Plates Midtown

I love it when I can eat and do good at the same time, so for this week's blog post, I visited Plates Midtown. This little café on L Street, which is a project of Saint John's Program for Real Change, trains formerly homeless mothers to enter the service and culinary industries.


For my first lunch at Plates Midtown, I ordered the Chickpea Sandwich, without the mayo. It was a tasty sourdough panini with garbanzo beans, tarragon, roasted beets, apple, radish sprouts, and black olive tapenade, served with a side salad. An observation: even though it's called a chickpea sandwich, the main ingredient and dominant flavor was roasted beets. Still good, though.

I went back for lunch later in the week and ordered the River City Fruit Salad, without the goat cheese. This lovely, refreshing salad consisted of Romaine lettuce, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, walnuts, and sunflower seeds, topped with a balsamic reduction. I ate every bite!

Other salads on the menu that look like they would be vegan without the cheese are Johnny's Greek Salad and the Tower Bridge Spinach Salad.


Plates Midtown is located at 1725 L Street, and their phone number is 916-426-3884. Their website address is http://plates2go.org/, and their Faceebook page can be found at https://www.facebook.com/platesmidtown/. The restaurant is open for lunch only Monday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.