Find healthy choices in this ‘Kitchen’
From the contemporary look to the healthy and diverse menu, Sweetwater Harvest Kitchen is an interesting addition to the growing world of conscious eating. Open since December, this new restaurant wants to make healthy eating pleasurable eating, too. Not only do they make their own desserts, they even have a beer and wine bar.
Located in the Pacheco Park office complex, the restaurant’s off-the-beaten track address serves as preface, a prelude to its inventive approach to food. The space has a pleasant, contemporary industrial look, welcoming and informal. Customers dine in the light, airy space beneath a cathedral ceiling. Softer touches include colorful paintings by a local artist, a special table with surprises for children and a bulletin board crowded with business cards and flyers for local services and events.
Although Sweetwater is out of the way for visitors, the location is handy for state workers and for the many small business and entrepreneurs who have studios and workspaces along Pacheco. If the Sweetwater folks continue to run a sound operation, the locals-friendly location could be an asset.
Sweetwater combines selfand staff-service. Customers order at the counter, selecting a special from the board or something tempting from the printed paper menus. Be advised: This isn’t the place to come if you want a cheeseburger and a Diet Coke.
No beef or cheddar here, but animal eaters can get bacon, prosciutto, shrimp, turkey and turkey sausage. And duck breast at dinner. Vegetarians have many choices, as do the vegan and gluten-free crowd. Most breakfast and lunch prices are in the $8-$12 range. A soup and salad combo, for example, is $10.50.
If you are partial to commercial sodas, you’ll need to make another adjustment. Sweetwater conjures up its own refreshing blend of fruit juice and club soda. My friend liked it but balked at the price — $3 with no free refills. Coffee and tea are organic, fair trade varieties with chai, lattes and other fancy coffee drinks available. You also can get several kinds of smoothies and a mango lassie. The restaurant has wines on tap, a high-tech concept to keep wine fresh, and offers specialty beers and locally brewed mead, or wine made with honey.
We ordered at the front counter: a salad sampler plate, two soups and the day’s special. Portions are moderately sized and the flavors were first-rate.
I loved the parsnip and sweet potato soup ($4.50/ cup), a subtle pale gold puree that tasted so fresh it could have been made just for me. It’s great to see something different on a menu and for much-ignored parsnips to have a day to be special. Our other soup, turkey-based tortilla, was a heartier concoction of rice, black beans, corn and bits of turkey meat topped with crisp strips cut to resemble shoe string potatoes. We picked it as the soup or salad choice with the day’s special, which was a turkey, cheese and green chile sandwich on grilled bread. It had enough meat and the bread was nicely grilled and obviously fresh. I didn’t care for the chile, too mild and watery, but I’m fussy that way.
Two of the three salads on the salad sampler were good, too. The house salad got a star for its interesting tahini dressing and the inclusion of quinoa, almonds, avocado and a touch of feta cheese to augment the bed of fresh greens.
The mozzarella salad had black olives, dried cranberries, walnuts, and Brussels sprout leaves. The mild, soft mozzarella cheese is made in house. The “greens” included red lettuce.
The third, what the menu calls the shaved salad, combined narrow slivers of red and white cabbage with bright orange pumpkin and circles of white radish. A hint of minced pear and a whisper of gruyere cheese finished the dish. It looked better than it tasted. The champagne vinaigrette was too strong, and the too-thin shredded cabbage kept slipping off the fork. The pretty pumpkin lacked flavor.
We finished on a lovely note, however, with some of the best carrot cake I’ve had. Not too sweet, not too dense and topped with just enough yummy frosting, it was well worth $5.95. Desserts are tempting and are displayed at the entrance/ordering counter.
Seating includes tables for two or four and a long community table. Parking is available behind the building, with the entrance on Pacheco Street.