Life Alive Organic Café. 2301 M St., NW.
Vegetarian fast-casual restaurant Life Alive Organic Café opened its first location in Lowell, Massachusetts in 2004 with dishes like lentil-walnut taco crumble and teriyaki tofu. Two decades later, the chain will debut its first storefront outside of its home state in DC’s West End neighborhood on Tuesday, January 28.
At the helm of Life Alive’s operations is Dylan Mendelsohn, head of culinary innovation and former sous chef at Eleven Madison Park, the famed New York City fine-dining destination that went entirely vegan in 2021. “I find vegetables to be very heroic, because they really act as the center of the plate and make you forget about the chicken,” says Mendelsohn. “It makes you feel satiated, but also energized and ready to take on the day.”
The cafe’s eclectic menu features culinary influences across the map—from Mediterranean-style pita sandwiches to riffs on Japanese classics, like a nori wrap with tamari dipping sauce. The beverage lineup is just as colorful as the food options with options such as “Golden Milk” with turmeric, “Ocean Blue” with spirulina, and a “Watermelon Cooler” with cardamom.
While DC’s Life Alive draws inspiration and ingredients from its twelve Massachusetts siblings, Mendelsohn says that the menu isn’t simply copy and pasted from its other restaurants. Instead, he’s looking to offer an “elevated” selection of DC-specific items, such as mushroom shawarma pita sandwiches made with a custom whole-grain flour blend, lattes with black sea salt and date caramel, and miso eggplant with crispy rice.
Also exclusive to Life Alive’s DC menu is a collaborative dish with chef Rob Rubba of Shaw’s sustainability-minded tasting menu restaurant Oyster Oyster. The ramen bowl, dubbed “Soil & Sea,” is a love letter to mushrooms in all forms. Expect a zero-waste broth made from mushroom trimmings, as well as chili-garlic oyster, hon shimeji, and enoki mushrooms. Seaweed, turnips, and collard greens also make an appearance in the dish.
“They’re already very committed to sourcing well and to the ingredients being very good for the environment, so we weren’t playing in different sandboxes,” says Rubba about collaborating with the Life Alive team. “It was just putting it on a different canvas than I normally would, which was really cool.”
Life Alive DC will officially open at 7 AM with branded tote bags and caps, house-made granola, and a free grain bowl voucher to the first 100 diners in line. While supplies last, all diners will also receive a free latte or cappuccino. The café will also donate a portion of its opening day proceeds to Food & Friends, a charitable organization that delivers meals and provides nutrition therapy to DC-area residents living with illnesses like cancer and HIV/AIDS.
“I think the DC community will really love the spaces that we built, the music that we have, the food that we’re serving,” says Mendelsohn. “DC needs this.”
