The
Green Bean Cafe, 14125
SW Walker Road, Beaverton, 644-4442
Open Monday through Saturday, 11 am to 4 pm, although all
the juices are served during the market operating hours of
10 am to 7 pm.
Picks: Boca burger, roasted eggplant sandwich
Nice Touch: Possible Danny Glover sightings; a juice-and-smoothie
bar that offers 16 options for your base and 23 mostly tasteless
nutrients as add-ins.
As a slightly lapsed vegetarian
who still eats no red meat, I dream the impossible dream.
I long for the perfect burger, the kind that leaves you producing
throaty groans that make your cat look at you all funny. Luckily
a recent discovery, the burger bar at the Green Bean Cafe
& Market, specializes in fulfilling vegetarians' dreams
of living the meaty life--sans the meat. It's as close as
non-meat-eaters can get to sloppy Americana and homespun solace
in a bun, aside from divorcing the beef from the burger at
your neighborhood dive.
The market part of the cafe looks like any other small
grocery shop. Upon entering, you find an extra-large blackboard
covered with the entire list of menu selections--so many,
in fact, that on a recent visit I had to ask for a paper
menu when my neck started to ache. I felt self-conscious
standing in the middle of the room trying to decide as people
milled around; I would have preferred ordering at tableside,
where I could ask questions about the menu without feeling
pressured.
There's no way to confuse this cafe with a regular greasy
spoon--it's way too earthy. Small, heavily laminated wooden
tables with black painted wooden chairs hold funky mismatched
candleholders and espresso mugs sprouting wheatgrass. The
towering walls are painted an avocado green and garnished
with paintings of vegetables. The food is attractively served
on a mix-and-match lot of earthtone stoneware plates, and
the drinks are served in frosted glasses, tall and cool-looking.
My fantasy sandwich started with a Boca
burger, one of the many burger substitutes on the market.
At the Green Bean, that same frozen disc that sometimes
comes out dry when you cook it at home is loaded with intense,
full flavor. The kitchen cooks its burgers on Pyrex in a
flash oven, a fast-cooking alternative to a microwave that
works on reflection. This might lack the romance of the
diner grill, but who cares: The result is a moist patty.
The burger comes topped with fresh tomato, crisp lettuce,
Spanish red onion slices and a melted cheddar cheese slice
(vegan options are available), all on a large, fresh, multigrain
bun that's been spread with a little mayo and mustard. I
had the cuttings of a soft, buttery avocado added to mine,
but another intriguing option is soy bacon. The menu offers
many versions of the same tango, using Garden Burgers, faux
chicken and toppings such as a special house barbecue sauce
and white button mushrooms and Swiss cheese. By now most
Portlanders have heard that actor Danny Glover haunts Portland
for part of the year, and according to the Bean staff, he
comes in often for the Boca burger. Glover is, of course,
a smart man.
Another winner is the roasted eggplant sandwich. I ordered
it with a bit of trepidation because of the delicate nature
of this fickle fruit, which can be bitter if cooked improperly.
But the Green Bean's is superb. Moist, al dente roasted
eggplant slices are seasoned with lemon, garlic and herbs
and laid on a sourdough wheat bread with grilled onion,
tomato and melted provolone; a thin shmear of nutty baba
ghanouj propels you to aubergine ecstasy.
In the end, it's pretty spendy here for a burger and drink.
Vegetarians have always paid a health tax for being picky,
but my hope is that in the future, faux burger bars like
Green Bean end up being as ubiquitous as beefburger quick-stops--and
hopefully just as cheap. Some dreams do come true.
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Willamette Week | originally
published January 5,
1999
|
