Backspace Cafe

Date: April 13, 2007
Times Visited: 5

Vegan Gamers, Rejoice!

A few months back, I heard about a new vegan and vegetarian menu at Backspace Cafe, an internet cafe, art gallery and gaming spot downtown. It’s a bit of a long walk for me to go for lunch, and I already have a default coffeeshop, Red & Black cafe, so I didn’t prioritize my visit. However, once I had read the online menu after hearing a glowing review from a friend, I had to go. You see, the menu features multiple field roast sandwiches, a grilled tofu sandwich, vegan Hot Lips pizza, quesadillas and perhaps best of all – no substitution price for vegan cheez!

My dining partner and I both ordered the ‘Steak’ sandwich on my second visit. Served on baguette, it contains pepperocini, wild mushroom field roast, grilled onions & peppers with rosemary and basil vegenaise. First off, if you haven’t tried field roast yet, give it a go! It’s based out of Seattle, and is not meant to be a ‘bologna’ substitute, but a herb, vegetarian and grain based variation on seitan. It’s something that’s featured on many Seattle menus, but I can’t think of anywhere else in Portland that offers this.

Back to the sandwich: though I had mine without onions and my partner left the pepperocini off of his, we were both immensely satisfied by this meal. Every bite of this sandwich is flavorful – tangy, savoury, herby, and on great bread – even at $7, I could not ask for more. We also shared an order of the basic cheez quesadillas ($3.50). If you’re not one for soy cheese (Follow Your Heart, I think in this case), you may want to skip it, or at least upgrade to the black beans and spinach variation. However, if you’re into soy cheese, don’t pass these up. They’re cheap, melty, filling and the salsa is just spicy enough.

I think the food is top notch for a cafe, the atmosphere is nice and spacious, plus there are multiple boards games as well as computer stations, yet I have one issue with Backspace – I’ve gone 4 times now, and there is always quite a wait for food. At a cafe, you might not expect to wait 20+ minutes for your sandwich, so it’s something to keep in mind. -JD

The Hot Lips Pizza is “single serving” (though it was two pieces too many for me) pizza cooked on site. The pizza changes daily but I was lucky enough to have one packed full of roasted garlic (almost a full bulb) caramelized onions, fancy mushrooms and other wonderful flavors. The price of the single ingredients of the pizza were well worth the $9 price. On top of that we were in an entertaining cafe with Stumptown Coffee, Viso and other great Portland drinks.

My favorite sandwich by far is the sausage and pepper sandwich, minus peppers. They use Field Roast apple sage sausage, cut in half and cover with grilled onions (and peppers if you swing that way). It was so tasty that even my animal-sausage-loving dining companion was impressed by the taste. The sandwich alone was $7, a true deal for such expensive, tasty vegan sausage.

It’s important to note that Backspace neighbor, Someday Lounge, has similar choices in food options. -WB

EDIT:

The backspace menu is Seasonal and may change. The 2007 Summer menu includes The Grinder and the Club, plus many more.

Vegan Jack and Cheddar Cheez Quesidilla with salsa verde

Steak Sandwich with Pepperocini, minus the onions

Steak Sandwich minus the Pepperocini

Sausage and Pepper Sandwich, minus the peppers:

The Grinder

NEW – Club Vegan

NEW – The Caesar with Spinach

NEW – BBQ Setain Wrap

Rating: 4 out of 5
Address: 115 NW 5th St. Portland, OR
Food Served Daily, 11am – 11pm