Cafe Jean-Paul

Out of business

I had the chard wrap with quinoa and it was great. They even gave me extra quinoa after I finished my meal! A bit on the expensive side. I think I’ll wait to come back until they have their $ 10 lunch menu.

I was a few doors down picking up some pet food at lunch-​time so I decided to try Café Jean-​Paul. I really like the focus here on using local organic sustainable foods and you should be prepared that the prices reflect the high quality ingredients. But you get what you pay for. This is the type of place where you come away after eating lunch feeling like you have done something good for yourself by eating here.
I tried the organic welted spinach and bean wrap which had assorted beans, welted spinach, feta, avocado, diced tomato, caramelized onions, peppers & olives wrapped in a homemade dehydrated onion, spinach chi-​flaxseed bread and was served with a quinoa salad. My only complaint here would be that I felt the beans in this sandwich overpowered the avocado, caramelized onions and tomatoes. Even the feta was hard to discern. I think it’s because the textures were all so similar they were lost to the stronger flavor of the beans. The only thing that stood out was the fresh spinach. I think it just needed something a little brighter and acidic, and some textural contrast to counterbalance all the creaminess. Perhaps some pickled onion rather than the caramelized and maybe some nice crunchy cucumbers would have helped. But the housemade dehydrated wrap was really wonderful and complex. But it isn’t something you can easily pick up in your hand — it makes for a knife and fork kind of sandwich. That brings me to the service ware. They use prepackaged plastic silverware here which I hate. But that’s a personal pet pieve.
A few other things of note. Be advised that this is a credit card only establishment. THEY DON“T TAKE CASH. So come prepared. I was a bit disappointed to see that they offer Hookahs here. To me this seems a bit at odds with the focus on healthful nourishing foods and juicebar. So if this is the type of thing that bothers you, you should know it’s a possibility that you will encounter them.
But I think what they are trying to do here overall by offering healthy, organic, local, sustainable, responsibly raised and processed foods is important and worth supporting. It’s nice to have an option to eat somewhere where the food not only tastes good but is good for you. So if you are in the neighborhood of Lake Ave and 17 – 92, stop into Café Jean-​Paul and try for yourself.

This place has only been open for about a month, but after checking out their website, I was dying to try it, so I went last Friday night. I’m so glad we did! The owners and staff are really friendly and just happened to be having a party that night, which we were invited to join. The space has a cool, funky vibe, but without any carpet or anything, it does tend to get quite loud in there.
My husband and I ordered the bean dip, falafel wrap, and beef kebobs… all delicious! I love that they have a good vegetarian (and vegan and raw and gluten-​free!) menu while also offering some meat items as well (for my hubby!). Since we were lucky enough to be there during the party, I also go to try an amazing raw vegan raspberry beet cheesecake and their raw apple pie. I can’t wait to go back to try their raw wraps!
*Note: they only accept credit cards (which was fine by me since I never carry any cash!)