When life gives you Lemonade, go eat there.
The UAE seems to be blessed with a new American-origin outlet on a weekly basis, but if you’ve overindulged in the steak (CUT, Boa), burgers (Burger Joint) chicken-and-waffles (Clinton St), then may we suggest some respite in the form of Lemonade.
The Californian chain, a favourite of the celebrities who slave away on sets near the West Hollywood and Venice Beach branches, opened at the end of April in Ibn Battuta Mall, with a Shaikh Zayed Road restaurant to open on August 1.
It’s a ray of sunshine in a market that appears to be engaged in a competition to come up with the biggest bacon-frosting-crusted-cronut-burger.
Lemonade is in many ways a celebration of light, So-Cal vegetable dishes, but in no way is this punishment on a plate. They’ve got all those trendy veggies you’ve been wanting to try — kale, watermelon radishes, edamame — served in bright, appetising ways.
Those radishes — beautiful whorls of pink and green, with a light peppery flavour — dominate a mix of seared ahi tuna and white and black sesame, spiked with a ginger vinaigrette. It’s pretty and punchy. Just don’t call it a salad.
Seasonal menu
Fourteen cold vegetable dishes on a changing, seasonal menu, are presented at the front of the canteen-style restaurant (take a tray and the servers will dish out the food for you; one portion of a veggie dish is Dh14, a plate of four kinds is Dh51). I didn’t see a single leaf of romaine or iceberg. (That’s a good thing.) Instead, in each dish, one or two vegetables shine, enhanced by, the guys running the place say, a careful hand with dressing.
Take the pineapple chicken with roasted green beans, shredded roasted coconut and a wicked dose of jalapeno chilli. It’s spicy and flavourful, and it happens to be the favourite dish on the menu of both founder Alan Jackson and chief operating officer Ian Olson.
“We want people to feel like they’ve had a very sincere food experience,” said Olson last week, sitting in a booth at the yellow-and-green restaurant, as Red Hot Chilli Peppers hits and the theme song from The OC played in the background. Jackson later emerged from the kitchen after having made some bread.
While Lemonade certainly encourages diners to eat their greens, they point out the lack of slogans or messaging in the restaurant.
“There’s a lot of ‘greenwashing’ in the US, and you can get caught up in the semantics of ‘organic’,” says Olson, referring to the way some restaurants appeal to customers on the basis of often meaningless terms such as “natural”. “We have a lot of things that are organic, but I’m not going to sit here and tell you they are all organic. Being seasonal is a more manageable approach to answering the argument of ‘is it sustainable’.”
For the meat eaters
Don’t want to eat your veggies? There’s plenty to try, beyond the likes of avocado and cherry tomatoes with pine nuts and lime cilantro vinaigrette (a signature dish that couldn’t be more Californian). Nine enamelware pots brim with braises everyday (Dh39 with rice); the jerk chicken is spicy yet soothing, and the melting red-miso beef short rib is something you’d find in a fine-dining restaurant; there’s also the vegan kale, tomato and white bean braise. Do have the mac-and-cheese (Dh24) on the side. There’s also a rotisserie, and on Thursday lunchtime, it was a piece of lamb roasting away, ready to be served with tzaziki. Desserts include CD-sized macaroons, piled-high cupcakes and cakes (strawberry lemonade) and some gluten-free cookies. The lemonade comes in Old-Fashioned, watermelon-rosemary and mint, among others (a jalapeno-apple might be on the way).
It’s the first restaurant outside southern California for the duo, who met through a mutual friend and now have 14 outlets in the US. Next up is expansion in the United States and GCC.
“I think this fits the Middle Eastern lifestyle,” says Jackson. “In many ways, it’s Californian mezze. This is the way we enjoy eating.”
