DaVine Foods

Head chef Matt Olsen (l) and part owner Michael Shattah (Photo by John Anderson)

DaVine Foods

www.davinefoods.com

DaVine Foods is located, almost hidden, in a hippie-revivalist compound called the Enchanted Forest, across Oltorf from Office Depot. The restaurant consists of two state-of-the-art mobile-kitchen trailers and a covered-deck outdoor dining room, and the atmosphere is laid-back and communal. It hardly seems the sort of place to foster culinary enthusiasm, but habitués are fanatical. With good reason: The food is amazingly good.

"We use trailers to keep our overhead low so that we can spend our money on high-quality ingredients," Leigh Recchia says. "We decided to take a stand and be all organic, despite the high cost. Every single component of every recipe is organic, with the exception of two items that we have not located an organic supplier of: young coconuts and olives. All the beverages in our beverage case are organic, too." One reason gourmets favor organic foods is because organic foods taste better, and nowhere is this more apparent than at DaVine Foods; even the simplest dishes are marvelously flavorful.

Recchia and partner Michael Shattah have put together an impressive menu of vegetarian, vegan, and living foods, with those suffering from food sensitivities in mind. Recchia himself is gluten-intolerant, and consequently, all the breads, waffles, and pizza crusts at DaVine Foods are made from sprouted, low-/no-gluten grains. "The sprouting process transforms the grain from almost pure carbohydrate into 80 to 90 percent easily assimilated protein," Recchia explains. "People have our Sprouted Grain Burgers or our spelt waffles and feel energetic all day." Because the menu is almost entirely vegan (and therefore dairy-free), DaVine Foods is one of the best choices around for people on a healing or gluten- and casein-free diet.

Both head chef Matt Olsen and Recchia have extensive restaurant backgrounds, and they are truly excited about each new innovation, as well as being sticklers for perfection. As I raved to them about the yumminess of the "Works" pizza they served me, I sheepishly admitted that I had expected the gluten-free pizza crust to resemble biscuit dough. They laughed at me. "We know what pizza crust is supposed to taste like!" Olsen mocked. Their pizzas are becoming so popular that they anticipate expanding their pizza hours to 10pm.