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Escape to the Mediterranean on 28th Street just off the East Beltline.
The Kentwood commerce district just got a lot more vegan friendly, thanks to La Crave Cafe & Grill--a glittering gem of a restaurant that offers fresh, beautiful, healthful, delicious, and reasonably-priced Lebanese and Mediterranean cuisine in a fun, ambient, hospitable setting. Their ample menu, while brimming with all the traditional omnivorous fare, nonetheless offers vegans an enormous variety of options, including up to six appetizers, five salads, two soups, several main courses and lunch specials, an extravagant vegan mezze combo for two, a variety of fresh juices and smoothies (note that some include honey), and an exotic selection of Middle Eastern coolers.

Dining on the Terrace
The decor at La Crave is nothing short of flamboyant, environing its guests in dramatic--even whimsical--murals of Mediterranean vistas accented with paintings hung in ornate golden frames. Particularly imaginative visitors might even fancy themselves dining on the set of Verdi's Otello. Famagusta is not Beirut, of course, but there is something very "opera" about the setting at La Crave; it's great fun, really. When you're there--and I do mean *when* and not *if* (and preferably sooner to later)--don't miss the opportunity to meet owner Sam Ayyad and manager Lynn Vitanovski, both of whom are extremely gracious and devoted to learning more about what their guests want to see at La Crave. You can read about them (as well as about several of the scrumptious offerings on their vegan mezze platter) in their Grand Rapids Press Review.

So what's good there, you ask?
The omnivorous critics seem to agree: just about everything! But what about the vegans? We started with a sweet, refreshing iced beverage called Jallab--a rich elixir of dates, grape molasses, and rosewater with a flotilla of pine nuts patrolling the rim. We moved on to a battery of fantastic appetizers--hommous, fattuch, baba ghanouge, tabbouli, grape leaves, and vegetarian kibbe--before wrapping it up with an an assortment of lovely, lightly grilled pita sandwiches and a generously portioned falafel lunch plate special. Everything we ordered was delicious and gorgeously presented. We've got the photos to prove it:

Hommous

Fattuch

Baba Ghanouge

Tabbouli

Vegetarian Grape Leaves

Vegetarian Kibbe

Falafel Sandwich

Falafel Lunch Special with Almond Rice
All in all, we had six seasoned aficionados of Mediterranean food in our party, and all concurred that La Crave serves up the very best we've tasted in town (several former Chicagoans in the crowd even compared it favorably to the Windy City's famous Sultan's Market). Blaze a trail to 2923 28th Street SE at your earliest convenience; if your experience is anything like ours, it will quickly become a beaten track!