Healthy New Year eating at these two Sixth Avenue spots

Healthy does not have to mean boring.

When someone tells me they eat boiled chicken breasts and plain spinach every night for dinner, I get the meat sweats just thinking about the sad state of their meat-eating. I believe more in the moderation mantra, that deprivation leads to overindulgence somewhere down the line. As a food writer, I also believe in real food.

Or, as Marie Kondo might say, eat what sparks joy.

Corie Cameron, owner of Crisp Greens, a salad and grain-bowl cafe on Sixth Avenue, concurs: Eat what makes you feel your best.

That sounds easy enough, but we all struggle with it; otherwise, there would be no diets, no cuisines, no results when you search Google or Yelp for “healthy food near me.”

“Everybody needs to eat bright, healthy and fresh foods,” said Cameron, who trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and the Culinary Institute of America in New York.

At Crisp Greens, bowls start with a base of salad, “grains” (in this case, wild rice, lentils or a riced cauliflower tabbouleh), or a blend of both. Diners can add up to three made-fresh-daily dips or sauces — like tzatziki, walnut kale pesto or the spicy North African harissa — and a protein.

They are anything but boring. Choices range from braised chipotle chicken and pork meatballs to tofu roasted in olive oil with onions and coriander. Roasted tofu or seasonal vegetables offer vegetarians and vegans a hearty addition, and more than a dozen toppings allow further customization.

“Some people need carbs; some people don’t,” said Cameron. “Everything is designed so that it can be low-carb.”

Before opening the cafe at 4312 Sixth Avenue, across from the Walgreens at Stevens, Cameron tinkered with recipes through an upstart healthy meal service called Crisp Meals. She and her husband Sean Guay, a butcher, now operate that side of the business under the same roof as the retail concept.

“I tried to be a stay-at-home mom and got really bored and couldn’t do it,” she said. “I started cooking small-batch things for friends, and it kind of snowballed into what it is now.”

As a mother of four — her youngest is 2 years old and the oldest 7 — she saw the need for healthier on-the-go meal options in and around Tacoma.

SIPPABLE HEALTH

Fellow Sixth Avenue entrepreneur Sean Doyle also noticed this gap. He and his wife Gretchen opened Gather Juice Co. in August.

Having already “evolved” their lifestyles to stay active and eat more whole foods, they returned from a vacation in Indonesia a few years ago feeling unusually refreshed.

“Everything was so fresh,” said Doyle. “Any restaurant you walked into you could get a fresh juice.”

Their quest to satisfy cravings in Tacoma for a similar drink — cold-pressed juice made mostly from vegetables and some fruit — fell flat.

They opened Gather in part to “scratch our own itch,” Doyle admitted, but also to educate others.

“There’s a lot of ‘internet wellness’ — all these articles on keto this and Whole30 that, and people fall into the trap of reading one article, maybe a full book if they’re lucky, and not really understanding it or falling off really quick,” he said, referencing two of the most popular low-carb diets. “Being healthy is actually pretty easy. You just have to not over-complicate it.”

He and his small team spend considerable effort educating customers who walk into the shop at 2612 Sixth Avenue, next to Shakabrah Java.

“There are some people who are here for the juice, but more people are just kind of wondering and curious, and feel like juice is a healthy decision to make,” said Doyle. They “want to have a conversation,” to know why, for instance, the OG Greens has only vegetables and herbs in it, or why ginger shows up in multiple recipes.

That conversation “provides some education,” he continued, and helps experienced and novice juice drinkers alike “buy into the idea that being healthy might not be as hard as it seems on the internet.”

The shop is big on sampling and short on saying this juice is specifically for detox or that juice for immune support. Instead, Gather focuses on taste and preference.

“I would settle for serving a juice that somebody likes for them to come back later and maybe evolve their taste over time to something more vegetable-heavy,” said Doyle. “As people get used to the idea that we are experimenting, too, then they’ll become more willing to try other things. You can fall anywhere on the spectrum with juice that you want to.”

An unsweetened juice made with celery and cucumber is unabashedly less sweet than commercial orange juice. But for those who need to start with the Pineapple Mint (available only on Tuesdays), Gather will oblige — especially because of the cost.

A 12-ounce Gather juice costs $6.35 and a 16-ounce $8, but bear in mind that each requires up to six pounds of produce to make. Doyle does not shy away from the taboo of juice as an expensive celebrity habit: “It’s just not that cheap to make juice, so it’s not that cheap to buy juice.”

Purchase one, though, and bring back the bottle each time to get 10% off. About half of Gather’s customers take advantage of that deal, said Doyle.

“It’s not a miracle cure, but I can’t eat six salads a day,” said Doyle. “More nutrients, enzymes, vegetables, fruits — more of that stuff in can’t ever lead to a bad result.”

Juice, he added, packs dense nutrition into a convenient package that tastes good.

HEALTHY IN 2020 AND BEYOND

Gather and Crisp Greens have been open for less than a year, but both have already expanded their offerings.

Cameron added soups — four to six varieties daily — and a half-soup, half-salad combo deal for $9.99. She also said there is a high chance of a second location, this time downtown, to meet demand for quick and healthy lunch options. She anticipates securing a space and opening within the first few months of the year.

Gather already offers more than just juice and juice cleanses ($120 for three days, $200 for five). There are smoothies ($8), smoothie bowls ($11) and toasts ($5 to $7), with plans for additional food choices. Superfood coffee drinks satisfy other cravings with the bonus of ingredients like maca, ashwagandha, turmeric and beetroot ($6).

Healthy lifestyles extend beyond the store. Gather’s employees benefit from livable wages, PTO and assistance with gym or yoga memberships.

“We feel like it would be hypocritical to have a business where we’re trying to create something for our customers without also trying to create that for the people we work with,” said Doyle.

When he discovered I had also talked with Cameron, he added that she and Guay have been very supportive.

“We joke all the time about making Tacoma healthier together, one person at a time.”

This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 5:30 AM.