Restaurant Review: Company Cafe

It’s hard to believe that when Company Cafe opened in 2011, it was one of the first restaurants to cater to those looking for healthy, organic food and gluten-free options. Just three years later, those buzzwords are printed on menus all over town. Early on a cold, rainy morning, the Katy Trail location was packed with an eclectic crowd of families, swingles, hipsters, and granola crunchers. Body heat and steam from mugs of rich coffee fogged the windows. Dark, single-origin beans from the Dominican Republic are roasted locally by Full City Rooster. The “ethical eggs”—sitting atop a pile of sweet potato hash and grass-fed beef in the popular and delicious Deep Bowl—come from Vital Farms in Austin. Skip the urge to order a burger, especially if you like it served pink, as the patty is too thin and without enough fat to achieve medium rare. The server waited patiently while a hard-to-please friend, who is gluten- and lactose-intolerant, ticked off his “can’t haves” by explaining he can’t have dairy “like milk or cheese.” To his credit, the young server waited for the right moment and then quipped, “Sir, I know what dairy is.” A few minutes later, we feasted on gluten- and dairy-free pancakes for dessert.