Cafe Flora's Vegetarian Thanksgiving Feast: Saving the World, One Turkey At A Time

None of this on the menu at Cafe Flora

Thanksgiving can be tough on my vegetarian brethren. While everyone else is out there sucking down gravy by the boat and chewing on drumsticks like some fat guy at a renaissance faire, the vegans and vegetarians are, well, not. Most of them aren't actually eating Tofurkey (I can't imagine anyone actually eating this stuff, except for on a bet), but they are often relegated to cooking for themselves, skipping out on the festivities altogether or scavenging the side dishes while being completely shut out of the main event.

But this year (as it has done for many years), Cafe Flora is coming through for Seattle's sprout-eaters by putting together a menu which will not only spare the lives of many, many turkeys, but even looks good (really, really good) to a dedicated carnivore like me.

As a matter of fact, the kitchen hasn't just put together one menu, but two--one for parents, another for kids. And just check some of these courses out:

Foraged mushroom soup garnished with horseradish mascarpone, served with Colombia City Bakery walnut crostini. Autumn cornbread pudding with hazelnut-sage pesto, rich cornbread, butternut squash and Honeycrisp apple in a creamy corn custard, served with Brussels sprouts, roasted parsnips, wild mushroom gravy and apple-cranberry chutney. Delicata squash medallions filled with Bluebird Grain Farms farro and chestnut stuffing, and topped with calvados cream sauce, roasted pears and sautéed chanterelle mushrooms, followed by green bean and fennel salad with Marcona almonds, pomegranate seeds and herbed mustard-maple vinaigrette. And then, to top it all off, a dessert three-way: Pumpkin tart topped with cranberry caramel sauce and spiced maple pecans, chocolate roulade with clove pastry cream, poached black plums and cacao nib brittle or warm apple cake with cinnamon ice cream, cranberry-caramel sauce and maple candy.

I'm kinda thinking about going there myself because, not for nothing, that sounds way better than what I normally have on Thanksgiving, turkey or no turkey.

The kids menu is basically just a simplified version of the above and, according to Cafe Flora, this dinner will be by reservation only, with the first seating at 1:30 and the last at 6:45. To secure a spot (or for more information, you can call the restaurant at 206-325-9100, and the house suggests booking early because this Thanksgiving dinner is going to fill up fast.