Earth Bistro Cafe

My fiancee and I have been wondering when this place was going to open for a long time because it advertised itself as being a healthy place to eat. Like many 20 something couples, healthy options for eating out appeal to us, especially since I was required to eliminate gluten from my diet for health reasons.

As it happens, the correlation between health-conscious and gluten-free options was present here. All of their paninis were available with gluten-free variations at a minimal upcharge of 50 cents. I'm basically not interested in an entree that doesn't have meat in it so I didn't look too hard at their extensive vegan and vegetarian options, but all of the paninis (which all looked delicious) were available between 10 and 11 bucks.

My fiancee got some really delicious looking wrap with chicken, hummus, and avocado. As for myself, I decided (based on the guy who was running the front of the restaurant's recommendation) to go with the Cuban Panini. I've had a number of Cuban Sandwiches in my day, and like most of them it had the staples: ham, pickles, and mustard.

This one was comprised of thick cut pork to go with the black forest ham, very thinly sliced pickles, mustard that might have been house-made, and cheese. What set it apart (aside from a generally high quality of ingredients) was the inclusion of a lush slice of pineapple. The combination of all of these elements with whatever spices they used made it the best iteration of a Cuban sandwich that I've tasted. The gluten-free bread was good too!

As for the environment, it was laid-back and pretty cool. It was kind of like a living-room that got modified to being a dining-room. The service was informal but very kind and attentive, which was a nice change of pace. Being limited to places that serve gluten-free food, we normally feel exhausted by the facade of trendy hyper-hipsterism that comes along with caring about the source of your food (I've heard of a popular place around here where people actually eat hamburgers with a fork and knife...). Earth Bistro Cafe was, conversely, devoid of superficial pretention. What you got was a laid-back, comfortable environment with delicious, healthy food made by people who take pride in what they serve and treat their customers well.