First Watch

My efforts to get some pictures of the vegetarian offerings at El Arepazo continue to be thwarted. I could be wrong, but they appear to have gone into hibernation until the New Year. Oh well. It's on my list of things to do in '08.

Short of vegetarian patacons and fried plantains from the Pan-Latin alley eatery that is El Arepazo, I instead met a friend at First Watch in German Village and sampled the vegetarian offering there. I say vegetarian offering as a singular noun because outside of the breakfast menu, there wasn't anything other than the flatbread hummus and veggie sandwich (called Not Guilty Your Honor) that was vegetarian.

I'm sure the waffles, pancakes, oatmeal, fruit crepes and other assorted breakfast items are vegetarian (they are most certainly not vegan, so stay away Kevin Nealon and Woody Harrelson). I'm not vegan but I am diabetic, so I usual take the route of a low sucrose start to the day, though...plus I don't usually eat eggs, so I was left with the above pictured item.

The sandwich was on a plain flatbread with hummus holding together cucumber, spinach, mushroom, red pepper, tomatoes and feta cheese. It was served with First Watch potatoes, which were adamantly not fried in trans-fat oil according to the menu. They were griddled potatoes lightly browned, and they seemed a touch more delicate than a typical cookie cutter hash brown. The sandwich was also served with a tomato and green salad served with a citrusy vinaigrette.

The food was decent. They are similar to other businesses in and around downtown in that they close very early (close to 2:30 if my memory serves right). Be forewarned of the dearth of not-sugary-breakfast vegetarian items. There are multiple locations as it is a chain, so check the Web site out and see if it works for you or if any of the other locations have different hours. Check out the pictures below.

First Watch