Nicola’s Veggies is this tiny door in the wall veggie restaurant located on 110 2nd St. NW (the north side of 2nd street on the Downtown Mall). When I say “door in the wall”, I literally mean it. Nicola’s interior space must not occupy more than 35 square feet. You order through a screen window next to the door, and someone inside, most likely a nice woman named Kimberly will scramble away making your lunch a hopefully green experience. And she really does scramble, but it must be ridiculously hard working in that tiny space, so if it takes 5 min to build you a great salad, please don’t give her any crap.
Their size does not detract from the food quality.It is owned by the same owners as Marco and Luca. I have had the exquisite pleasure of ordering lunch from them since they opened, and every time its delicious. Now I have to warn you, if you don’t like vegetables, like really hate them, then you might not like this. Nicola’s offers you a veggie overload.
WTF is Raw Food?
Nicola’s prides itself on serving organic, raw, fermented, etc… types of food.
Things To Try:
- Veggie wrap ($7.75): wrap, mayo, cultured red cabbage, shredded carrots, spinach, pumpkin seed oil, seaweed flakes (and I asked for some hummus as well)
- Red cabbage salad ($5.00): cultured red cabbage with seaweed flakes, Austrian pumpkin seed oil and bread
- Sauerkraut and Spinach salad ($7.50): fresh spinach with cultured white and red cabbage, shredded carrots, fresh garlic, ginger dressing, pumpkin seed oil, Celtic salt, bread
- Quinoa salad ($7.75): cooked quinoa with cultured white and red cabbage, kimchee, fresh garlic and ginger dressing, pumpkin seed oil,Celtic salt, bread
- Kefir smoothie ($6.50): kefir, frozen organic berries, fresh ground flaxseed, bee pollen
Now I know all of this veggie uncooked BS sounds weird at first, but if you have an open mind and an empty stomach, Nicola’s will fill you and then some. Imagine instead of drinking carrot juice that required 10 carrots, you actually ate those 10 carrots, not only would you be on the toilet all day (very fibrous), but you would be full for hours and hours, and then ridiculously hungry.
So I know all of you clamor for Eppie’s or Revolutionary Soup at lunch time, but give Nicola’s a chance today, or tomorrow…and see how you like the veggie life. Nicola’s Veggies is open from 10AM-4PM and they only accept cold hard CASH. If you are new to the site and are interested in exploring other vegetarian options, check out Vanillavy’s “Veggie Tales” series.
Popularity: 22% [?]
Tagged as: Downtown Mall, Food, green, Local, Organic, raw food, Restaurants, vegan, Vegetarian, veggie tales
I had to be talk into eating here by the SO. There was no way I would have tried it on my own. It was really tasty. I have never had something so good that was also good for me. Also this place has to be the smallest restaurant in town.
If you’re really into the raw thing, a local girl has moved to Panama and started a retreat: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=318657347
Super cute, super fresh, super tasty
@2 born and raised in Panama
if anyone gets a chance to visit I highly recommend it.
dieter, what were your reservations going into Nicola’s, and how were they subsequently changed? i have heard a lot of preconceived notions about what raw/vegan food is and must taste like, and they are usually wrong, so we would love to hear your story, and anyone else’s for that matter.
>>>When I say “door in the wall”, I literally mean it.<<<<
Where else do they put doors except (very rare now) on bandstands?
@5: When I was first introduced to raw food I thought the concept was some cracked out hippy shit. Once you think about it though, it makes sense. Fruits and vegetables have tons of nutrients and the more they’re cooked, the more you lose those nutrients. It’s not easy to jump into raw food though, you have to get used to the actual flavor of food and stop loading up on the seasonings and dressings, et al. Most people try raw and think ,”This tastes like nothing” because of years of eating food with stuff added to it.
I’ve yet to try Nicola’s, but I’ve heard great things, and I love the concept. Vegetarian or not, you should try it, even if only because Dragana and Sun-Da are such nice folks and a great local success story.
@5 cocoNUT, my problem hasn’t been from pre-conception but actual tasting. I had been given healthy tasteless food and told how good it was for me. There are a long list of things like chickpeas that lack taste or proper preparation that just don’t like. I like tasty food and if it’s healthy super. Over the years I have been less of a meat and potatoes (and sweetbreads) kind of guy. I don’t care how good raw is suppose to for me if it taste horrible.
Which leads to the fact that healthy food mixed with great taste are what I found at Nicola’s . It’s like finding a healthy salad you can eat because some made a healthy dressing that taste great.
i agree with dieter. i guess thats why fast foods are so popular, loaded with artificial flavors and all. but, when done properly i have had some raw food dishes that really highlight the flavor of the veggies involved. i am part of the camp however that requires some kind of sauce/dressing with the food.
Fruits and vegetables have tons of nutrients and the more they’re cooked, the more you lose those nutrients
If you eat raw grapes and then wait for a long time, you’ll get drunk. And it’s, like, healthier than normal drunk. FACT.
@9 i love the taste of chickpeas!
chickpeas with lemon juice, tahini and a dash of salt and cayenne pepper in a cuisinart?
also good
is that where Marco & Luca’s started out?
prices seem a bit high for raw veggies.
don’t many spices, and all vinegar-based/acidic things, and salt-brine, ‘cook’ food? aren’t there several japanese meat dishes that are ‘raw’ but ‘cooked’ by brine or other biochemical wizardy? kimchee is, i think, brine and cabbage buried raw in the ground for sixteen years?
odd that every item listed above, though, has some conventionally cooked component–bread,/wrap ‘cooked quinoa’, sauerkraut, etc.
that said, another vegetarian restaurant always welcome, and i am rapturous about Marco&Luca’s (that’s the nice couple, yes?) success. In addition to being jolly faces around the mall, a great american success-story, they never open hip-healthy restaurants with tasteless communist propaganda slogans and posters and lapel pins everywhere while charging 8 bucks for a cup of broth.
Those two are wonderful. Dragana is a regular customer of mine, and I make a point of being a regular customer of hers and her husband’s. I had to swear off her INCREDIBLE dumplings, as I went veggie myself, but I gorge on those sesame noodles. And by gorge, I mean… It’s so good I forget to chew. CUCUMBERS!!!! AAAAGH!!!! I LOVE IT!
I can’t wait to try this! I wonder if it’s “Put salad creations and their yummy-but-holy-shit-I-just-ate-2000-calories-worth-of-dressing-salads in their place” good?
um, not to be a downer but humans make enzymes. perhaps you are thinking of the 6 essential amino acids we get from foods? the only foods that contain the full complement of said amino acids are combinations of legumes and complex carbohydrates, ie beans and rice. all the other amino acids our body manufactures.
Here I come with my dorky food knowledge-POWWW!
Rose, my darling, your body comes with a LIMITED amount of enzymes so the more you use, the more you lose. And eating more raw foods uses less of your enzymes. Having no enzymes would make eating and digesting and eliminating weight very taxing on your body and more prone to sickness. Eating foods rich in enzymes is like energizing your energy bars in Super Mario.
Mmm, I’m eating this bar made of dates, apricots, almond butter, and cashews. So gud, Now I’m ready to go out and get those mushrooms, save the princess, and donkeypunch Yoshi.
@20: We should hang out sometime.
@19. what you say makes no sense to me.
Enzymes are biological catalysts responsible for mediating metabolism within cells: basically in charge of all reactions within a cell. They are made up of proteins and sometimes include inorganic (metal) cofactors or organic coenzymes. Cofactors are important for carrying out functions for which amino acids are unsuited (the heme in hemoglobin for example is an iron atom where the oxygen gets bound). Enzymes are only required in small amounts and can be involved in reactions repeatedly- you do not use them up or “lose them”. All enzymes do is act as a catalyst, they do not supply energy for a chemical reaction their only job is to accelerate favorable reaction rates.
In that sense, you are correct, your metabolic reactions would proceed-albeit slowly. But you will never “use your enzymes up”.
The only thing I can think raw food would do is not denature some of the proteins you may eat which sounds good, except most protein digestion takes place in the stomach and acid works really well at denaturing proteins. And if you eat a lot of protein and it doesn’t get digested in your stomach, it goes in the toilet. You don’t need much protein either.
If, however you are talking about ingesting those things needed to make cofactors (for example iron) or other minerals and vitamins, then I imagine raw food is a phenomenal diet since it is heavy on vegetables.
It sounds like you’ve pursued medical studies and I always respect what you say on the site, however I’m sure you agree that the fields of medicine and nutrition are somewhat different. Everything I’ve read while looking into a raw diet says that digestive enzymes are a limited resource in the body and eating cooked foods will deplete these enzymes. Eating foods with enzymes helps your body by making the food easier to digest and using less of your body’s energy. And digestion actually takes a lot of energy is what many people don’t realize. Which takes energy from other functions of your body.
Frankly, the simple fact of food is you eat it and it gives you the energy to go through your daily functions and live. The farther you are from the natural life cycle that gave this food source life, the less you will get from it.
Here’s a link and it may sound crazy but the simple fact is, eating things in their most natural unprocessed state is always going to be better for you than the alternative.
http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-cooked/raw-cooked-2b.shtml
Yes and that is exactly what I am going to do since I don’t know how to cook the freaking stuff to begin with.
Question: I thought we had a natural chemical in our intestines that protect the walls from the hot stuff from chili peppers, how come I can feel my Chipotle lunch every inch of its travels?
/while we are on the subject…
23. I completely agree about eating lower on trophic levels and that eating food that is not processed crap is good for you, essential in fact, especially making sure you eat fruit and vegetables. They really should make up the bulk of a persons diet-they provide fiber, water, vitamins, minerals, calories, sugar, fat, and incomplete protein. Its just that the science behind the claims is um, a little shaky for me thats all. I hate that I may appear unsupportive, because Im not trying to be. I just like science.
I like the idea of a raw diet becomes it places such emphasis on ways of vegetarian cooking/preparation that I am not as familiar with and that it seems to use a lot of cultured, fermented and pickled items-which are important for helping your gut bacteria breed and aid in digestion. Now if the scientific claims for raw food were about that or vitamin and fiber intake, I would feel better. But the whole “undestroyed enzymes” thing seems dubious at best.
@25: Fuck science. Let’s settle this in a baby pool full of cooked gelatin.
I got a couple cases of Jello chocolate pudding I would be willing to donate for the next CLAW if you guys want to go at it.
We do need a Charlottesville Ladies Jello Wrestling League. Fer sure.
@26
WHILE WE’RE ON THE SUBJECT OF BUSTY-CHICKS JELLO-WRESTLING IN THONGS
Kyle in his photo on the cover of the Cville had the look of an Empire-Builder (except for the mutton-chop sideburns, etc.), an imperial bearing…corporate raider and so on. Evil Corporate executive, big-bidness, etc. (i address this affectionately and admiringly). Evil corporations are big on outsourcing right now, especially to India. There’s that story (yet to break—we could still scoop Cville News) about the UVA kid outsourcing all his class-reading and his papers and take-home exams to India. Lots of Cville companies are outsourcing bigtime.
And since most of the posts on this site are steeped in Eastern Exoticism:
Hurricane = Tsunami/flooding = INDIA
Spice Bear = ursus amomus = species native to INDIA
Macrobio veganism = Jainism = do-no-harm religion common in INDIA
Hot Models = chicks painting themselves blue to enhance sex-appeal = INDIA
The Box = i didn’t read this post = gurus squeeze themselves into little boxes in INDIA
we have a trend.
so—has anyone ‘done’ a visiting outsourcer yet??????
@29: Who said Rose and I were busty? Gawd OD, you’re so sexist!
@30
ummmm… relativism?
why would anyone who wasn’t busty wrestle in Jello? that’d be like someone who understands human biology and evolution of the species dining at a veggie-takeout instead of the omnivore’s Outback Steakhouse.
Um, cuz it’s hawt? And we look gud in our underwear? NSFW
And you’re in trouble for the anti-veg slight.
@32
YOICKS!!!!!! Is that you? my god, i misspoke. hot-chi-ba-ba.
is that the small pool restricted to smaller-breast competitors?–i don’t know how these things work.
it seems like Sigma Chi could’ve sprung for the next-size-up (on both counts, pool and br**sts?)
gelatin comes from cow-hooves, right? if wrestling in JELLO-brand-gelatin,
would’nt one get a bunch of the stuff in mouth and various other orifici, creating vegan difficulties?
{just to keep on-topic for the post}
Who is Onatop? I’m guessing you’re on the bottom
@34 and every other post
i seem to be asking for trouble today, sorry.
can we get back to my avid support of vegan lesbianism in modelling?
@34: Sorry, what was that? I don’t speak sexist pig latin.
@35: No comment.