Cafe Flora does without fauna just fine

Reading "Fast Food Nation" was bad enough. Then I devoured a recent New York Times Magazine story that detailed the life of a single steer from birth to beef. These riveting reads were enough to make this bull-headed carnivore reconsider both my dining habits and my career.

Pledging to do my best under the circumstances (I'm addicted to grilled rib-eye steaks and love my job), I vowed to institute a home program of meatless Mondays. I also renewed my determination to pay an overdue professional visit to Seattle's first upscale vegetarian restaurant, Cafe Flora.

For more than a decade, Cafe Flora has been serving globally inspired vegetarian foods in Madison Valley. Born of a well-off neighbor's noble notion, this conscientious cafe serves as a community gathering place, welcoming all who enter to a comfortable, sun-splashed dining room painted in hues of pumpkin and eggplant, and to a skylit atrium where cafe tables surround a burbling fountain.

Flora wins over the kids at weekend brunch with fruit-face kitty-cat pancakes ($2.95) and pampers their parents with sophisticated scrambles ($10) and warm beignets — the ultimate "doughnuts" served with crème anglaise (three for $4/five for $6). And it won me over at lunch with the best French dip sandwich I've ever deigned to dunk.

Before you say "Huh?," know that chef Janine Doran takes literary license using taste and texture as her tools, fleshing out her French dip with beefy portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions and melted Swiss cheese on seeded baguette ($11). In a blind taste test, the heady garlic-mushroom broth served alongside (call it faux jus) could've fooled Stuart Anderson.

There's no bacon in the smoked mushroom and spinach salad ($9), though given the smoky aroma wafting from the pristine spinach leaves, warm and wilted with a sauté of mushrooms and leeks, you could've fooled me. Like all of Flora's generous salads — including a buckwheat bonanza of peanut-sauced soba noodles ($8.50) and a massive Caesar with fried capers in lieu of anchovies ($7.50) — this is a "light" meal of the first order.

Much of the menu crosses over from lunch to dinner, including Oaxaca tacos ($14 lunch/$15 dinner), which made their debut on Flora's opening menu. Two roasted corn tortillas enfold cheese-spiked mashed potatoes: rich on rich made even richer with a dose of lime crème fraiche. With a full complement of delightful sidekicks — black bean stew, vibrant pico de gallo and a mini-mess of warm greens — I bet you can eat just one. (Fortunately, they offer a solo taco with all the trimmings at lunch, $10.)

Seasonal variations account for such pizzas as the Californication of roasted strawberries and brie ($12), which we threw over for the gorgeous Greek-accented number with roasted eggplant, fresh spinach, feta cheese and Kalamata olives supported by a thin herbed crust spread with unctuous pine-nut pistou ($10).

I'm not sure what accounts for the variations in service, but these include, on separate visits, a waiter whose warmth and professionalism were unmatched, another who was darling but ding-y and a third who was efficient but less than enthusiastic.

Diners with dietary restrictions have come to the right place. Order it "vegan" and they'll leave the citrus cream sauce off the sensational artichoke croquettes ($15) — which you'd swear were crab cakes if you didn't know better. When a sugar-sensitive woman at the next table insisted she know every ingredient in the soup du jour ($3.50/$4.50), her waiter made a trip to the kitchen, returned with a thick loose-leaf binder marked "Soup Log" then rattled off a long list. Right down to the culprit (molasses) that nixed her choice.

My creamy, herb-laced artichoke and nettle soup, an ode to spring ordered as part of a special three-course weeknight dinner ($25), was both an impressive value and an opportunity to try the eggplant "envoltini" ($17 à la carte). Appealing in an over-the-top fashion, fresh angel-hair pasta arrives sprouting bouquetlike from its wrapper: eggplant roll-ups resting on a bed of black-eyed peas. What with artichoke hearts, Kalamatas, sweet red pepper, corn kernels and green chard adding interest, this dish was as busy as the Mercer Street on-ramp at rush hour.

Cafe Flora is justly proud of its teetotaler's beverage menu, its priced-right wine list (from which I sampled a spectacularly rich and fruity young Owen Roe pinot gris, $32), and its dessert tray. From the latter, may I suggest the vegan coconut cake. Layered with soy-based icing, it was a perfect match for the wine — and good enough to make me consider (for a moment, at least) giving up dairy products.

Nancy Leson: 206-464-8838 or nleson@seattletimes.com.