Common Roots

Updated: I'm not as big a fan of Common Roots as I once was. The past few months have a seen a notable decline in the variety of vegan non-dessert options. Last time I was there I ordered the squash and leek risotto. It was really delicious, but the portion was piddling, and though the menu said it came with sauteed greens, none were in evidence. And it cost $10.50!

Their vegan options these days just don't satisfy, though I find the vegan desserts are still consistently good. I visit regularly to play Go, but I generally aim to eat dinner at home first, and have dessert there.

I'm amazed I haven't written a review of Common Roots yet, given how often I'm there.

It's actually a tough place to review since sometimes I go there for tea and dessert, sometimes for a meal, and sometimes just to meet with people.

As a coffee shop, it's excellent. They have some really great made-in-house vegan desserts, including excellent scones, cupcakes, and amazing tarts. The only downside is they often run out of vegan stuff before the end of the night, so if you go in the last hour or two they're open, it may be slim pickings.

As a restaurant, they make some fantastic food. Their soups are some of the best soups I've ever tasted. My only complaint is that they change all the time, and they don't seem to cycle my old favorites back in very often. But that's okay, because the new ones are wonderful.

They also make good sandwiches and entrees. Not long ago, I had some lentil bolognese pasta which was excellent. Their entrees tend to be too light on salt, but that's easy to fix.

My biggest complaint here is that they rarely have more than one vegan sandwich or entree. I'm somewhat picky about certain things (bleah, cucumbers or celery), so if the entree has that, I'm out of luck. I wish they consistently had more vegan options in the meal category.

Their bagels are great, and I highly recommend them. They are by far the closest to proper east coast bagels that I've had. They're a little flat, but they're properly chewy. I try to always keep some in the freezer for breakfast.

My biggest complaint is that their wireless is terrible. When the place is full, it just stops working. My guess is that they're using equipment intended for a home network when they should be using something beefier.

My second biggest complaint is that they're sometimes just too full and there's no seats, but that's not something they can fix, except by raising prices or lowering quality. Oh well.

I was surprised at how busy this place was on a Thursday morning (is everyone else just employed like me?). :) My friend and I stopped in for bagels and I was pleasantly surprised with the unique spreads they had. I ordered an onion bagel with lentil pate, which was absolutely wonderful. I couldn't pinpoint the spices in the pate but it was glorious. My friend had an onion bagel with carrot-walnut spread, which was also very good, but I liked the lentil spread better.

I'm a big tofu cream cheese fan so I was disappointed to find they didn't have tofu cream cheese, but I suppose their toppings are a lot healthier than anything Tofutti ever came up with. As for the bagels themselves, I was pretty disappointed with them. It's not that the bagels were bad, I just think I'm spoiled living in New York City, the center of the bagel universe. The bagels in NYC are big, fluffy, and chewy, and I found the bagels here to be small, flat, and crispy. It tasted more like a frozen bagel reheated than the freshly made, soft and chewy bagel that I was expecting. However, my friend told me good bagels are hard to come by in MSP so I guess I should be happy with what we found.

Update III: I must give credit to Common Roots for its consistently wonderful vegan desserts. Their tarts are always amazing, their cupcakes are rich and moist, their cookies are soft and large. Also, while I don't think they offer enough vegan lunch and dinner options, I respect their unwavering dedication to sustainable principles and locally-sourced food. You won't find many places in the US that make such a public, transparent commitment to local, sustainable foods (you can check their website to see stats on their "localness" and other "goodness" factors). Nor will you find other places in the US that have such a dynamic and rapidly-changing menu, at reasonable prices.

My gripe with their food is this: they always have at least one, sometimes two, vegan options, but the portion sizes are really small and the taste never really blows me away. I'm more impressed with the fresh, local ingredients, than I am with the constructed whole of the meal. The prices tend to be high, too. $9 for tofu scramble? $11 for spaghetti? You could get twice as much food for the same price at more vegan-friendly, but perhaps less eco-friendly, places like Triple Rock, Seward Cafe or Evergreen.

Generally speaking, their tempeh/tofu sandwiches tend to be tasty. Their entrees, be it tofu scrambles or stir frys or whatever, are usually too small and too expensive. Their desserts and teas are good or, in the case of their tarts, excellent. Their soups are also hearty and delicious, though expensive. I've never been impressed with their cold pastas, which always seem slightly undercooked and slightly bland.

I'm disappointed that they haven't found a way to make bagels without honey. It seems like an easy thing to do.

The quality of the service is mixed. It takes forever to order as people stare at the menu and lines frequently build up at the cash register. The food also usually takes close to 15 minutes to arrive. The people behind the counter are either really friendly or slightly aloof.

Common Roots creates problems as it's not quite a restaurant, and not quite a coffee shop. As such, I've found myself in situations where I order a meal, and then don't have anywhere to sit, because all the tables are colonized by no-good faux beatniks with Macbooks, who order a cup of coffee then plant their flags on tables for hours and hours, even during peak times, when some people just want to enjoy their curry garbanzo burger ($8.95) and a vegan cookie.

I am still impressed with their social dedication---they compost everything, use recycled products and biodegradable utensils and plastics. They also host various social events and speakers, as well as "meet your farmer" sessions. Finally, they have a few local beers on tap, with an outside garden area open during the summer; their happy hour is a pleasant respite after a long day at the office.

I also like that they have a private room open to groups wanting to hold discussions or events.

It's all a question of expectations. As a cafe/coffeeshop, Common Roots is pretty good and offers more than it needs to for vegans. But, as a local, organic, environmentally- and socially-committed cafe (which one would think would offer more sustainable vegan food) Common Roots falls short.

Nice idea for a cafe, but the fact that the bagels have honey is really sad. And if you're vegan, don't bother going for breakfast - there's hardly anything for us.

note for vegans: the bagels have honey.

initially they didn't have as much vegan things as i'd like, but they've improved. they always seem to have a couple vegan sweet things.. cookies, cupcakes, tarts, bars.. they usually seem to have a vegan soup or two. and i think some sandwiches can be made vegan.

could use a little more atmosphere.. like some art on the walls or something. though it does have tall airy ceilings and good light. and i like the idea of trying to do as much local as possible.