Raw Food Alive!
Raw Vegetarian Restaurant

Dec 3 | archive | subscribe

San Francisco's newer vegan place, Alive! is also known as the Lombard Coffee Shop. The small, semi-elegant restaurant features a mostly raw, vegan menu prepared with organic produce.

Chef-owner Leland Jung eschews not only all meat, but also all animal products, dairy, honey, wheat, and grains. With his artesian approach, some of the dishes on the menu take as many as four days to formulate. Devotedly slicing, chopping, and arranging ingredients for each individual plate can take time.

Some of the most popular items also make biweekly appearances at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market. Jung says, “We feature only the freshest and highest quality produce straight from the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market; organic, seasonal, and local. Everything is prepared to order.”

The house salad ($8), is a mountain of seasonal greens made of mostly romaine and spinach lettuces, sprinkled with small cubes of sweet, raw red and golden beets and the summer’s finest tomatoes served with a creamy cashew ranch-style dressing.

The sweet sesame ginger zucchini ribbons entree ($12), is served with seasonal vegetables & walnuts. Another tasty entrée is the thyme parsley walnut pesto raviolis ($15) served with shitake mushrooms and sun dried tomato marinara.

For beverages, Alive! offers made-to-order almond milk and an intriguing, mostly organic list of loose-leaf teas, black teas, green teas and white teas as well as vegan and biodynamic wine and sake. After your raw feast, press your face up against the pastry case glass where raw delights such as chocolate torte, nondairy cheesecakes, fruit pies, and other desserts call.

1972 Lombard, San Francisco 415-923-1052, aliveveggie.com