Pictured: A fan favorite: Ahi Tuna Bowl with quinoa pilaf, sauteed veggies and vibrant chimichurri. Photo Credit: Cafe Evergreen.

Ted Weinberger used to drive past the old Nokomis Bank and Post Office—a stucco building circa 1923 with arched windows and stained glass—en route to Warm Mineral Springs, where he first launched Café Evergreen. The oldest structure on US-41 between Venice and Tampa, he renovated it himself in six months.

Some 13 years later, Weinberger starts cooking corned beef at 6:30 am. By noon, every table is full—patio and all—as he greets regulars, runs food, clears plates. Reclaimed tables from a local barn, a fireplace mantle in pecky cypress, doors still swinging inward, as the historic board required. Water arrives in a mason jar.

The menu rotates seasonally around fan favorites and whatever local suppliers bring in: pea shoots and radish greens from Simply Organics, the vibrant veggies and herbs that form his ahi tuna bowl. “I really get the best of the best.” Weinburger cooks without a fryer. “It forces me to think about how I’m going to do my food,” he says. “I look at the ingredients and really have to figure out how to make it pop.”

Nothing on the menu appears only once. Beets—“great detoxifier”— show up in the Ukrainian-style borscht, and again in the Roasted Beet Reuben on vegan marble rye with 1000 island. “I don’t want people to wonder about what they’re eating, if it’s healthy or not, because I’ve already taken care of that.” The Evergreen Club, voted Best Vegetarian Sandwich in the U.S. by Restaurant Hospitality, layers quinoa cakes, pickled beets, tomato, carrot and organic microgreens with pesto ranch on toasted multigrain. Raw avocado sliders, between dehydrated onion, flax and sesame bread, vie for best bite with a grass-fed lamb burger sourced near the Everglades.

The drink menu includes organic beer, kombucha, smoothies, fresh juices and probiotic coolers made from a kefir water strain he’s tended for twelve years. “When you come here, you can look at the menu, find something you like, order, and just enjoy it.”

Café Evergreen, Mon-Thurs, 9am-8pm, Fri-Sat, 9am-8:30pm, 801 S. Tamiami Trail, Nokomis, 941-412-4334, cafeevergreen.net

Pictured: A fan favorite: Ahi Tuna Bowl with quinoa pilaf, sauteed veggies and vibrant chimichurri. Photo Credit: Cafe Evergreen.