Joining the recent boom of high and low vegan restaurants, The Grain Cafe replaced Mateo’s Ice Cream & Fruity Bars with natural and organic foods bearing a Mideastern Mediterranean twist. On a menu broken into categories for breakfast, appetizers, sandwiches, salads, and pizza, interesting inclusions to be found are an adzuki bean salad with kale, cabbage, red pepper, carrots, and a lemon orange dressing, along with a daily changing hummus flavor, and baked, not fried, falafel wrap wrapped in a spinach tortilla. To drink, guests can choose from espresso and ice blended drinks, plus smoothies and shakes, with freshly baked carrot cake for dessert. Mateo’s, it should be noted, made the move just across the street.
The Grain Cafe, 4222 West Pico Blvd. Mid-City; 323-931-4034.