Fast food - done naturally - has finally arrived. Situated on the edge of Davis Square at 187 Elm Street, the newly opened caf?©-type restaurant named O'Naturals offers food for folks on the go that is free of additives, preservatives, growth hormones and antibiotics.
Gary and Meg Hirshberg, the founders of Stonyfield Farm yogurt products created O'Naturals with Mac McCabe. The Somerville restaurant is their fourth opening.
"We want to provide this option to anyone - including students - who are thinking about tasty alternatives to the mainstream," McCabe said. He serves as the company's "Chief Executive O'Naturalist."
The O'Naturals caf?© menu features a gamut of "fast" food choices, ranging from flatbread sandwiches, tossed salads, Asian noodles, soups, pizza and desserts.
Sandwiches like the "Rustic" (fresh mozzarella with basil leaves, tomatoes and balsamic soy "chicken") or the "Wrangler" (free range and grass fed organic roast beef, rosemary onions and Swiss cheese) offer-up unique alternatives to traditional between-the-bun fast food fare.
Asian noodle flavors include traditional "Teriyaki" in addition to "Chap Chae" (sweet-soy glass noodles with spinach, mushrooms, onions and carrots) and "Five Spice" (savory-spicy undon noodles with snow peas, zucchini and other vegetables).
You can build your own salad or pick from classic tosses such as "Caesar" to more distinctive greens such as the "Spicy Peanut" (organic mixed greens, scallions, carrots, alfalfa sprouts, cucumbers, mushrooms and cilantro with spicy peanut dressing).
Soup-savvy diners will find an assortment of flavors to slurp off the spoon, from specialty soups like "Maryland Crab" and "Creamy Asparagus" to more basic soups, "Chicken Vegetable" and "Green Pea Herbs & Lemon."
Inspired by the recent lack of inspiration in my own diet, I took a trip to O'Naturals with my trusty roommates graduate students Shannon Bowles and Natalie Wieland.
Like three peas-in-a-pod, we all ordered the soup and half a sandwich. Shannon tried the "Alaskan" (chilled wild Alaskan salmon prepared in pan Asian marinade with root veggies and brie) and butternut squash apple soup, while Natalie went for the "Chicken & Roots" (free roaming chicken breast meat with pesto, brie, and root veggies) and New England clam chowder, and I ventured out on a limb with the "Wild West" (wild prairie raised bison meatloaf, roasted red peppers, cheddar and mustard) and the Butternut Squash Apple soup.
All of our soups were excellent. Shannon said that despite feeling skimped on salmon, she liked the unique combination of roots veggies and salmon. Natalie was pleased with the quality of the chicken in her sandwich, but said she was looking for more "power" in the pesto than she got. My bison meatloaf was certainly a nice change of pace from the usual grilled chicken I go for, but next time I'll try the noodles.
The portion sizes were moderate and likely more in line with dietary recommendations than typical fast-food joints. Hearty eaters with roaring appetites might not find the portion sizes large enough to satisfy their hunger, however.
New Yorker Eliot Bencuya, Natalie's long-time beau, ordered the "Wrangler," a roast beef sandwich, on an earlier outing to O'Naturals with his girlfriend. "I was seriously contemplating going to Subway to get another sandwich; there wasn't enough beef for me," said Bencuya, who is used to the layers of roast beef piled on New York-style sandwiches in Manhattan.
The absence of additives, preservatives, growth hormones and antibiotics, in addition to the notable inclusion of good quality vegetables in virtually every dish and more appropriate portion sizes, earns the O'Naturals' menu superior scores on health and nutrition compared to many fast food cuisines.
However, health conscious eaters should take note that the flatbread sandwiches are not made with whole grains, which have recently been included in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. McCabe acknowledged that whole grains are important to consider, but said the menu was developed by consumer research.
"The entire menu was developed by layers of tastings with the customer," he said. "The bread is in fact strictly organic and has everything except the germ, in a format that appealed by far to the vast majority of customers."
The pastries and desserts are also likely laden with refined grains, but there doesn't seem to be high demand for whole grains in these menu items. "Our experience when looking at whole grain pastries was that, except for a small core, customers didn't like to eat them," McCabe said.
And, although the "Dr. Becker Blue Sky Natural Soda" is "natural," nutrition-wise customers should be aware that the soda still contains 38 grams of sugar.
Despite these minor nutritional shortcomings, O'Naturals deserves praise for taking the initiative to break out of the mold of traditional fast food restaurants - a feat that poses many challenges on the business front.
"We are also doing something that has never been done before," McCabe said. "So there are no good reference models. We can't do organic everything because some of it would make it too expensive for the consumer.
"This is still the restaurant business, where your product is perishable - ours even more so, because it is not all frozen waiting to be deep fried or zapped - and the management of ingredients and labor is still the key to success."
Emily is a co-editor of Balance and a graduate student in nutritional epidemiology at the Friedman School. She has a MS in nutrition and public health from Columbia University and is a registered dietitian.
