Darien loves Brussels sprouts.
If you’re Alyssa Baker Kadow, owner of Greens on the Go at 23 Tokeneke Road in Darien, you know this. Just as you know you can serve tofu that even the naysayer-est of naysayers will love, and that chicken, quesadillas and Mexican Caesar Salad can live on the same menu as Moroccan Stew, gluten-free breakfast cookies and other vegan and vegetarian offerings, to the delight of everyone lucky enough to discover this gem of a no-judgment zone.
“I love vegan restaurants but some of them, it’s like strictly this or strictly that,” said Alyssa, an off-and-on vegetarian herself. “The thing is, if a person wants chicken, they’re not going to go there.”
Admittedly, though, she delights in expanding palettes as she did with a meatless Monday promotion in which she offered tofu as an addition for free. Flavored as it was by her take on the famous NYC restauranteur David Chang’s Saam Sauce, soon even the most dedicated carnivores couldn’t get enough of the stuff.
“So even though we’re not vegetarian,” said Alyssa, “I’m teaching people about things that they never would have eaten before.”
With a menu exploding with flavors that reflect every place Alyssa has ever been or been drawn to, it’s no wonder.
This woman knows her spices, with a knowledge base that grows constantly—from what she learned during her 15 years working in catering and through the hours she loses herself in the aisles of ethnic delis, spice stores and take out joints in Connecticut, New York and everywhere she goes.
“That inspires me,” said Alyssa, a food explorer if there ever was one.
Driven by a desire to limit salt as she was sorting out her next calling after catering, Alyssa doubled down on different ways to season the dishes she was creating—with spices, citrus and other sodium-free alternatives, always starting with fresh-each-day fruits, vegetables and other base ingredients. She began an on-demand take out business for equestrian barns near where she was living with her husband in Salem, NY at the time. Word spread.
Soon schools and businesses wanted in too. Then came her first Greens on the Go location in New Canaan, and a menu that grew to include smoothies, soups and other offerings that are not only low-salt, but also rich in anti-inflammatory benefits—as good for you as they are good to eat.
Alyssa calls it “food you can eat every day.” Everyone else calls it breakfast, lunch or dinner.
She expanded to Darien last April, pulled to town by the space she found and customers who no longer have to go so far for the fare they love. Though Greens on the Go is open just Monday through Friday 10am to 4pm, it tracks with customer demand and customers know to get there before closing to pick up what they may want for dinner.
While a back area of tables designed by Alyssa’s artist daughter fills during the lunch hour, much of the restaurant’s business is takeaway or delivered to businesses, schools and others throughout Darien and Stamford.
Like rings on a tree, the Greens on the Go menu and the flavors reflected there trace Alyssa’s own timeline and value system, starting in Buffalo, NY where she made her first salad (at four years old!) at her grandfather’s popular steakhouse—The Blacksmith’s Shop.
Her grandfather went on to pioneer healthy eating in Buffalo, opening a space he called the Garden of Eden in the back of his restaurant. There he served a completely different menu–smoothies, salads, quinoa even …in the early 70s. After he sold the Blacksmith’s Shop, he opened Buffalo’s first health food store.
“He was something else, a very cool guy,” said Alyssa.
At six years old, Alyssa moved to San Francisco’s Mission District with her family. “The Mission District is primarily Mexican and that is a huge influence on me. Mexican food. Absolutely. I grew up on it,” explained Alyssa.
Next came the East Village in New York City when she was 14 years old. “I remember going to Greenwich Village,” she recalled. “It was the first time I ever saw people in the same neighborhood with all different ethnicities. …I loved it.”
That led to Ukrainian restaurants …and Indian, Szechuan and more, and an open-to-all, champion-of-others approach that is as much a part of Greens on the Go now as the incredible food she creates.
She knows a good thing when she sees it and is comfortable enough in her own skin to embrace it. Just ask her staff—a diverse collection of women who add as much to the menu now as Alyssa herself.
“Most of our staff did initially learn how to cook from me,” said Alyssa, providing a glimpse of the high standards to which she adheres. “But now, I’ve learned so much from them. I just try to get out of the way.”
“They each have their own flavor. So it’s very equal among all of us. It’s just an amazing group of women,” she added.
So what makes a restaurant great? The food certainly, but when it comes with authenticity, passion and a welcome born of a diverse team as committed to excellence as they are to each other, as it does at Greens on the Go, there is no better place to go …and go back to.
