Just what the doctor ordered

The Garden Cafe salad bar at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

I usually make a big salad, and add a small soup, right.

My first impressions of the cafeteria at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center came as I walked past it three times a week on the way out from sessions in cardiac rehab.

It was before 10 a.m., and often, there was nothing on the salad bar. I saw whipped cream and strawberries nearby, and assumed the worst.

That was last year. 

This year, I am volunteering at the hospital on Wednesdays and finishing my noon-to-4 p.m. shift with a meal in the Drapkin Family Garden Cafe on the first floor, which is open to employees and the public.

Volunteers get a dining card worth $8, which just about covers a big salad and small soup. The salad bar is 53 cents an ounce.

I pile fresh spinach leaves and spring mix into a clear plastic container, adding chickpeas, kidney beans, beets, sun-dried tomatoes, cucumber, cherry tomato, olives and other items, drizzling everything with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The cafe usually has a wonderful, non-meat soup, such as butternut squash, corn chowder, potato and leek, and thick vegetable barley (shown in photo).

Today, the non-meat soup was cheddar and broccoli, so I passed. 

Unfortunately, the opening on the cafe's recycling container is too small for the plastic container,  forcing me to take it home to recycle.


Drapkin Family Garden Cafe at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, 350 Engle St., Englewood. Open every day from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.