When you meet Vge Café’s chef Fernando Peralta, he will be the first to tell you that his vision for creating a plant-based, whole foods restaurant came after he saw the critically acclaimed documentary Forks Over Knives four years ago. There’s another element to Chef Peralta becoming vegan: “I had a blood screening that revealed alarmingly high cholesterol; this was unwelcome news, given a family history of heart disease.”
He also jokes that while most men get a sports car when they have a mid-life crisis, he decided to open a restaurant. He wanted to open a restaurant that would provide delicious and nourishing food, believing that food is medicine. He adds, “Vegan foods are inherently healthier because they are cholesterol-free. We have control over what we make because we make everything from scratch.”
Peralta, a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu in Pittsburgh, left a career in finance where this former Penn State MBA once crunched numbers all day. But to run a successful business, crunching numbers is a good thing, and now he is crunching numbers of a different sort by removing oils from his salad dressings and significantly reducing calories in his dishes.
There is a great deal of vegan deliciousness at Vge, where a varied menu offers nutritionally balanced foods that are never fried. “The nice thing is that you can order any dish in the form of a salad, a wrap or a brown rice bowl,” states Chef Peralta. All menu items are made from scratch, much like the delicious Vge burger, which is never fried.
Celebrating his second year of business as a casual, fast food eatery, Chef Peralta has also been busy crunching the numbers in the caloric values of his food. “We all love a delicious salad, but there are so many calories in the salad dressing that I felt as though I was defeating the purpose in healthy eating,” states Peralta. His very famous cilantro dressing and vegan mayo are now totally fat free, and they still have the same fresh and delicious flavor.
Originally from Brazil, Peralta is proud to say that his cooking fondness began in the kitchen of his childhood home in Rio de Janeiro, where his mother and grandmother taught him how to cook. Fernando cooks with precision, and Vge Café has become one of the famous vegan spots in the Philadelphia-area for vegans (and non-vegans) to enjoy.
It’s hard to mix casual dining with delicious food in a cozy and comfortable environment. Vge Café pretty much combines the two quite easily.
If You Go …
Tips that will make your trek to Vge Café a most joyous and pleasant food experience:
Parking
Take quarters with you. If there is no available parking on Lancaster Avenue, head to the Municipal Lot behind the theater. You can park for three hours on a few quarters.
What to Order
Chef Peralta and his staff will gladly answer your questions. I prefer a soup, usually the delicious black bean soup, and a Vge Burger (served with homemade kale chips). No matter what, you must try the burger…it is freshly made with lentils and flaxseeds. You can slather on that new fat-free dressing and eat guilt-free.
Price
This vegan eatery will not break your budget. You can have a hearty lunch for well under $10. You cannot put a price on good health, but this lunch is a great place to start.
Desserts
If vegan desserts are your thing, there is a baker’s case filled with cakes and cupcakes. There’s also vegan soft-serve ice cream, which has half the calories of regular dairy ice cream. Tea and coffee are available, as well as healthier soft drinks (not made with high-fructose corn syrup).
Menu
Before heading out to the restaurant, check the menu out at Vge’s website.
Vge Café Five Pillars of Food Goodness:
- All ingredients are fresh, never frozen
- Zero cholesterol
- Nothing fried
- Balanced nutrition
- 100% vegan
Vge Café is located in the heart of Bryn Mawr, at 845B Lancaster Ave. Open Mon.–Sat., 11 a.m.–9 p.m., and Sun., 11 a.m.–3 p.m.
