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If it’s not careful, North Central Avenue may become known as the Health Food District. I tried out the vegetarian-friendly Glowing Bowl in the neighborhood a few months back, and just recently, I stopped in for lunch at Veg-O-Rama, which is several blocks further up the street.

Veg-O-Rama certainly is a cheery-looking place to sit down for a bite. I was impressed with the pleasing decor, most notably the eye-catching paintings on the two main walls. The canvases are large, and each subject stands out in vibrant color. Meanwhile, the orb-shaped overhead lights are hardly necessary on a sunny day thanks to the large picture windows that make up the front wall of the building.

A canopied bar occupies one corner of the room, where one may purchase wine (some are from organically grown grapes), local and imported beers and harder-to-find sodas like Orangina, Dr. Becker and Monin fruit sodas.

I was allowed to seat myself in a booth (the restaurant offers a hodge-podge of tables and booths throughout the single dining space), where I took one of the hand-printed menus into consideration.

It will come as no surprise that salads occupy a fair portion of the menu’s real estate. The spinach salad, for example, features goat cheese, nuts and seasonal fruit with a sherry vinaigrette. The Greek salad is made with romaine lettuce, cucumber, kalamata olives and feta cheese, to name just a few of the ingredients. There’s also a paté plate as well as a noodle salad served with peanut sauce and crunchy veggies.

I was up for something a little more substantial, so I looked at options like the veggie burger, the grilled veggie skewers and the chili dog, which is topped with, according to the menu, “ho-made” chili (I’ll allow everyone to fill in their own joke on that one).

Being a Reuben lover, I couldn’t resist trying the tofu Reuben, or the “tofeuben” as I prefer to call it. I normally don’t go out of my way for tofu, but when on North Central, do as they do. I chose potato salad over slaw, chili or soup as my side item.

The sandwich was delivered in short order, and I started with the potato salad, which featured chunks of potato that had been prepared in a mixture of mustard, garlic, dill, celery, parsley and more. It was a great twist on the typical mayo- and egg-heavy recipe.

The sandwich itself boasted a slab of tofu on homemade black bread, embellished by a tomato-tahini sauce, kraut and Swiss cheese. And while tofu doesn’t exactly replace artery-clogging corned beef in the satisfaction department, this sandwich actually did capture the essence of Reuben flavor, albeit in a much healthier manner.

I finished up with an order of berry sorbet, which is served in the consistency of a snow cone and topped with grapes and raspberries. This treat was both sweet and tart and bursting with fruit flavor.

Loyal vegetarians and vegans will definitely want to work Veg-O-Rama into their restaurant rotation, if they haven’t already. And it’s certainly a nice, healthy break for us carnivores, too.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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