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The run-up:
A harried morning meant hauling butt out of the house without my snore-inducing turkey sandwich and carrot sticks. A harried schedule at work meant I couldn’t go out and linger somewhere over lunch. A harrowing seven-mile marathon training run waiting for me at the end of the day meant that a corndog and jalapeno poppers probably wasn’t the way to go.
So I thought of Mama Jean’s.
My only experience with the natural food mini-chain was a casual stop-in at their wee Glenstone shop in search of ginger. No dice on the ginger – just supplements and skincare at this outpost, so that was the last I had thought about them. Chatting with a coworker yesterday, I found out that there were others, including a newer and bigger store connected to Dynamic Earth on Republic Road, just west of National. So off I went.
The store:
Like a bite-sized Whole Foods. I’ve been missing a place where we can find organic and natural foods as well specialty items a little too esoteric for our neighborhood Dillon’s. Just this past weekend, my fiancé and I were talking about how much we wanted chicken-apple sausages. So I jumped in our car and hustled off to our local food chain – only the closest thing I could find to chicken-apple sausages was a box of brown n’ serve Jimmy Dean’s. Ah well.
For the record, Mama Jean’s has chicken-apple sausages. And organic wines. And specialty beers. And gluten-free snacks. And deli items. And fresh, organic produce. And frozen foods. And any number of things predicated upon advancing the health and wellbeing of its customers. It ain’t the cheapest place in town, but if you do that whole cost-benefit analysis thing with eating daily salads versus an adulthood spent on alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, you’re coming up ahead at Mama Jean’s.
The store itself is clean, bright and organized. It opens up to Dynamic Earth, another place where my fiancé and I could do some serious financial damage. The staff of Mama Jean’s was friendly and helpful, and the selection, while not huge, made me giddy with excitement. I had to force myself to quit doing price comparisons on spelt flour and pay for my soup and hit the road.
The food:
This place is ideal for a quick, healthy lunch or a light take-out dinner. They have daily pre-made specials in their deli case (today’s were chicken tortilla soup, tomato bisque, green salad, hummus wraps, lasagna, brown rice quiche and raw dessert, whatever that is), pre-sliced natural deli meats and cheeses, dips, olives, drinks and more. The rotating roster of daily specials ensures good variety and seemingly limitless options. I grabbed a copy of their monthly specials calendar on the way out. I will be making a special trip out for their falafel—it seems to pop up on Thursdays now and again.
What I got:
Chicken tortilla soup and a veggie hummus wrap. The soup was awesome. Fresh, bright, subtly spiced and loaded with healthy black beans, shredded chicken and vegetables. They had set out a bowl of sliced scallions and a bag of natural tortilla chips as optional garnishes. The hummus wrap was good too, but not quite as wowing. Carrots, cucumber and the freshest, most verdant sprouts I’ve ever seen were swaddled in a flour tortilla that had been spread with hummus. When I first tasted it, I paused and checked the wrapper. It listed the usual ingredients: chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garam masala … garam masala? The spice blend, often used in Indian cooking, was an unexpected flavor—I love garam masala in most incarnations but this one took some getting used to. Well, not that much. After about two bites I grew accustomed to the flavor and then began to really dig it. Whatever the wrap lacked in showstoppery (new word!), it made up for in heartiness. I only got through half of the soup and wrap have the remainders for a second lunch. For a drink, I wound up getting a R.W. Knudsen Jamaican Lemonade Spritzer. I’m not entirely sure what makes it Jamaican, but whatever it is, it made me manhandle this 12-ounce sparkling juice in about two gulps. Tasty stuff.
The Price:
As I mentioned, not cheap – but also not over the top, given this one stop yielded two lunches. The wrap was $4.79, the soup was $3.86 ($4.39 per pound) and the lemonade was $1.19. Even at around $10, it’s still less than doing the soup and sammy thing at a sit-down restaurant. So maybe it was a pretty good deal after all.
Verdict:
A new favorite. Fresh, healthy food at decent prices was a delightful surprise. Everything is pre- (and minimally) packaged so it’s ideal for a desk lunch. If you’d rather eat there, they have a few tables on a second floor perch overlooking the store.
They’re going to be seeing a lot more of this gal roaming their aisles.
