Conscious Choice Seattle: Swooning Over Smoothies

July 2006 | Local Food

Swooning Over Smoothies

This café and juice bar in Wallingford is ‘Simply’ divine

By Andrew Mulholland

My friends worry about me. I will tell you that much.

It’s because I can go long talking about smoothies and juices and wheat grass shots. My friends are smoothie drinkers, sure, but not aficionados. They don’t swoon when a smoothie bar offers nutritional year, flax meal or maca to go along with usual protein powder and immune vitamins boosters.

I swoon when I go into a place like Juice Goddess. It extras list, which is titled “Blessings” includes ginseng, bee pollen, flax meal, flax oil, nutritional yeast and immune support, any one for 50 cents. The one-dollar add-on list features maca, multi-vitamin powder, “green” powder and three kinds of protein powder, whey, soy or rice. Maca, the Peruvian root vegetables, is considered a sexual enhancer, especially for men’s sperm count (a not unimportant matter to any couples struggling with fertility issues). You could add a $2 shot of wheat grass juice or make it a chaser of sorts.

In any case, I say go for whey. The research is strong on its effectiveness to both boost the brain and our fat-burning/muscle-building processes in the body. Whey is definitely worth the extra buck and converts your smoothie into a small meal.

There are six “Simple Smoothies” ($4.95 for 16 ounces, $4.95 for 24 ounces) at Juice Goddess and a half dozen more “Specialty Smoothies” ($5.25/$5.95). I favor the Strawberry-Banana from the Simple because it offers both yogurt and soymilk. You can also choose your own blend from the fruits (strawberry, blueberry, banana, mango, pineapple), yogurt (whole, nonfat, soy) and juice/milk (kiwi strawberry, pineapple coconut, blueberry, limeade, soymilk, almond milk or oat milk.

And everything’s OK. How swoon-worthy is that?

The Specialty Smoothies are worth the extra dollar because you get a protein booster as part of the deal. I like the Babe, The Blue Anti-Ox with blueberries, banana, yogurt, blueberry juice, whey protein and Dagoba brand cacao. But it is hard to not try the Green Gorilla (bananas, cocoa, rice milk, green powder, almond butter and rice protein) or the Kickin’ Incan (maca, cocoa, vanilla almond milk, rice protein, flax oil, honey and ice or banana depending on your texture preferences).

Now you know why it’s called Juice Goddess.

Fresh-pressed juices ($3 to $3.50 for 10 ounces, $4 to $4.50 for 16 ounces) for share the spotlight and seem just as popular with customers who take advantage of the café’s wireless hot spot. You can choose the basic carrot or carrot apple or “accent” those with beet, cabbage, cayenne, garlic, ginger, kale, parsley, radish, tomato and seasonal choices.

Juice Goddess favorites include combinations of juices such as the Tummy Tonic (carrot, celery, cabbage) or Liver ‘Lixir (carrot, apple, beet, radish).

That’s just the juice bar portion of the menu. This Wallingford fixture, which is next door to the Bee Well Vitamin Shoppe, serves breakfast and lunch too. Breakfast is all day for those creative types or late-sleepers who want daily-special pancakes ($4.50 or $5 if you add stewed fruit or nut butter) with Organic Valley bacon or sausage of a vegetarian alternative ($3 for the ample side). The Goddess Café Scramble comes with two eggs, fresh veggies, cream cheese, butter and herbs ($6.50 includes toast and fruit spread). Vegetarians can get the scramble with tofu, tofutti cream, olive oil and herbs to go with the fresh veggies.

The bottomless cup of coffee ($2) is organic and Fair-Trade, a Seattle Conscious Choice kind of place. A good number of customers rave about the bagels, which you can get with choice of two spreads among butter, Earth Balance, cream cheese, Tofutti spread, Cascadian Farm fruit spreads, peanut butter or almond butter. Another option is a locally made Mighty-O Donut ($1 each and hard to keep to just one).

Lunches are equally delicious and substantial. There is a daily special wrap is rolled in a Rudi’s brand spelt tortilla that tastes as soft and good as flour. I tried a chicken wrap one day with sun-dried tomatoes, grilled/marinated onions and just enough spice (cayenne maybe) to give it just the right kick. It was a tasty and healthful lunch bargain for $4.75.

There are plenty of other lunch options: Flavorful and hearty soups are made fresh daily ($4.50) and there is a daily special salad based with organic greens ($4.75). You can choose a classic deli sandwich (half $3.75, whole $5.75) that includes turkey, roast beef (everything is organic, remember) or the locally produced Field Roast. Deli sandwiches come with a choice of cheese, lettuce, sprouts, carrot, tomato and cucumber.

Grilled sandwiches can be made with roasted veggies or meat along with cheese, tomatoes, greens and herbs ($5.75 or $6.25 for meat versions).. They are yummy.

If there is room in both your stomach and caloric psyche, you might be tempted by the Juice Goddess sundaes, which offer up two scoops or Julia’s ice cream or Rice Dream with Santa Cruz chocolate or caramel syrup ($.3.75).

The café is comfortable and inviting with original mural work on the walls. The servers are pleasant and quite friendly. They know lots of customers by name, or so it has seemed on my visits. My goal is to come here enough that they know exactly how I like my smoothie.

That will really get me swooning.

Andrew Mulholland is a regular contributor to Seattle Conscious Choice. He prefers his smoothies mid-morning or, better yet, right after a workout.

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