Restaurant Review: Dream Cafe

Long before health-conscious and vegetarian cuisine moved from the exception to the norm, Dream Cafe was whipping up satisfying house-made concoctions of both. The location in the Quadrangle opened in 1988, and diners and kids spilled across a wide lawn next to the restaurant that was filled with slides, play houses, and toys. The picnic atmosphere has changed, but the spirit of the original food lives on. Many people sampled their first bite of veggie sausage alongside fluffy ricotta pancakes, organic steel-cut oatmeal, and egg white omelets. The Quadrangle location still has a pleasant patio and offers live music on the weekends. It is a great option for pre-theater dining. The Addison location features a small patio and playground. Breakfast and brunch are the most popular times, without question, but recently, on a cold winter night, dinner entrées—acorn squash stuffed with black beans and brown rice and flavored with tahini miso, and a breakfast-at-night offering of wheat tortillas loaded with scrambled eggs, bacon, and Jack cheese—filled our bellies with delight. Bottles of wine were half-off, a special they run often, and the kids bundled up and played on the outdoor slide as if it were a sunny afternoon in 1988.