The Love Bowl with coconut sauce and tempeh at Red Bank’s Good Karma Cafe. (Photo by Jim Willis. Click to enlarge)
By JIM WILLIS
I have eaten the face off a pig.
Rubbed with herbs and lemon zest, rolled up tightly around the pig’s tongue and cooked sous-vide, it was a delicious combination of porky flavors and textures.
I mention this by way of disclaimer: I am not, probably, the target demographic for a vegan joint like Red Bank’s beloved Good Karma Café.
Gail Doherty with a hot tray of “magic cookies,” made with pecans, chocolate chips, carrot and coconut. Below, she and employee Allison Kennedy work quickly to fill orders during the lunch rush. (Photos by Danielle Tepper. Click to enlarge)
By DANIELLE TEPPER
Nearly three years after opening, Red Bank’s Good Karma Café has put to rest many misconceptions about vegan dining, including that it’s unsatisfying “rabbit food.”
Smaller than many suburban living rooms at just 900 square feet, the cozy East Front Street restaurant caters to a mix of regulars, pilgrims and the just-curious, serving up hearty dishes along with answers to some burning questions:
Is it more expensive to eat vegan? How is protein supplemented? What does tofu taste like?
Were not bringing you in with any kind of dogma,” said co-owner Gail Doherty. “Theres no agenda other than serving you some yummy food while maybe squashing some stereotypes.
Months later than they’d hoped, the pair quietly opened the doors to their new eatery, Good Karma Café, at 4p Wednesday, and quickly found themselves hustling up orders for a half-dozen hungry customers.
The gals behind Good Karma: Gail Doherty, left, and Tiffany Betts. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Gail Doherty and Tiffany Betts are back in town. And this time, they’re completely above ground.
As many locals remember, they were in Red Bank for seven years at Down To Earth, Doherty’s award-winning vegetarian restaurant, which operated below street level at 7 Broad Street until 2006.
After Down To Earth went dark, each woman went her own way.
Doherty headed south to Asheville, N.C., where she worked for a vegetarian chain and wrote her second vegan cookbook. Betts, who was Doherty’s kitchen manager, started a family and continued to work in the vegetarian realm at Kaya’s Kitchen in Belmar.
Now the two are back, and in the same vein as Down To Earth, are getting ready to open up Good Karma, a casual café/juice bar/restaurant that will cater to the vegetarian and vegan lifestyle like no other in the area.