Mellow Moods Cafe And Juice Bar in Shepherdstown West Virginia!

Isn't that a great name for a restaurant? 'Mellow Moods'.... ahhh I feel contented already. 

Maybe we should start a new series of posts called 'Rock Foodie On The Road!' Over the past couple of years while on our new food journey we have found some wonderful places to enjoy healthy foods. I would like to share those with the local readers of the Queen's Table blog. Living in the Mid Atlantic region of the country we are not in the mecca of organic produce, nor do we have hip juice bars and vegan restaurants in most towns as those who live in California. So when we find the rare restaurant gems that have food options that work for us, we would like to share the good news with you! My talented musician hubby and myself often find ourselves on the road after performing at a venue looking for a safe place to eat. We try to plan our trips from online information, menus, and word of mouth. We take chances, call restaurants, and sometimes ask chefs to prepare me something vegan. Personally I want to give kudos and support to those restaurants that care about the quality of their food, and send more people their way.

I have to warn you in advance of this series that my food photos in restaurants don't always come out so great. Please forgive that I may only have use of a phone camera, lighting may be dark, or I just don't want to annoy the other dining guests by constantly shooting with flash till it looks perfect. Can you imagine that some people are not as crazy about good food as me and do not want to take photos of their meals? Geesh! Then again most times I am so hungry that I forget to even take the photos before we plow into our delicious looking food and thus I mess up the beauty shot! Yikes! There I go again loving what I eat so much! Anyway folks I hope you enjoy this The Queen's Table 'Rock Foodie on the Road' post! Hopefully this will entice you to check out unique and very worthy eating establishments that deserve some love. First up as promised: Mellow Moods! Cue some cool music.... of course!

We have been to 'Mellow Moods Cafe And Juice Bar' twice during visits to beautiful historic Shepherdstown West Virginia with Ben's sister Brande. She is an awesome nurse who spreads the good word about organic whole foods being a key ingredient to a healthier lifestyle in her workplace! Making big changes to her own wellness, she is an inspiration to others. I love having friends and relatives who become healthy foodies!!! We have such great times eating and enjoying life together!

Shepherdstown is a funky hip college town with delightful shops, nearby hiking, biking, and river activity. It is located at the state lines of Maryland and West Virginia along the Potomac River. On this particular day the weather was absolute perfection! A day to be outside in nature to be sure!

We had fun meandering into some shops before going to Mellow Moods. Many unique artistic items and crafts to be seen and admired. More importantly though we three needed sustenance for our long trail walk along the C&O Canal Path. Onward to Mellow Moods people! Wow! I am envious that Ben's sister has a place so fantastic to eat nearby to her abode! We are always stating we need a juice bar and wheat grass shots where we live! Sigh. Well the first thing we spied upon entering 'Mellow Moods' was the wheat grass growing trays! Yes!!! Thank you. Thank you very much indeed.

We ordered fresh wheat grass shots served with an apple slice, and toasted to our healthy day together! 

Then we each ordered a full out fresh made veggie juice! Two 'Garden Elixirs' (carrot, celery, tomato, cucumber, garlic, basil, & optional hots), and one 'Beet Red' juice (carrot, apple, beet, celery, ginger)! Yum to the tenth power! Great juice! I am so thankful when someone else makes my healing juice!

Looking over the Mellow Moods menu we then chose our greens and veggie lunches. I had a quinoa salad seen below of mixed greens, garden veggies, drizzled with balsamic glaze. Delish dish!

Hubby enjoyed his yummy powerhouse sandwich served on fresh bread with a spinach side salad.

Brande had a smaller version of the quinoa salad, which she joyfully explained was her favorite meal whenever she stopped by Mellow Moods. 

Brande also shared her sweet looking order of a quesadilla with dip, apple slices, and spinach with us. 

Mellow Moods does source their produce from local farms as well as have a strong commitment to the Earth. During both visits everything prepared was very fresh, and served with a smile. The atmosphere in the cafe is indeed mellow, and it seems to be a friendly hangout for locals as well as tourists. 

The decor is funky casual within the narrow indoor rooms. Besides tables there is a sofa, a counter area, as well as a relaxing outdoor patio cafe area in the rear. 

The story of how Mellow Moods came to be is a sweet one. During their barefoot honeymoon in Hawaii, Phillip and Shanna Mastrangelo visualized one day opening a juice and smoothie place with a laid back vibe. They wondered if anyone would ever come to such a cafe. They used every cent they had in the bank to open 'Mellow Moods' in April 2007... well they did have 79 cents leftover and some loans to pay back. 

Success and years of learning followed, as winters can be slow, and summers filled with long lines. They very much appreciate the community that has supported and gathered around Mellow Moods. I feel this poster below created by Sami Sunchild which was hanging inside the cafe, tells the tale about the people behind Mellow Moods Cafe and Juice Bar. Valuable to know who is preparing your food, and even better knowing when it is done with love. A fantastic way to start your day is with good vibes and good food!

Well now, the C&O Canal is calling, and this trio needs a bit of exercise. 

The C&O Canal Towpath that runs along the water is a popular destination for cyclists. (The Chesapeake and Ohio towpath runs for 83 miles.) The access area near Shepherdstown is Lock 38. I fondly remember hiking to the Paw Paw tunnel area of the towpath years ago which was on the way to Hancock. Some areas of this towpath in the Shepherdstown area have massive walls of natural stone cliffs on one side. A soothing visual of lazy flowing water while passing trees, wildflowers, bridges, open fields, or canal locks is lovely. Sounds of birds delight the senses while an occasional canoe or person on a tube floats by.

This hike with friends and loved ones is good for your soul. If you are in the area make sure you take advantage of this natural and man made beauty even if you do it solo. So says the Queen! How fortunate are those who live nearby to this gorgeous serene place! Perfect to get your healthy exercise, quiet the mind, and zen out...

If you are near the Potomac River, C&O Canal, tubing, canoeing, biking, or hiking, and then find yourself near Shepherdstown, stop in 'Mellow Moods' for a healthy snack, drink, or meal. Look for the happy chalkboard greeting outside at 119 West German Street! You will be glad you did my friend!

You will see the Mellow Moods sign in the window, and the beautiful painted metal sign shown at the top of this post, hanging over the sidewalk. Now step up into a world of goodness and relax! Some one else is going to make you a healthy green juice! Oh how I love that part! Rock on Mellow Moods!

Mellow Moods Cafe and Juice Bar serves breakfast sandwiches, hot sandwiches, cold sandwiches, fresh juice, smoothies, fresh pressed soda, coffees, tea, soups, salads, veggie burgers, baked goods, snacks, and they have a small children's menu. So stop in and have yourself a healthy shot of wheat grass and partake in some locally sourced food! We look forward to future visits and wish this cafe all good things! I see on their facebook page that they are opening a second location in Charles Town WV soon!

UPDATE: We were in 'Mellow Moods' recently and were disappointed to find out that they stop making any kind of juice an hour before closing in order to clean the equipment. We missed it by five minutes! After a long drive with a healthy juice in our sights we wished they had posted this notice on the website info so we could have planned our day differently.

I found this little video below about Mellow Moods! Cool. Now you can peek inside.

Feel good about your food on the road of life. Be Healthy, Be Happy, Be Peace!

Our Fourth Wedding Anniversary Celebrated at The Antrim 1844

The Happy Royal Couple!

As a very happily married couple we are so blessed! It's true, The King and The Queen enjoy every day together, and we are totally grateful for experiencing this wondrous loving relationship! I want you to know that you really can find soul mate love after 50! And as foodies we like to celebrate our 'Anniversary of Love' at amazing restaurants. You know, something extraordinary and posh like us! LOL! Actually we would not usually have time to do this with my husband's professional musician gig schedule taking up our weekends. So when we saw a rare Saturday evening off for him around the week of our wedding anniversary I began researching the best restaurants in the Baltimore area! Let's plan a great elegant evening together baby! You are worth it! 

The first thing I wanted to do is go over the "Best of" lists posted online and check out the various dinner menu selections of the top rated restaurants. I was looking for fabulous restaurants with enticing delectable healthy ingredients and menus that include vegetable dishes with a farm to table mentality. Sadly the majority of menus I was seeing are built around meat and cheese! Yikes! That would not work at all. Pay attention to menu selections the next time you are out, or strolling along window shopping the menus, and you will see what I mean with this meat and cheese appropriation of food. This immediately reduced the number of qualifying restaurants in our healthy quest. Narrowing down contenders that know how to prepare fresh vegetables, we decided together who we want to experience this year. The first restaurant we chose is well known for its farm to table menu and could only place us on a waiting list for Saturday evening. Seems this place is the most popular restaurant in town at this time. Which is a good thing...if there is going to be a food that's popular let it be local farm food! Plus this was not even the number one rated restaurant in town either, so I applaud people supporting good local farm food!

Front step entrance to Antrim 1844 Main House and Restaurant

The next restaurant that caught our healthy eye was a Country Inn Restaurant that Baltimore Magazine rated number two in town, it is the luxurious 'Antrim 1844.' We dined at 'The Antrim' a few years ago and had a wonderful culinary experience. And since Ben often plays classical guitar at weddings held at 'The Antrim' we felt it was time for us to be a pampered guest at this amazing location too. To learn about the 'Antrim 1844' click here and read my PQ blog post about this lovely wedding venue. We had no problem getting a dinner reservation and I was very curious how I would enjoy the food now that I have made so many changes to my healthier lifestyle. Food has become a healthy adventure and truthfully I would like to enjoy a beautiful evening out with my honey while feeling good about my choices. Although within that paradigm, I also feel once a year it's okay to do a few things I would not do normally and indulge. Which for me is to have some fresh baked rolls, sip a glass of wine, and share a sweet dessert. I am not going to be the food police to myself on such a special occasion. So I say... just relax during a splendid time like this, enjoy the moment, make reasonable choices, and bless the food!

The King in the topiary gardens. So gorgeous! Oh the garden too!

When the time came to get dressed for our evening out, I surprisingly found I had lost so much weight that even the clothes that I had thought I would fit into now, were too big. A good problem to have at this point. So I see some shopping for a cocktail dress in my future. You will see in my photo below that I finally settled into a pair of slacks and a nice blouse for the occasion, and that worked out fine. Even when I look at that photo I say that girl looks thin! I do have 10-15 more pounds to go for my personal goal, but where I am at now is a good place to be. Plus I have a lot of energy!

After a nice pastoral drive in the country, we pulled up to the stately manor house, and parked right next to a convertible Austin Healey Sprite. Oh how nice of them to have my swanky sports car waiting for me! Once inside the home we could repose in a parlor listening to grand piano music, relish being served fine hors d'oeuvres, and accept drinks till our table was ready. (We had water. So fancy of us!) Of course Ben knows the pianist, who later played another piano within the restaurant area. During our wait in the parlor I would accept most of the hor d'oeuvres offered, and then just pass them on to Ben who is not as strict as I am about my food. I did take a bite of a big scallop after removing the bacon, it was very moist and quite good. Yes, sometimes I like to take bites of food I no longer eat, and see what I think about them now. Much like a science experiment. Hmmm... I will say after trying the old style food item...no thank you, or...really don't even like the taste any longer, or...not too bad, and sometimes... I still actually like the flavor or texture. It's ironic that cheese was the last unhealthy food I gave up, and it is now the one food I immediately do not enjoy the taste or texture of any longer. The body knows.

Photo from when Ben played classical music at a December wedding.

Soon we were taken to the restaurant area which is on a lower level in the rear of the building. Our table was in a low lit private room with two other couples. Hunt Country decor covered the deep green walls that expanded upward to an arched barn-like timbered ceiling. Finely appointed elegant tables sat on the loose brick cobbled floor next to a large fireplace. We had at our service four different dashing people taking care of our royal needs. Each person was professional and friendly, although our personal favorite was our waiter with the Irish name who was positively fantastic. (He took the photo of us at the top of this post.) I did not think it would be proper etiquette to be taking photos for my blog during dinner and disturb the other guests so I will just tell you about what we had for our four course prix fixe dinner. We were there for over three hours, yet we never felt like we waited for anything. Everything arrived at the perfect time.

The Queen with a fountain headpiece!

We were delighted with our long dinner menus from the Antrim 1844 Restuarant that were personalized to our anniversary, then signed with a note and drawing by the Executive Chef Michael Gettier. We had the previous experience of a personal touch when we went to 'The Inn At Little Washington' for our second Wedding Anniversary as well. I always appreciate the effort to provide thoughtfulness to a very special evening by a grand restaurant. Our charming waiter at 'The Antrim 1844' greeted us with the statement that he was there to serve our every need, and he meant it with a smile too! You can feel when someone is sincere in their wishes!

The King's Choices

Crab In Two Fashions

Grilled baby artichoke hearts with a duo of crab salads, 

served on avocado sauce and roasted tomato sauce

Wild Gathered Greens

Intermezzo - Champagne with berries to cleanse the palate

Roast Wild Rock With Sweet Corn Topping

Fillet of wild rockfish gratin with white corn, 

served with summer squash and red bliss potatoes.

The Queen's Choices

Two Melon Soup with Mint Cream

A light chilled summer soup of cantaloupe & honeydew melons, 

garnished with whipped cream.

Wild Gathered Greens

Intermezzo - Champagne with berries to cleanse the palate

Vegetable Wellington 

A vegetarian plate with mushroom,roasted red pepper, 

onions and hummus in puff pastry. Served on a bed of sauteed greens.

Our Royal Shared Dessert

Panache of Chef's Desserts

Every course was melt in your mouth delicious with lots of "mmmm" noises! We exchanged many silent glances that said "Oh yes that is delightful!" or "OMG do you believe how good this is?!!!" The wild gathered greens were served in a whisper thin lentil chip bowl....so satisfyingly scrumptious it could break your heart. My beautiful two melon soup within a sparkling martini glass was more like a divine dessert. I will have to try and recreate that pleasurable experience when we buy a Vitamix! Oh you caught me, I did sneak in a quick photo of our dessert plate above after the other two couples left the room! Our favorite dessert of this exquisite tempting group was the chocolate cup at the front, with lush strawberry cream filling. Ahhhhh so heavenly and light. We took the chocolate mouse layered cake home for the next day, since I do not eat sugar, and it was a rare sweet treat to indulge in these little goodies. A few spoonfuls is all I really needed. We then each had a cup of green tea to finish our delightful evening.  Before we left with our magnificent memories of our splendid anniversary dinner celebration we chatted with our waiter and the pianist. The next time we visit to 'The Antrim 1844' I will have Ben call ahead and tell them I am a vegan, and see what they prepare for me. I totally enjoyed having someone else cooking, serving, and cleaning up for us! Enjoy your royal pampered moments! So says the Queen!

Living A Blessed Life: Be Love Farm, Cafe Gratitude, and Gracias Madre

Wow! I was following the crumb trail from the movie "May I Be Frank" and ended up at this little gem of a video seen above. It was a few employees and the owner of 'Cafe Gratitude' that helped inspire addictive personality Frank Ferrante get himself on the road to wellness. In order to facilitate Frank facing himself on many personal levels including food, a creative mix of techniques was used over a period of 42 days. Eventually Frank was able to realize a healthier lifestyle. This included removing emotional blocks, stopping medications, getting rid of Hepatitis C, along with the benefits of losing quite a bit of weight. The movie is emotional, uplifting, funny, and sometimes filled with TMI, and that is the nature of a wildly charming personality like Frank. I recommend watching this film as it shows changing one's life is truly possible when others hearts move to action, and your heart is ready and open to receive the gift.

After watching "May I Be Frank," I wanted to see where these heart inspired people in the film actually work everyday which led them to begin this journey with Frank. What I found behind the 'Cafe Gratitude' restaurant was an inspiring couple that lives their life in the highest sense, even in their business model. You can read more about their work philosophy in their book 'Sacred Commerce" as well as the recipe book based on Cafe Gratitude recipes called, "I Am Grateful." 

Living on the East coast I am not able to enjoy the tastes of their fabulous restaurants in the San Francisco area, but I can sure feel the love! This couple expresses so beautifully that eating at organic restaurants can be a communal and spiritual experience beyond being extremely healthy for both the guest and the employee. It does not matter whether the food is served raw or cooked, those healthy meals are a vision that I would like made manifest across this country for everyone to enjoy! Terces and Matthew Englehart are a wonderful example of doing everything in life with love. Enjoy the video above, and may you do everything in your life with passion, gratitude, kindness, and love.