Natural Selections Cafe
1526 Bull St, Savannah, GA 31401
Natural Selections Cafe
To be upfront, I eat meat. Hefner and Charlie eat meat. But what good is a doggie food blog if you only eat the things you know you like? That’s why I decided to try Natural Selections Cafe, an all-vegan café on Bull Street in Savannah.
Charlie and Hefner weren’t sure about trying vegan food
My mother grew up on a farm, so I am no stranger to being force-fed vegetables. Since I even like some of them, I thought I might be able to tolerate vegan fare. I had just one worry: cheese. In my experience, vegan cheese doesn’t hold a candle to the real thing, but I was willing to give it another try.
The menu at Natural Selections has quite a few choices (and the tables outside are pretty cool, too)
The menu at Natural Selections offers a large selection of breakfast items (made with something called VeganEgg), as well as salads, sandwiches, soups, sides, and desserts. They also have a spaghetti special that is featured on Wednesday but remains on the menu the rest of the week as well. Natural Selections has other daily specials that change from week to week. A couple I’ve seen are tacos, Salisbury steak(less) with mushroom gravy, Philly cheese (not) steak sandwich, and a (not) chicken alfredo.
I checked with the restaurant before I visited, and dogs are welcome at the outside seating along the sidewalk. Customers order at a counter inside (where dogs aren’t allowed), but I was able to wave a server out to take my order while I sat with the dogs. She seemed happy to oblige and my food arrived quickly.
Some very tasty strawberry lemonade
Natural Selections doesn’t serve any alcohol (isn’t that mostly made from veggies?), but their menu boasts fresh juice squeezed daily. On this visit, I ordered the strawberry lemonade, which was very good. Natural Selections also offers coffee, plant-based milks, water, and tea as beverage selections.
The black-eyed pea burger and the “mac and cheez”
For my meal, I ordered the black-eyed pea burger with a side of “mac and cheez”. Black-eyed peas are one of the vegetables I will always eat, and this patty was no disappointment. There was also a remoulade-type sauce on the sandwich that was really good, but I don’t actually know what it was made of, since remoulade is made with mayonnaise, and therefore, eggs. It added a nice kick to the tasty of the sandwich, though.
Where I ran into trouble was the “mac and cheez”. I would consider macaroni and cheese my favorite food, so I had to try it. However, my previous encounters with vegan cheese made me a little wary, as it turned out I had a right to be. This version of the pasta dish was fairly tasteless, and there was a gummy plastic quality to the pasta and “cheese” that I couldn’t really stomach. It confirmed my desire to avoid cheese substitutes.
There was too much activity for the dogs to settle down
Natural Selections is a fairly new establishment in a growing area of Bull Street that gets a good bit of traffic. On our way to the café, we were stopped by the man working in the olive oil store a couple of doors down, who offered the dogs a treat. Hefner and Charlie were happy to accept the offer.
However, once we got to the restaurant, the dogs wouldn’t settle down. Cars were constantly whizzing past, school children loitered at other tables, and a large number of dogs walked by with their owners (which Hefner and Charlie enjoyed, of course). This activity made it difficult for me to eat my food and keep the dogs nearby, so I finally gave up and took the leftovers home.
My leftovers all packed up
Vegan students, take note: Natural Selections offers a 10% discount with your student ID (a benefit that I forgot to take advantage of). They also offer online and phone ordering, in case you’re in a hurry and just need to drop in and pick up your food.
Natural Selections is a good addition to the vast food landscape in Savannah. If you love animals, but don’t want to eat them, Natural Selections could be the place you’re looking for.
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