Red Velvet Cafe

Red Velvet Cafe is a bakery with locations in Pickerington (the original) and Downtown Columbus. Come for the traditional cupcake offerings, and stay for the excellent sandwiches and coffee.

There are vegetarian and vegan items on the menu. The cafe is open seven days a week from breakfast to dinner. 

The cupcake flavors skew conservative with a rotating selection including German chocolate, banana cream pie, Buckeye (a.k.a. peanut butter-chocolate), carrot cake and apple cinnamon. Some less common choices include taro, made with taro cake, taro jam and taro buttercream, 

There are three vegetarian sandwiches for lunch and one for breakfast. The lunch panini options include a straight veggie, grilled cheese with avocado and Sriracha, and a traditional grilled cheese. The breakfast sandwich is made on ciabatta with roasted tomato, provolone cheese, spinach and egg.

The avocado Sriracha grilled cheese is a California style panini with Asian accents. It's rich, sweet, creamy and just about perfect.

The coffee bar is a treat. It carries selections from One Line in the Short North. There are a variety of international drinks offered from across the globe - Turkey, Vietnam, Cuba and more. Typically, a house bland and a single origin coffee are available.

Fido

I checked out Fido near Vanderbilt after seeing the massive line outside The Pancake Pantry. Fido is a Bongo Java coffee shop that serves breakfast all day. It was a busy Saturday with the Florida-Vanderbilt game. Even with the booming business, the wait clocked in at about an hour.

Fido makes most ingredients in house, and sources many items locally. They make a large number of vegan baked goods, and there are a number of vegetarian items on the separate breakfast and lunch menus. 

The Hangover sandwich is made on your choice of bagel with veggie sausage and cream cheese. It makes for a nice breakfast that can be eaten with one hand. The sausage crumbles nicely, and the cream cheese adds a nice richness to the sandwich.

The baked goods look fantastic, and all ingredients are listed on each item.The vegan pecan chocolate chip cookie was an ample delight. 

The pumpkin latte displayed layers of nutmeg and cinnamon. It was a well made drink.

The decor is dog-themed. The average wait time is typically shorter than I experienced, and Fido performed well during a busy rush.

Chocolaterie Stam

Chocolaterie Stam is the new sweet stop in Uptown Westerville. It is one of three domestic locations for the Dutch chocolatier.

In addition to truffles and assorted candies, Stam also makes gelato. Flavors included chocolate, chocolate hazelnut, blackberry, raspberry, eggnog and peppermint. Flavors rotate with the season. Candies, syrups and fruit are hand stirred into the dense dessert.

The chocolate hazelnut gelato, called Donatella, was delightful. It was tan rather than the customary brown color of most chocolate ice cream. Ribbons of hazelnut add a rich layers of flavor to an Italian classic.

The milk chocolate at Stam is sweet and creamy. The dark chocolate has subtle roasted bitterness that marries nicely with nuts.

Stam also makes sugar free chocolate bars and candies, including toffee.

Although there is already a Graeter's in Uptown Westerville and Schneider's, the 24-hour donut shop, Chocolaterie Stam's candies gives greater variety for Westerville residents with a sweet tooth.

Global Gallery

Global Gallery Coffee Shop currently houses Earth's Crust and the Krazy Monkey Juice Bar. Earth's Crust also makes appearances as a food cart during the warmer months, but for now, you have to go to Clintonville to enjoy the organic whole grain pizzas and smoothies.

Earth's Crust offers vegan and vegetarian pizzas, and Krazy Monkey whips up fresh fruit smoothies in a variety of flavor combinations with your choice of juice bar add-ons. The smoothies are thick and loaded with great ingredients.

The vegan pesto pizza had toasted pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes. There were layers of flavor in the crust. There are pizza specials available on Friday nights.

Earth's Crust and the Krazy Monkey were written up recently at CMH Gourmand and in Columbus Alive. Vegetarians, vegans and environmentally conscious foodies should definitely check these operations out.

Earth's Crust and Krazy Monkey Juice Bar

Luck Brothers Coffee House

Luck Brothers is an independent coffee roaster in Grandview. While the atmosphere is Spartan, the complexity of the coffee more than offsets the minimalistic interior.

The staff at Luck Brothers does a tremendous job of roasting the beans to get subtle layers of flavor in every drop. They are helpful in selecting coffees based upon a drinker's preferences.

I sampled a full city roast Ethiopian harrar coffee. It has an intoxicating aroma of chocolate, and the flavor profile is mildly tannic with hints of wine and purple fruit.

The most interesting coffee for sale at Luck Brothers this week is the Hacienda la Esmeralda Special Reserve. This is a single grower, single estate coffee from Panama that is sold at auction. I sampled this coffee for the first time in Chicago three years ago. It is an amazing cup of Joe. While the 10-ounce bags were sold out, there was still enough coffee left to offer $12 cups of coffee this past Saturday.

Food at Luck Brothers is fairly limited. There is an assortment of pastries, including Der Dutchman doughnuts. They also stock Snowville Creamery milk for discerning palates to temper their coffee.

Luck Brothers

The Lucky Ladle

This isn't a review since I haven't gotten a chance to sample the wares yet, but the Lucky Ladle is definitely on my vegetarian radar. The restaurant, located in Kickstart, features a vegan and a lacto-vegetarian soup daily, and they deliver. Meatless soups include a curried chickpea stew, dal lentil soup and vegan chili. If you don't feel like tipping for delivery, you can cruise over to Kickstart on your bike (or your Segway or your gyrocopter) and save yourself a few bucks.

Cafe del Mondo

Located on the southern border of Italian Village, Cafe del Mondo is an Italian coffeehouse that features sandwiches, pasta, salads and baked goods. The menu is small, but the food is house-made and delicious.

Cafe del Mondo is the storefront for Frutta del Mondo, which is a wholesaler of Italian culinary imports. This definitely gives Cafe del Mondo a leg up on choice ingredients from the boot-shaped country.

The cafe is family-owned, and the staff is very friendly. The greet everybody who comes into the restaurant, and they are personable and attentive.

The menu has a few vegetarian options. These include cheese ravioli in marinara sauce, a veggie panini, a tomato-mozzarella sandwich, an Italian salad, a gorgonzola salad and an artichoke salad. Sandwiches and salads are available in full- and half-sized orders.

I started with a Caprese salad, the Italian classic made with tomato and mozzarella cheese. Although winter is hardly the prime season for Caprese, the salad was well made. The tomato slices are topped with disks of soft mozzarella cheese, sprinkled with fresh basil and piled atop purple and green lettuce (I think the purple one was endive, but I'm terrible with identifying leafy veggies). The salad comes with a serving of vinaigrette that adds a savory, bright finish to the dish.

The veggie panini was also great. The Italian bread shows the obvious griddle marks from the panini press, and the sandwich is served nice and hot. The panini is stuffed with artichoke hearts, onions, roasted red peppers, black olives and provolone cheese in a subtle balsamic dressing. It is topped with a pitted green olive and served with a side of crispy chips fried in peanut oil.

Since it's an Italian coffeehouse, Cafe del Mondo offers cappuccino, espresso and cafe latte along with a rotating array of pastries. They also sell espresso machines and coffee accessories at Frutta del Mondo.

Prices at Cafe del Mondo are very fair. My final bill was about $10 for a panini, half a salad and a can of pop.

The interior of Cafe del Mondo is bright and clean. The cafe is decorated with classic art work, such as a print of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. There is seating for about 20 people. Carry-out is also available.

Cafe del Mondo

Mo Joe Lounge

Mo Joe Lounge is a coffee house/bar with three locations. I visited the one in German Village, and the other two are located in the Short North and at Easton.

Mo Joe's menu features pizzas, sandwiches and assorted appetizers for vegetarians. Prices are reasonably inexpensive.

My appetizer was the hummus plate. It was made with a red bean and a chickpea hummus with pita triangles, celery, cucumbers and carrots as dipping accessories. The herbal undertones to the standard hummus made it slightly more pleasant than the smokier red bean hummus, although both were quite good.

The black bean veggie burger has a Southwestern character. The patty is akin to the Morningstar Farms black bean burger with beans and corn, but it is softer and it does not suffer the indignity of being frozen. It is served with house-made chipotle ketchup that adds a mildly spicy, smoked flavor to the burger. The black bean burger is outstanding. It comes with a choice of sides that includes corn salad (pictured), salad, rosemary skillet potatoes and spicy cole slaw.

Other vegetarian options on the menu include grilled cheese and cream of tomato soup, cheese pizza, veggie pizza, spicy French fries and various assorted salads. Happy hour specials from 4 to 8 pm include $1.50 domestic bottles, half-priced draft beers including Great Lakes Noseferatu and Rogue Dead Guy Ale, and $4 one-topping 7-inch pizza.

Mo Joe Lounge

Cafe du Monde

Located across the street from historic Jackson Square, Café du Monde is home to some of New Orleans' most famous beignets. The French doughnut is a deep fried dough fritter covered in powdered sugar. It is typically dunked in coffee like its American cousins.

The closest Americanized equivalent of beignets is the fair food known as elephant ears. Beignets are one of the simple pleasures of New Orleans breakfasts.

The cafe au lait at Café du Monde is blended with chicory. Chicory gives coffee a deeper roasted flavor. According to the Café du Monde Web site and a cursory look at history, chicory came into use during the French Civil War when coffee became scarce, and was brought to Louisiana by the Acadians.

Café du Monde is hopping busy in the mornings. However, since it is open 24/7, you should have plenty of opportunities to sample the fare at New Orleans' original coffee stand.

Cafe Du Monde