Lemonade, Los Angeles and Love
They say the more colourful your plate, the healthier the meal you're about to devour.
Going by this vague yet intriguing rule, I'd say Lemonade takes the cake. No pun intended. This place is a laid back cafeteria style restaurant, that serves you "healthy" meals without all the pretentious BS and faddish facades of a salad bar. With vibrant sunny yellow umbrellas perched outside their Abbot Kinney Blvd. home, and a perfectly cursive logo.
Thanks to Beyonce's visual album of the same name this word - LEMONADE - has been glorified more than ever before this past year. At the time of my visiting this place, a year ago now, this was still merely a term used to describe the act of squeezing the juice out of a bunch of lemons, adding sugar, water, ice and a fluorescent curly straw to drink from. Yummy.
Lemonade is much different of course, but just as delicious. The idea is to walk in, grab a tray, get in line and pick your food from a selection of freshly cooked, boiled, grilled and spiced herbs, meats, chicken, "Land&Sea" and vegetables. Farmer's market style, with a touch of spectacular branding and brick on mortar style interior design; huge lemon slices hanging from the ceiling and a flashy color scheme of yellow, green, pink and white, make the place feel like it has a yoga studio hidden in the back quarters. I was jumping up and down, plate in hand, ready to eat eat eat!
Their specialty? Well, its Lemonade of course! In true California fashion, the recipes are unique with wild twists and unexpected ingredients. Blueberry Mint Lemonade, Guava Limeade, Carrot Ginger, and Blood Orange to name a few.
Sometimes as a restless millennial, its hard for me to pinpoint what exactly it is that attracts me to a place, or makes me want to go again. We have so many options nowadays and everything is regurgitated, so when once in a blue moon, we come across something that feels even slightly new ... we latch onto it. It feeds the hipster in all of us. At least that's my explanation.
Seasonal ingredients ensure that the food at Lemonade is fresh and tasty all year round. The on-the-go setting and easy to navigate menu, fit perfectly with today's restless lifestyles.
My order:
Vegetarian - Honey Kiss melon and Chioggia Beats
White Protein - Pineapple Chicken
Sandwiches - Tomato & Mozzarella with Basil
Desserts - Chocolate Chip Cookie
Lemonades - Old Fashioned Lemonade
“We aspire to take elitism out of conscious eating.”
