothing if not memorable. That’s the point. “I knew I wanted an animal name,” Zarembo said. “There is a popular restaurant in Philadelphia called the White Dog Café. My daughter loves watching squirrels and to draw them. I wanted to convey the feeling that you could chat and be comfy. It’s just a nice, joyful place.” The Chatty Squirrel Café and Bakery, 96th and Giles in La Vista, is open Monday-Saturday, 7 a.m.-6 p.m., and Sunday, 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. For more information, call 402.933.2787. |