Conscious Choice: Spa Cafe: Clean Eating in the Loop

September 2008 | Conscious Dining

Spa Cafe: Clean Eating in the Loop

by Tanya Fritz Catalano

Heading out for lunch in Chicago’s Loop to eat organic veggie “Sun Burgers” and vegan wraps while drinking bright green cucumber water with traders and financial district folks in suits and ties may seem a little peculiar, but that is exactly what happy lunch crowds do every day at Spa Café. In 2005, owner Scott Morris was working in the financial district when he decided he wanted a great vegan and vegetarian lunch option. After doing the necessary due diligence and enlisting the help of a chef and friend Daniel Asher, he opened Spa Café. They turned the “clean eating” concept into a cute fast breakfast and lunch spot for the conscious loop crowd, General Manager Steve Sharp tells me. “Our motto is ‘Healthy Food, Healthy Planet,’” he says. Spa Café makes good on that creed by offering organic foods that contain no refined sugars, no bleached flours, no gluten and drinks with no high-fructose corn syrup. The tofu served is from Indiana’s Mu Tofu and all the deserts are organic. I tried the carrot cake, which is also locally sourced and found it to be sweet without the saccharine taste that over-sweetened desserts have. It was so good my dessert-detesting husband fought me for the last bite.

The Café opens at 7am and serves organic direct trade coffee from Intelligentsia along with organic steel cut oats, custom made omelettes and breakfast egg wraps. However, not only will vegans and vegetarians be thrilled with the menu options, but also meat eaters who choose to eat organically will find great options on the “Wild Grill” menu. The Spa Café folks believe strongly in ethical sourcing and choose to serve Niman Ranch brisket and Tall Grass Beef. The menu also offers bison, ostrich and kangaroo burgers, served with organic breads and homemade waffle fries, all served with recyclable corn-based utensils. The menu includes a “Some Things to Expect” area, which states the café offers — biodegradable and compostable packaging alternatives, certified organic ingredients and products, free-range chicken, cage-free, humane certified eggs and vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free items.

Some of the menu favorites include the Veggie Nirvana wrap with grilled mushrooms, yellow squash, zucchini and roasted red peppers with baby spinach and a homemade romano-asiago cheese blend, and the Casbah Couscous salad with toasted almonds, organic dried apricots topped with a curried spice blend.

The art in the Café comes from a local gallery, Oh No Doom, and rotates as the pieces are sold. The Café isn’t heavy on ambience, but it’s a great place for folks who want gourmet, organic, ethically-produced food for a workday breakfast or lunch.

The menu at this small café isn’t cheap, but what is preferable — a $4 lunch that makes your mind, body and soul oh so sad and slow, or an $8 meal that enlivens and energizes you? My personal preference is the latter and my new favorite place to get it is Spa Café.

Spa Café, 112 W. Monroe, Chicago; 312.551.0000; spacafe.com.

Tanya Fritz Catalano is a professionally trained chef, oenophile, slow-food fanatic and yoga enthusiast.

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