G-Zen’s Vegan Cuisine Filling A Void
It’s been a busy year for Mark and Ami Beach Shadle: Their mission of organic vegan cuisine started on a 270-year-old farm in Durham, launched in Hartford by way of a playful food truck and eventually settled into a permanent home on the shoreline.
In mid-October, the couple parked their Gmonkey Mobile (temporarily) for the winter and opened G-Zen in Branford, taking over the building formerly occupied by The Suburban. When owners Arturo and Suzette Franco-Camacho put it on the market this summer, Beach Shadle’s uncle alerted her.
At that point, Gmonkey was keeping busy with a schedule of stops at summer farmers’ markets, and the Shadles weren’t looking for a full restaurant project. But then they saw the space.
“I walked in here, and thought “This is it,” Beach Shadle says. “We’d never been to Branford. We didn’t do any research or analysis or market demographics. It was just that simple.”
In about a month’s time, the Shadles created a destination that reflected the menu of vegan, raw and macrobiotic cuisine, along with their own beliefs in health, wellness and green, sustainable living. Mark Shadle, an award-winning chef, is the former co-owner of It’s Only Natural in Middletown, and his wife is a holistic nutritionist and certified raw foods chef.
They describe G-Zen as an “elegant, relaxed sanctuary” and that it is, melding sophisticated décor with touches of spiritual symbols (specifically, mandalas) throughout the 90-seat restaurant. The soundtrack is exclusively reggae music, lending to the easygoing atmosphere.
“We wanted to bring in that island feel,” Beach Shadle says. “People feel comfortable here. They feel like they’re on vacation…they want to hang out all night.”
G-Zen is entirely vegan, forgoing meats, dairy and animal products for an entirely plant-based menu focusing on vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and grains. And while that means you’ll have to go elsewhere for filet mignon, there’s plenty of recognizable dishes to choose from.
There are nachos on housemade corn tortillas, with spicy black bean chili, salsa, guacamole and melted vegan cheese. The black bean and chipotle burger, known on the Gmonkey truck as the “Farm 2 Street” Burger, is rebranded as the “Zen Burger” here and served with Shadle’s signature sweet potato fries and hickory-smoked ketchup.
For other comfort-food selections, there’s spinach and potato pierogi, a tempeh Reuben sandwich and raw “pasta” made from thin-sliced vegetables, topped with an “Alfredo” sauce made from raw nuts. “Crab” cakes, with seasoned tempeh, nori, vegan tartar sauce and lemon, are a nod to the nearby beach. Then there are soups, a dim sum plate with steamed dumplings and vegetable tempura; organic entrée salads, noodle bowls and smoothies.
A few raw dishes, such as the “Pure Radiance” salad made with nut pate, sell out every night, Beach Shadle says, as customers are beginning to visit G-Zen as a new raw-food destination.
Even the desserts are vegan, made without eggs, butter or refined sugar. And there’s even room for cocktails. In addition to a list of gluten-free organic beers and organic, biodynamic wines, Beach Shadle has designed a list of raw sake-based martinis made with fresh-pressed organic juices. (The Purple Haze, for example, gets its deep amethyst color from goji, grape and cranberry.) A house sangria blends red wine with fresh blueberry, pomegranate and citrus flavors.
“We’re making this a place where you can have something seemingly decadent, but it’s actually good for you,” Beach Shadle says. “You can actually go out and have a piece of cake, and a cocktail, and not think, ‘Oh, I shouldn’t have done that last night.’”
The Shadles believe they opened their venture at exactly the right time, saying diners are more amenable to trying new foods. But from what their customers have been saying, Beach Shadle says, G-Zen has filled a void on the shoreline.
“What I’m hearing from most people, is that they’ve been deprived … of intriguing whole foods. They felt so overlooked for so long,” she says. “For this to open here, it’s like [their] prayers have been answered.”
The restaurant’s setup encourages kinship among diners, with a long community table in the center of the room. Large parties are often seated there, but Beach Shadle would love to see it become a spot for single diners to meet and make friends. A “Zen Den” near the kitchen houses parties of 15 or 16 for more private events.
Like the food truck, G-Zen has become another extension of the couple’s life. Their solar-powered Durham farm, with a full commercial kitchen, serves as Gmonkey headquarters and a place for them to compost waste from the restaurant. Shadle is currently building a greenhouse, which will produce more organic vegetables, fruits and herbs for both ventures.
The Gmonkey truck will return in the spring and summer for its Thursday stops at Hartford’s Billings Forge farmers market, but they’ll be adding more New Haven and shoreline-area visits to bring awareness to the new restaurant, the Shadles say.
And though G-Zen has attracted plenty of vegans and raw foodists, the couple says 90 percent of their customers wouldn’t even describe themselves as vegetarians.
“I don’t believe you have to be 100 percent vegetarian or vegan to reap the benefits of [leaning] toward a plant-based diet,” Beach Shadle says. “When [the food is] homemade, organic, cooked with love, with quality ingredients…it doesn’t matter what it is.”
Vegetarian, Raw and Vegan with Bill & Sheila
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