Nestled in the back corner of Natural Alternatives, a well-stocked natural food store, one finds a compact eatery buzzing with energy. Pop in any weekday and you’ll find café owner Sarah Collins and her four staff members gracefully prepping and cooking super fresh, abundantly tasty breakfasts and lunches for eager crowds.
Café Santosha has been around for over five years now, and word of mouth has certainly traveled throughout the Valley and beyond, as hungry customers await a chance for one of the tasty breakfast bowls, daily-made soups or bevvy of salads.
Collins began her culinary career by catering in-home dinner parties in and around Bucks County. While the catering met her need to cook and please others with her food, her enjoyment of creating small-batch, thoughtful and healthy food is what pushed her to leave the catering behind and open Café Santosha. In the café, her creativity shines through in her own dishes, as well as food inspired by magazines and the food blogs she follows.
What sets Café Santosha apart from the other lunch spots in and around the Valley is most certainly the incorporation of all organic products along with high-quality pantry ingredients sourced from the natural food store it inhabits, combining to create the delicious meals offered up daily.
Additionally, Collins and her team source as much product as possible from her own garden, as well as eggs from her chickens for the savory and sweet dishes and premise-made baked goods. Collins is also extremely thoughtful about food waste, keeping it at a minimum by allowing friends of the café to take the food scraps for their farm animals.
The menus change seasonally, and daily specials are offered based on what’s available from Sarah’s own garden as well as the local meat, produce and dairy purveyors that she regularly patronizes.
When stopping in for lunch, you can choose from the menu and have your lunch made-to-order, or, if you’re in more of a hurry, you can grab-and-go from the many daily-made options available in the cold cases, including fresh sandwiches, salads and desserts.
The most popular breakfast dish the café serves is its Indian Breakfast Bowl: a combination of kale and spinach topped with fragrant, mustard-spiced potatoes; layered with eggs or tofu scrambled with curry, onions and tomato chutney; and finished with another chutney studded with coconut and cilantro.
Lunch favorites include the Kraut Grilled Cheese, which is loaded with Collins’ own fermented purple cabbage and local Swiss and cheddar cheeses—all oozing out of fresh rye bread—and Toast Three Ways, a selection that finds a variety of toppings crowning freshly toasted grain bread, including a creamy, homemade hummus juxtaposed with crunchy vegetables or a local, delicate ricotta cheese paired with spring peas and mint.
Collins is a graduate of The Pratt School, and you can see her art school experience in the beautiful plates she and her team prepare, whether it be the thoughtful, artfully arranged toppings on the Toast Three Ways or the colorful layers of vegetables and proteins that make up The Santosha Sandwich.
The café caters to all types of diets, including vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free. Carnivores, omnivores and herbivores alike can dine with ease, as so many of the dishes Collins creates can be adapted to include or not include meat or dairy.
The café typically sees over 100 hungry customers a day and often runs out of the daily soup, salad and sandwich specials, so regulars know to get there early to make sure their favorites are still in stock. Café Santosha seats approximately 20–24 inside and 10 outside, weather permitting, so we wouldn’t suggest bringing a crowd to dine in.
Café Santosha is most definitely a must-try for anyone who enjoys organic, healthy, ridiculously tasty food. Hours for the café are Monday–Friday; 9:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
Café Santosha is located at 7150 Hamilton Blvd. in Trexlertown; phone: (610) 366-1711.
- Photos: Café Santosha
