Strong Hearts Cafe in Syracuse, NY

Pictured: One of the owners/chefs at Strong Hearts Cafe. OK, get this: He was up till 3 AM making the potato leek soup!! That's devotion. That's also tasty soup!

Intro: I love cooking. I love eating out. Some people think these things are opposed to one another, I think that each informs the other; good food at restaurants inspires creative ideas in the kitchen.

Review: This weekend I ate at an inspirational new vegan restaurant in Syracuse, NY: Strong Hearts Cafe. Basically, if you thought that being vegan meant you had to give stuff up, the Strong Hearts Cafe shows you that the following things can be had without harming, sacrificing, or eating animals or animal products:

1. Cupcakes
2. Milkshakes
3. Good coffee
4. Delish soup and sandwiches
5. Free Wireless
6. Tasteful, airy, clean ambiance
6. Gorgeous Chefs

On Sunday I showed up with my friends Diana and Hinda, two fine women who also happen to be amateur foodies like myself. We went with the intention of trying everything, and left somewhat defeated- we got too full to try hardly anything!

Here's a sampling of what we did try: (listed in order of the photos)

--The star of the show, pictured here, is the "Chicken" Salad Sandwich, for $5.50. What a steal! It tastes fresh, creamy, and flavorful- but it's also filling. Hinda couldn't even finish her sandwich.

I ordered another sandwich, the "BLT", made with soy bacon- yum! At Strong Hearts you can add many veggies to your sandwich, and we both chose avocado. This was a great choice; the creamy avocado tasted great with the crunchy bacon!

--We tried the Citrus salad, for $3.50, which had plenty of toasty pine nuts and sections of fresh oranges and grapefruit. We weren't crazy about the dressing, though, which was too tangy. (And was it made from bottled lime juice?) We would have preferred something sweeter, or with more olive oil.

--The mocha late (soy milk!) was fragrant and lightly dusted with cinnamon. I have decided that soy milk is much better than milk because it stays very foamy in your cup!

--The dessert cooler, which is only a small section of their sweet offerings, holds vegan cakes and vegan cheesecakes in many flavors: pumpkin pecan, lemon, blueberry, and chocolate cherry. Yum! These tasted like the "real" thing. But what I really love? That sign.

Thanks to Strong Hearts for feeding us. We heart you, your food, your decor, and your humor.

Don't you LOVE these photos? I absolutely love Diana Ecker, the increasingly skilled photographer, who took them. Check out more photos at her site!