#12 VIRGINIA – Veggie Manifesto

 

It was time to venture down South, the land of biscuits, sausage gravy, bacon, and grits. I felt that a lot of calories would be in my future so I thought maybe I should start healthy and then build momentum to the inevitable fat-fest. I found a Virginia restaurant to check out that emphasizes vegetarian and vegan meals. The Healthy One was both gleeful and a little worried about my mental state.

The Little Grill Collective
Harrisonburg, Virginia

 

AMBIENCE:  Karl Marx would be very proud of The Little Grill Collective.  It is a worker owned, democratically managed cooperative. I learned from their website that every employee can become an owner:

• ·         After working a minimum of 6 months.
• ·         After shadowing worker-owners to learn about different facets within the business.
• ·         After completing a self-directed project.
• ·         After buying into the cooperative to “solidify their ownership”.

Worker-owners meet a couple of times a week and all decisions about the business are made by consensus. Other statements on the website clued me in that this place was a throwback to the flower power days of the 60s. The Collective hires professionals to come in to work on the interpersonal skills of the workers. Dishwashing is done by hand to save on water and dependency on expensive technology.  All leftover food waste is used for compost at a local farm. Five percent of profit goes to charity. Napkins are optional and sleeves are encouraged. (Okay, I made this last one up.)

The restaurant sits outside downtown in a mostly industrial/commercial area. I knew I was really near when I spotted a number of cars with those bumper stickers that say COEXIST parked along the curb.

It was a Sunday morning and the place was very crowded. We were told that it would be a 20-30 minute wait and that they would text me when the table was ready. It was a pleasant morning so we lingered outside with others who were staring intently into their devices. I imagined that they were all reading the on-line version of Mother Jones or Organic Life magazine. I myself started playing on-line Yahtzee.

We got the text after about 20 minutes and were brought to our table. The place is small and loud but there was decent room between the 12 or so tables. I did spot a couple of young men with tie-dyed t-shirts. The décor was eclectic to say the least.

What do a giant stuffed catfish toy, a three speed bicycle, and a picture of Martin Luther King have in common?

Given what I read on the website about the Little Grill’s heavy focus on sustainability, I had to check out the bathroom to see if they had a composting toilet. Not to be, but they did have Dr. Bonner’s fair trade soap!

5 out of 5 stars.

FOOD:  The menu was chock full of “alternative proteins to help reduce meat consumption”. These included such scary sounding items as tofu scrambler, veggie chili over eggs, love burger, and groovy gravy. I decided to play it safe and ordered a tall stack (3) of Apple Cider & Oat Pancakes which was described as containing local baked apples, cinnamon, maple syrup, apple cider, whole wheat flour, and organic oats. I found it interesting that the menu stated a short stack (2) cost $6.50 and the tall stack (3) cost $9.75. That means that I saved exactly zero per pancake by “going tall”. I believe the traditional capitalist practice is that the more pancakes you order the price per pancake declines. For instance, at Dot’s in Vermont, one berry-berry  pancake cost $5.25; two cost $5.95 or $2.97 per pancake; and three cost $6.50 or $2.17 per pancake. These people are obviously not capitalists. All of their pancakes were priced this way. The Collective's pricing scheme seemed an egalitarian/socialist acknowledgement of the rights of each and every pancake.

The Healthy One ordered scrambled free range eggs, a whole wheat biscuit, and whaaaaaaaat?.  Is that bacon?

Me: “I didn’t see that on the menu”

Healthy One: “It’s up there on the chalkboard next to the soysage.”

Me: “I didn’t hear you order it”

Healthy One: “I think you were too busy trying to figure out the per pancake prices.”

The pancakes turned out to be delicious. At one point, while I was taking a breather, I think my stack appeared happy, thinking it was going to get a trip to the compost pile at a local farm.

I did rally and finished it off. Before it was gone, The Healthy One asked if she could have a couple of bites. “Of course”, I said, “just let me have a little of your bacon”. Ready to pounce, I noticed that there was no bacon left to be had. The Healthy One had engaged in a little bacon gamesmanship by finishing the bacon before asking for bites of the pancake!  This was terribly unsettling. The rest of the Breakfast Tour was in jeopardy. I should have refused to share my pancake, but in the spirit of the Little Grill peace, love, and harmony vibe inside and the COEXIST bumper stickers outside, I let her have a couple of bites.

5 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  The fair trade coffee was, well, just fair.

 

3 stars out of 5

SERVICE: Our server was delightful. She was friendly, chatty, and answered all our questions. She showed no stress from having to cater to a very busy room. Those interpersonal skill consultations really paid off. It turns out that she was not a worker-owner but rather a “trial member”.  She said she still needed to come up with an idea for a self-directed projected. I suggested that she do an econometric analysis of the marginal cost, marginal revenue, and pricing of pancakes. She answered that she would be right back with our check.

 

5 out of 5 stars

COST: $26.00 with tax and tip. ($1.10 of that will go to charity.)

A FEW WORDS ABOUT HARRISONBURG:

Harrisonburg, a city of about 50,000, sits in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley next to truck happy I-81.

But what is that smell?  

Harrisonburg is home to two colleges: Eastern Mennonite University and James Madison University. One of them has a bit of a reputation as a party school. Can you guess which one?  There is an attractive downtown which had undergone extensive revitalization. 

The air sort of smells like dog breath. 

Travel and Leisure magazine picked it as one of America’s favorite towns.  The city appeared to be very bike-friendly.

I googled the Harrisonburg smell and most people likened it to the smell of dog food. Fair enough, dog breath is caused by dog food. Harrisonburg is famous for its poultry feed production. The process involving a mix of molasses, corn, and other organic byproducts gives of off an odor that is prevalent throughout the area on warm, humid days. The locals apparently can’t smell it.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          Walked from the Little Grill through downtown Harrisonburg to the handsome campus of James Madison University and back.

October 23, 2016

NEXT UP: Tennessee