First and foremost, Daryl Katz is a farmer. He’s operated several organic farms over the years, including Opperman’s Corner Organics in Chester Springs. In November of 2010 he opened up Healthy Beings Cafe, a small organic takeout place next to the Lionville Pharmacy on Route 113 that specializes in tasty organic soups, sandwiches and salads.
When I arrived, Daryl had a manual vegetable press set up on the counter. “We sell a lot of wheat grass juice,” he told me. He explained this is one of the most popular items in the cafe. Within five minutes, a customer stopped in and ordered two shots. Daryl pulled a bag of wheat grass out and began pressing it through the grinder. The green juice flowed down into the plastic container.
“Out in California, you can get a shot on every corner, but around here we’re the only ones doing it.” Daryl began rattling off the health benefits of wheat grass juice, telling me it gives a person three hours of energy and helps people detox. The customer, Peter Schilgen, explained he stops by a couple times a week for the wheat grass shots. “I think there is a cleansing, but I do it for the health benefits. It’s a cross between vegetable juice, herbs, and lettuce,” he said.
“We used to sell about four shots a day, but now we probably sell about fifteen shots each day,” Daryl continued, as he handed me a shot of the green juice. “Give it a try.” I held it up and took a whiff. The smell reminded me of rolling around in the grass as a kid. I tasted it, and basically, it tastes like grass. I drink half, then down the rest.
“You have to try our soup now,” Daryl said. He handed me a cup of sesame chicken noodle soup, which had nice chunks of organic chicken, onions and sesame seeds. It was very tasty.
Healthy Beings Cafe has about ten organic sandwiches on the menu, including roast chicken, beef tenderloin, and “Meg’s Melt,” which has cheese, tomato and pesto. The HB Zep has sweet bologna, cheese, onion, tomato, olive oil and oregano.
“Are you hungry?” Daryl asked. “Let me make you a sandwich.”
He unfolded a beautiful collard leaf and laid it out on the work counter, and spread hummus as a base. Next, he laid in onions, fresh cucumber, yogurt cheese from Applegate Farm, tomato slices and sprouts. He carefully drizzled ginger sesame dressing and rolled up the collard leaf like a tortilla. “This is basically a Veggie Hero. Of course, people can get it on a roll also.”
I took a bite and it was delicious. The collard leaf made for a worthy wrap, holding in the packed organic ingredients. I felt as though I was eating from a summer garden. Spring is around the corner, isn’t it?
Healthy Beings Cafe also offers two salads on the menu – the Garden Salad or the Three Grain Salad. Salads – which are both customizable (just ask!). They also sell Miso Soup and a soup of the day.
Healthy Beings Cafe strives to buy local. “We got these tomatoes from Gardner’s Greenhouse,” he said. Their rolls and some of their cheese are from Elizabeth Stoudt, of the famous Stoudt Brewery family. The coffee comes from Hobo Ed, and Hobo Ed actually is friends with Daryl and works part-time in the store. They deal with major organic distributors for certain items.
Daryl started organic farming in 1976. “I’ve been involved in this since I got out of college. We used to have a CSA in the nineties. People weren’t interested in organic then.”
“We’ve relied on word of mouth,” Daryl says about Healthy Beings Cafe. “We get people who are driving down the turnpike and they find us on Yelp or one of those sites. People come in and say ‘I bet you don’t have anything I can eat.’ They’re allergic to gluten, or they don’t eat meat or dairy. I’ll fix them right up with something delicious!”
