Eat & Drink

Healthy Eating Made Easy at Café Evergreen

By Rick Dakan

“You can eat as much as you want and lose weight and feel great.”

Oh, I wish that were true! It’s a new year, and a new round of resolutions. Live healthier. Feel better. Easier said than done, especially in the face of all the delicious salt, fat, and sugar-soaked temptations that lurk in every cupboard, grocery aisle, and restaurant menu. But Ted Weinberger’s got some great advice. “When you eat clean, fresh food, you can eat as much as you want and lose weight and feel great. It’s not true that healthy food doesn’t taste good.” And he’s right, especially if you eat at Ted Weinberger and Annette Schmitt’s Café Evergreen in Nokomis. 

For eight years, this casual, health-conscious eatery has worked tirelessly to spread the good word about eating your way to a better life. For the first half of its existence, Café Evergreen served customers at the Warm Mineral Springs in North Port. Then it moved and expanded into its current locale, a quaint building that dates back to 1923, added dinner service and breakfast on weekends, and has been serving bigger and bigger crowds every year since. 

Their regulars include “lots of doctors and health care workers,” according to Ted. “People who know that what you put in your body really affects you.”

Café Evergreen works hard to make everything they serve affects diners for the better. “Everything’s made from scratch, no preservatives, less salt,” explains Ted. “It’s meant to be eaten, not stored.” The restaurant doesn’t even have a fryer, because they don’t want the smell of oil in the restaurant and can cook healthier without it. For example, baking their sweet potato fries, a decision that exemplifies the restaurant’s whole approach to cooking and even life: don’t give up on flavor, just do the extra work to find a healthier, equally satisfying approach. “It has to taste great or I’m not going to put it on our menu,” Ted repeats over and over again, and it does. 

One of the most popular dishes is the avocado sliders. Served on bread made in the café from dehydrated onions, these delicious, aromatic starters are seasoned with micro greens that deliver an intense flavor. For their stir fry dishes, Evergreen uses kelp noodles, which are gluten free, healthy as heck, and add a nice crunch while absorbing the flavors of the sauce, veggies, and proteins they’re served with. The Roasted Beet Reuben has roast beets instead of corned beef, homemade sauerkraut and vegan 1000 Island dressing. But it’s not all veggie and vegan, there’s also a version with Ted’s own baked corned beef recipe, and there’s fish and meat on the menu too. 

Café Evergreen puts just as much care and thought into its healthy beverage options. Their homemade Kefir Water, a probiotic drink that promotes a healthy gut and better digestion, is made from water instead of dairy. Ted has kept this probiotic strain going for twelve years. “You won’t find it anywhere else because it’s very sensitive.” The kefir water tastes nice on its own, just a hint of apple juice-like flavor, but it’s great as an ingredient in other drinks, like the refreshing watermelon and mint summer cooler. But the most surprising sip I took was the Florida blueberry wine, which the menu touts as having the goodness of two pounds of blueberries in every glass. I expected cloying, sweet juice, but was startled to taste a crisp, dry, fruity wine that reminded me of a young Beaujolais. 

I came into Café Evergreen with an open mind, ready to hear what Ted had to say, “People need to realize there’s a whole wave of food coming that is healthy and tastes great.” But I came away with more than just a new restaurant to frequent and some great ideas for cooking at home. I found a new mantra for the new year. “Don’t get hung up on calories. Eat something healthy that’s tasty in a different way. That has good calories.” I’m not saying there are no donuts or decadent dining experiences in my future, but I figure if I strive for those good, tasty, satisfying calories much more often than not, it could be a pretty great new year. 

Organic Quinoa Rice Pilaf

1/2 cup organic red quinoa

1/2 cup organic brown rice

2 cups water

1 tablespoon organic olive oil

1  teaspoon fresh minced garlic

1/4 cup diced organic carrots

1/4 cup diced organic onion

1/4 cup diced organic celery

1/2 cup organic gluten free tamari

Bring water to boil and add the dry rice and quinoa. Simmer until water is absorbed. While rice/quinoa is cooking, start sautéing the veggies and garlic in olive oil. When vegetables are tender add to the rice and mix in the tamari. Enjoy on its own or with your favorite healthy protein.