Zest Garden Cafe – Lincoln City’s Green Hangout

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Regular Hours
Thursday – Sunday
7 AM – 3 PM or later…
We are open as long as we have company in our dining room.
Call 541-614-1444 to see if we are still open!

Pop-up Dinners & Events
We regularly host Traveling Tastes dinners, along with a variety of entertaining, educational, or experiential events.

Join our mailing list to stay updated on our upcoming additional offerings!

Our Location

There is street-side parking along Highway 101, a public parking lot off NW 17th and head to the NE 15th public parking to charge your electric vehicle! We also have a rack right out front to lock up your bicycle.

Our Menu

The Super Green Garden & a Berry Delight

Our Mission

To make healthy food choices convenient and accessible to all members of our community, ensure our food is nutritious & raise awareness of the impacts of our individual and collective food choices.

mushrooms growing out of dirt with a visiting fairy

Zest is where you go when you are craving company and food that makes you feel whole!

Our Vision

We are the go-to community hangout, offering a wide array of all-ages events, interest groups that meet regularly, community movie nights, and affordable space rentals for private events.

Our Core Values

  • Individual Value: “Everyone Respects Everyone” – All people have value, potential and something to contribute and shall be treated with dignity.  This is our most foundational value. We believe everyone is most beautiful as their authentic selves and foster a respectful, safe atmosphere where all are welcome, and all types of intelligence and creativity are equally honored. We seek to assist those in need, and no one goes hungry.
  • Food Transparency – We believe you have a basic right to know what is in the food you purchase and consume, and as a restaurant, hold ourselves accountable to be able to provide you necessary information so you are empowered to make informed health choices for yourself. We know every food consumption choice is a health related choice and encourage all to advocate for Food Transparency wherever possible. If you see an opportunity for us to do better, please let us know, as we do respond as quickly as possible to your input. We are currently working on accurately measuring sodium content per serving in all our recipes in order to be low-sodium friendly!
  • Waste Awareness – Our zero-waste goal informs all of our decision making. Humanity is already seeing the devastating impacts of our inefficient wasteful production and waste management systems including plastic pollution, land pollution, animal agriculture, corporate farming practices, and deforestation. We know now is the time for all of us that are aware to change our habits, even if only a few, to reduce our contribution to these growing issues that are solely human created; nature knows no waste.
  • Integrity – When we know what is right, we do what is right, even when it is the tougher option. When we become aware of how we can do better, we seek to be better, which means we do not shy away from making changes or let our investment biases stand in the way. In practical terms, we never serve a plate we wouldn’t happily eat ourselves and we make sure when we say it is vegan, or gluten-free, or organic we are meeting your expectations. We are transparent in our practices and recipes and always eager to answer any and all of your questions.

Zero-Waste & 100% plant-based goals!

Join our mailing list- stay in the loop and be the first to hear about updates, events & new offerings!

Entertainment

Play a game, stay a while…

We have LOTS of games in house, including all the classic board games, trivia games, giant Jenga, giant connect four, old school Nintendo games and a pool table! All of our games are in-house every day and are always free to play. If you are looking for a relaxed, fun space to hang out with friends & family come on down and stay a while! We eagerly stay open as long as we have company in our dining room.

Interested in renting or reserving our space?

For use of the space with no food or beverage service we are able of offer rentals at a rate of $50 per hour.

If you are interested in an event with our regular menu available, the rate is $100 per hour and will go towards offsetting any purchases. For example, if you rent the space for two hours it will be $200. If you order $250 worth of food and beverage during your event, we subtract the rental fee, and you are left with a $50 tab. If you order $40 worth of food and beverage it is still $200, so essentially, up to your rental rate is included in food and beverage. This ensures that our cost of staffing is covered.

If you are interested in a party or event with a specialized menu, we are able to do that as well and work out pricing on an individual basis. We find this is a great way to be able to work with almost any budget. Our indoor capacity is 49 people, so we are a great spot for smaller gatherings of friends and family.

MM slash DD slash YYYY
Event Time
:
We are only able to take reservations outside of our regular business hours, or after 2pm Monday-Saturday.

We will contact you soon after receiving your request.

Thank you!

Traveling Tastes Menu

Colorful eqyptian spices
A colorful array of Egyptian spices.

Traveling Tastes – A Culinary Journey

Experience new flavors every month inspired by a regional cuisine!

100% plant based and available gluten-free.

Our May Itinerary is taking us to India!

Dosas – Samosas – Tikka Masala – Korma – Vindaloo – Basmati Rice – Dal – Chai Tea

Weekly rotating lunch specials available every day, plus pop-up dinner services!

Already know you want to taste everything?

Make sure to get your ticket to one of our upcoming dinners where we offer additional experiential opportunities to accompany your Traveling Tastes adventure!

Dinners may vary from a full course fixed menus to buffet style, family style, small tastings and will often be tied to a movie screening, game night, or other event.
Please see each event for additional details.

Table reservations are not necessary but are available for our Traveling Tastes dinners.

Click the event for more details and to reserve your table:

Upcoming Events

Sustainability

Zero-Waste Goal

Green Restaurant Certified

The average person creates 4.4 pounds of garbage per day, or over 1600 pounds of garbage per year, and the average restaurant creates 100,000 pounds per year while wasting over $160 billion in food. Food, plastics and paper products make up 54% of our landfill waste.

It is projected by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. 

We mentioned when we closed for our rebranding & remodel back in October that we had come across a community of fairies that had moved into the back garden patio in the time it has been undergoing repairs. You may believe it is only a joke, but we were not surprised at all considering the magic we know flows through these walls. These nature spirits brought our attention to the simple truth that waste is a purely human creation and does not exist in nature. They knew of our Zero Waste goal and our aim to procure local, organic ingredients and pointed out how much better we could do.

Since reopening we are amazed already at how much trash we have prevented! An added benefit is our recipes are even better! We are learning quickly how many things we can easily make on our own, like oat milk, oat flour, chocolate-hazelnut spread, vegan caramel, gluten-free pizza dough and more! The only non-compostable waste that comes out of our dining room is customer trash they bring in with them and leave behind.

Want to learn more about our inspiration, values and mission?

Preorders

Our raw organic juices are a great option for individuals seeking to boost their health or try a cleanse.

This is also a great option for local restaurants or bars looking to add options (like oat milk) to their menus; raw organic juice is absolutely perfect for crafting delicious cocktails!

Let us know your desired pick-up date and we will call if we have any questions.
Questions?
Reach us at (541) 554-5425 or [email protected]

Beverage Preorder

For build your own juices, oat milk, and more.

Your Info

We want to ensure we are able to reach you with any questions. please fill in your preferred method of contact. if you enter your email, we will add you to the Community and make sure you receive updates on new offerings.
Please use this space to alert us to any food allergies and/or request any customization to your order, we will be making it just for you, so it is easy to add or remove anything from our recipes.

Build Your Own Juice Blend

To build your own, you will need to fill our both boxes in this section. If we need any more information we will reach out. If you’d like to order more juice than the form allows, please feel free to fill it out more than once or give us a call at 541-554-5425.
Choose your Size
Pick ingredients

…but wait there's more!

House Oat Milk
Container prices are included, so if you are ordering a refill, or bringing your own container let us know and we will take $2 off
Vegan Chocolate Milk
Our house oat milk mixed to chocolate-infused perfection!
Activated Charcoal Water
Great addition to any cleanse!
Simple Syrup
Great to have around for a liquid sweetener great for coffee, teas, cold drinks and cocktails. Cheaper than you’ll find at the store! Keeps for up to 30 days in the fridge.