MOBY, tonight at Life Cafe

He said he'd stick to the same dish he had back in 1989. What was it? Seitan Philly Cheesesteak sandwich, of course!

Blah Blog Blah: Life Cafe on a Saturday Night

Blah Blog Blah: Life Cafe on a Saturday Night

This is a very nice shot of East Village Life Cafe

Half Price Wings & Pitchers during Super Bowl at the E Village Life Cafe

East Village Life Cafe

Join us February 7
Super Bowl Sunday
6 pm till 12 am
featuring
1/2 PRICE WINGS
&
1/2 PRICE PITCHERS OF BEER

Menu Picture Riddle Answer Life Cafe East Village

The answer to last week's is Snake Bite (ouch!)

MENU RIDDLE ANSWER Life Cafe East Village

The answer to last week's Menu Riddle at the East Village Life Cafe is . . . ROCKS! As in bar drinks "on the rocks." It was on display until Monday, October 26.

If you got the answer right and left us your email address (that's readable), you'll win a free bottle of champagne! We'll notify you via email. Then call or email us back and let us know when you'll be in to enjoy it.

John's pastel drawings depict as a riddle an item from one of our menus -- the All Day, Brunch, Coffee Drinks, Dessert, any of our menus. And it could be a word, a section heading, anything! Often than not it's one of our menu items. If you study each of them enough and look for clues in his drawings, the answer is bound to pop out to you.

Thanks for playing and good luck with the next one. (John posts new ones on Fridays, unless he's late and puts one up on a Sunday, which has been known to happen from time to time.)

LIFE IS JUST A BOWL OF CHILI at Life Cafe

Veggie Chili was the first hot item I served at Life Café in 1981. Warming, filling, loved by everyone, chili epitomized what people were looking for. Oh, and it was cheap.

To get the Cafe opened quickly I scrounged the neighborhood for snacks, the kinds of munchies loose change would buy. Dennis, a college buddy of David Life’s, arrived from Michigan about that time for a visit, curious and excited over our latest adventure, a real café in New York City.

One day Dennis and I talked about a menu. He jumped up exclaiming, “You must serve CHILI!” I was swept up by his enthusiasm and followed him into my kitchen.

“Start with cans of beans. You got fresh tomatoes? Onions? First sauté up some onions. And lots of garlic. Green pepper is good. You got celery? We can put some of that in. Where are your spices?

“Oh, Dennis, that’s too much cayenne!

“Oh, yeah. Ha, ha! I love it. Let’s throw in some black pepper too. Hot. It’s gotta be hot, hot, hot!

I didn’t serve his recipe but he convinced me about chili! I came up with my own recipe after researching the trusty old vegetarian cookbooks that had traveled with me cross-country. Dave and I were vegetarians since living in Michigan. I enjoyed discovering non-meat alternatives and experimenting with unusual ingredients. At Life Cafe, it was natural for me to serve food Dave and I liked and believed in eating. It was a challenge though to come up with menu ideas to appeal to a wider palate and to find ingredients that weren’t as readily available then as they are today.

But I had a mission. The health and fiscal advantages of vegetarianism were apparent. And I believed that by offering it on our menu showed we cared.

I charged fifty cents for Life’s Three-Bean Vegetarian Chili so our cash strapped artist and non-artist neighbors could enjoy a hot meal. I made sure that my chili was nutritious in case it happened to be the only meal someone ate that day. If a customer had an extra buck and wanted to splurge, the chili was available with brown rice and freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese for a bigger protein boost. This simple dish replenished one’s spirit with a near-to-complete protein meal.

Because it was the first item on Life Cafe’s menu and quickly became its backbone, Life’s Vegetarian Chili holds a special place on the menu for me. It’s a symbol of the ideals that Life Cafe was built upon, and serves as a reminder of where I started. It’s a symbol of what Life Cafe is about.

Life Cafe Naked Music

Yes, but it's not as racy as it sounds. Naked just means acoustic!

Join Dana McCoy
for her Monday Night
NAKED MUSIC SERIES
starts 8 pm

For more info on Dana, Naked Music and her other projects, go to http://www.myspace.com/nakedmusicseries

Columbus Day at Life Cafe

Yeah, got a day off!
Let's celebrate.

Come have brunch at Life Cafe East Village and Life Cafe 983 Bushwick
10 am

Life Cafe E Vill. WEEKLY DEALS

Five good ways to beat the recession. (Hey, we try to do what we can!)

Mondays
Half price bottle of wine when you buy 2 Big Plates or 2 Entree Specials

Tuesdays
Buy any sandwich and we'll throw in a pint of draft beer

Wednesdays
Buy any Life burger (and they're real good) and we'll throw in a pint of draft beer

Thursdays
Get a free dessert (from a choice of 3) when you buy any Big Plate or an Entree Special

Fridays
Buy Life's Wings and get half price off pitchers of Margaritas (dare you to order the suicidal!)

Life Cafe East Village Dinner Specials

We change our specials every Thursday. This is what we've cooked up for you this week, Oct. 8th thru Oct. 14.

Fresh Homemade Pasta stuffed with spinach and cheese
baked and served with fresh tomato sauce 11.99

Enchiladas Suizas
two soft corn tortillas stuffed with chicken, spinach, mushrooms, onions and topped with our own Salsa Verde and jack cheese. Served with black beans and Mexican rice 12.99

Pan Seared Pork Medallions with Red Pepper and Citrus
served with mashed potatoes and asparagus wrapped in crispy Serrano ham 12.99

Rigatoni ala Bolognese
pasta served with a classic Italian hearty meat sauce with a touch of cream 12.99

What is NAKED MUSIC at Life Cafe?

Dear NAKED Fans,

The Naked Music Series is a very sweet mic-free acoustic music concert series that’s been running since 2007 on Monday nights. They recently moved to Life Cafe on E. 10th St. and Ave. B for the next few months. Our host is Dana, your dressed Naked Angel. Performances usually start at 8 pm. There’s a $5 food/drink minimum, and you're going to want more once you taste the delicious food. otherwise, no cover. Visit their NAKED blog at http://www.myspace.com/nakedmusicseries for more info.

Look Who’s Playing NAKED at Life Cafe:

Feb. 2 Robert Gary
Feb. 9 Kagero
Feb. 16 Chris Frank
Feb. 23 Open
March 9 Copasetic
March 16 Kaiku

There will be a second artist on each Monday as well. Keep in touch.

The Writing On the Wall

EAST VILLAGE LIFE CAFE

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. There is much to be thankful for. It’s true! To remind us, John wrote a poem on the wall at the East Village Life Café. It’s the little everyday things to be grateful for, and I was grateful for his reminder. We reproduced it below. I hope you enjoy it.

We launched Chef Vincent’s new brunch menu on Thanksgiving Day. While it was a rough start, as new menus often go, everyone got fed and enjoyed their meals immensely. A particular favorite by vegan and meat eaters alike is the “Tempeh Reuben Sandwich.” Go to the East Village Menus “Brunch” page where you’ll find it listed with all the other improvements and fun twists Chef’s done to the Life Café fare. We’ll soon have his rendition of our All Day Menu launched. And he’s already doing his dessert magic; like his delectable “Lemon Tofu ‘Cheesecake’” that he serves in a champagne flute. Really!

Come in soon to enjoy what he’s done. We do brunch from 10 am to 4:30 pm Saturdays and Sundays. Chef prepares his scrumptious breakfast breads then too. A basket of his assorted sweet breads comes with every order.

John is creating his Riddle Raffle pastels right in the café in the East Village now. You can watch him working on a new one there early every Friday afternoon catching the wonderful soft low sunlight filtering through the trees in Tompkins Square Park.



The Writing on the Wall
Thanksgiving

Life Café has always had a tradition of communication, whether through conversation, performance, or art displayed on its walls. Prose and poetry, usually in the form of live spoken events was a feature of the café life back in the 80’s and 90’s. Today that tradition continues with the appearance of poems and art written and drawn in chalk on the walls by John Sunderland.

(If you have a poem about Life Café life, email it to us and if we like it we’ll feature it in the café blog).

For Thanksgiving, this appeared:

WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?
My dog,
my cat.
my favorite hat
Summer, spring,
winter, fall,
Hey I love it all!
Sandy beaches,
pears, peaches
Food and drink
My best pal
Beer and wine
getting over my hangover
Waking, breathing,
all my bits
A good laugh
taking a bath
Thinking, loving,
making up,
making out,
forgetting what we
fell out about
Jokes
A sense of humor
My Auntie Sal
and Granddad Bill
and all he left me in his will
My old bike,
that first hike,
hills, mountains, streams
Being alive to the world
The great outdoors
The great indoors
Sweet dreams
All love means
Going to bed,
you’re in my head
Bacon and beans
Martinis, Bellinis,
Champagne, lemonade,
whiskey, rum
That mole on your bum,
Pals, friends, amigos,
chums
Conversations
Trains coming into stations
Sunshine, clouds,
rain, wind,
Hiccups, sneezes
Both sides of my brain
Aspirin, sex, cuddles
Staying home
My first date, my mate
My first skates
Not being late
My kids, their friends
Shopping, reading,
Talking, walking, singing
Dancing
Living


This small furry creature was discovered nibbling crumbs from the sidewalk tables on Halloween night in late November. A rare and as yet unidentified species!




LIFE CAFÉ 983, BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN

Something crazy goes on at 983 on Wednesday nights. It’s not official. No, no, it’s the staff. (Maybe we’re too lenient? Oh, but it is fun…) Some of the staff make up a theme for the way they dress. One week was “Ballroom Dancing” and our lovely Shaeffer behind the bar wore a large gleaming rhinestone necklace and swirling skirt and looked absolutely fabulous. Last week was “Sweaters with Animal Print”. Next week I was told it’s “Your Worst Holiday Sweater”. They’re artists, so they do come up with good imagery. So stop in Wednesday anytime after 5 pm and get an eyeful and a chuckle. And, hey, you could join in. Just give a call a couple of days ahead to find out what they’ve come up with for that week.

Oh, don’t come Wednesday, December 10th as 983 is closed for a holiday party. Last seating is 6 pm and we close at 7 pm.

Here’s a seasonal image from Bushwick. This is last week’s Riddle Raffle drawing at 983 titled “Seasonal Pick” after the group of Special Drinks from our drink men. I know, I know, it’s tacky. But so is John. After all, he’s a Yorkshireman, and they’re funny guys, in all meanings of the words!

By gum, we do like to have fun….

Cheers,
John and Kathy

Yes, we all have had a lot of ups and downs recently in the world, but Life goes on. We elected a new President and started down a path of change. Speaking of change, we've got a lot of fresh new things happening at the East Village Life Café that compliments nicely with Barack Obama's message of hope. Our sister location, Life Café NINE83 in Bushwick, Brooklyn, is tweaking things up too.

Welcome to the first post of the Life Café Blog! I've been planning to launch our own blog for weeks, and I'm really excited to use this medium as another way to connect with you. This post concentrates mostly on the East Village café as there's so much to update. We'll keep you posted on what goes on the Bushwick here as well.

My life's been entwined in Life Café for 28 years (as of this month actually!). My goal has been to provide an open door, a haven for all who walk in. It's always been more than just a business; Life Café has been a way of life for me, even if it's tougher than most. Life Café is more than great food; it's about people connecting to people.

In future blogs we plan to share the funny, amazing or just plain interesting stories that abound at Life Café from the past, present & possible future. We'll also post the weekly specials for both the E. Village and the Brooklyn cafes and anything else newsworthy. For this one, though, I just got to tell you what's new in the East Village first because I'm really energized about it.

We have a new chef, new & improved menu items, a new mangeress (as John, my Yorkshire, England, husband would call her), an ever–changing beer and wine menu, an expanded "Rescue Breakfast/Lunch Deal" and a slew of events planned for the coming months. We're doing a special brunch in the East Village on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. So let's get started.

Our new chef is Vincent Viseclia who's a pastry chef too, so we're looking forward to some great baking. For brunch, he's already introduced scones (espresso-chocolate and berry vanilla), muffins (Blue Heaven and carrot) and a new cornbread recipe. Scone and Muffin flavors will change weekly. His cornbread is light and moist. I couldn't believe my first bite; it reminded me of the wonderful cake my Lithuanian grandmother used to bake for us kids back in Detroit in the 50s and while we all pine for it, no one in the family knew her recipe! Imagine my delight. Funny thing, Vincent reminded me he used to make muffins for Life Café back in the 80s. Come to brunch and you'll have a basket of these baked wonders on the table just waiting for you to bite into. Also new to brunch is his light and tender Belgian Waffles served with fresh berries and assorted fruits with maple butter. Also new to brunch (as well as for breakfast during the week) is his light and fluffy pancakes and his French Kiss, French toast made with Brioche and his special batter topped with bananas poached in rum served with pastry cream. The staff raves about them so you know they have to be good. Crepes are coming soon!

He has a new source for our ground beef and turkey for our burgers that are moist and juicy and surpasses most others. These cost us a little more, but he assures me you'll love them so much I won't be sorry because you'll keep coming back for more.

Thanksgiving at the East Village café will be especially delicious. We're serving brunch Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 27th from 10am to 5:30 pm (last seating). We close at 7 pm. A special brunch menu includes a delicious turkey dinner platter made with Murray's organic free-range turkey and a Vegan platter. We'll also have something a little different on the regular brunch menu available. On Black Friday, November 28th we'll serve the same brunch menu from 10 am till 4:30 pm. We'll have the details in the next blog.

Bushwick Life Café will be closed Thanksgiving Day but will be opened on Black Friday at 11 am as usual and serving up brunch until 4:30 pm.

If your change purse is a little low, when you come in Monday through Friday between 10 am and 4 pm (for a limited time) you'll find our "Rescue Breakfast/Lunch Deal". Get two eggs, oven-roasted potatoes, toast or cornbread and coffee or tea OR buttermilk pancakes and coffee or tea for $4.25. We also run a lunch special for $5.95, a combo that includes a tasty soup of the day and a special half sandwich which have been selling very well. Hey, whatever we can do to help out until the "bailout" kicks in (let's hope that it won't be as long as some predict). We don't expect to save the world, but we'll save you some breakfast.

Andy Mills, the Beverage and Bar Manager at NINE83 treks all the way from Bushwick Life Café and helps us out in the East Village. He rotates beers regularly. Newest on tap is Six Point Brownstone. We also have Blue Moon Belgian White, Magic Hat #9 along with favorites Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Stella Artois, Guinness and Brooklyn Lager. A couple of new bottled beers Andy's brought in are Sam Adams Octoberfest, Hoptical Illusion Ale and Victory Prima Pilsner.

I love staying local with the Brooklyn Brewery microbrew brand. They were the first beers I brought in to Life Café when we got our first license to sell alcohol, a beer and wine license. Back in Lansing, Michigan, I used to make my own beer and wine and I was really tempted to brew beer on 10th St. and Ave. B. While the 80s East Village was a no-man's (and no-wo-man's) land, I figured I'd better not create any more problems than we already had in the neighborhood by selling a home brew. There must have been a law against it. Oh, well.

The red wines Andy's brought in recently have been well received. Particularly popular are the full-bodied Francis Ford Coppola Shiraz that sings of California sunshine for a chilly fall afternoon. The Wyatt Cabernet Sauvignon has a distinctive flavor of cinnamon and raisins, very nice for this time of year.

That reminds me; we've brewed up some tasty hot mulled cider — you'll get a whiff of the mulling spices when you walk in the door...so good.

Rebecca Hailey's been bartending for us for two months and became a manager at the end of October. She's "a smile on legs" as my husband says and she will indeed make you smile because she's just like that. Originally from New Jersey, she comes to us via Philadelphia. She's brought some of that Philly factor with her. She's got Quizzo going on Thursday nights at 9 pm, a Philly import that started in 1996, that's about to take over in New York City like it's done in LA. Quizzo happens on Tuesday nights starting November 18th too. A photography exhibit by Carrie Miller is being installed. Stop in to see her show and meet her at her opening party on Monday, December 1st at 8:30 pm. RENT closed on Broadway on September 7th and our tribute wall to Jonathan Larson will remain. It's above the Jonathan Larson Bench that we dedicated on September 5th at the incredible RENT Finale B Video contest party before the 50 passionate and wonderful RENThead video contest winners.

Come in for the charming Chas DePaulo on Wednesday, November 12th at 9 pm for some darn good musical entertainment. He's a member of the famous Irish band The Groundhogs and is an international session musician. For the winter Rebecca's also working on putting together a writers' series and improv comedy. If you're a writer and are interested, get in touch with Rebecca at get in touch with Rebecca at info@lifecafe.com

Don't forget to stop by and see John's weekly edition of his popular Riddle Raffle pastel drawing of the week. Guess what it represents (the clue is in one of the menus). Winners receive a bottle of champagne!

Tune in next time. And remember, Life's worth loving. Enjoy at least one thing in Life everyday and you won't go astray. Let us know what it was. Stay tuned to find out how.