Home Grown Cafe

When the eight of us showed up for lunch with three kids and no reservation, we waited less than five minutes for the table and the place was packed too. Good selection of beer. The vodka martini I ordered needed a bit more vodka and a bit less vermouth. The food was excellent. Even the picky four-year-olds cleaned their plates. Try their mushroom soup and mushroom omelette. If you like mushrooms...

Yummy with a great selection of Veg/Vegan foods.  Kitchen is willing to accommodate those that have special dietary needs, my husband has a medical thing which restricts his diet severely (basically nothing cooked with any type of fat such as oil, butter, or lard which is harder to avoid than most people think since when most places put oil on the grill/pots so food doesn't stick or containing those ingredients within the food itself like sauce or dressing)

Oh Home Grown, I used to love you and frequent you all the time, but now I'm not sure. The fact that they have an extensive selection for vegetarians and vegans alike is impressive.  Everything on the menu can be made vegetarian and nearly everything can be made vegan. On top of that, I enjoy some of the sandwiches and salads, particularly the Greek pita, the Southwest wrap/salad, the grilled cheese, and the Ranch salad. The Greek pita especially is my favorite- veggies and tzatziki sauce (or tahini) with protein on a fresh, warm pita. Proteins include veggie burger, seitan, ahi tuna, grilled chicken, crispy chicken, etc.

The ambiance is nice, with local artwork and eclectic decor. The porch is also nice. Patrons are a mixed crowd and can make for great people watching. I've seen hippies demand the bartender come to the table to find out what beers are organic (this actually happened. It was amusing), hipsters, frat bro's and girls (and sometimes their parents), tattooed punks, and just regular, nice people. It really is a mixed bag and I love that!

However, HG has been going downhill.The service has gotten worse. The hosts were always rude, but now even the servers are lacking. This used to be the place I would go to to get away from all the cookie cutter places in Newark, but now Home Grown is slowly becoming less... like Home Grown. Bands aren't too good, and on the weekends during the school year it can get loud and cramped (on the other hand, it's totally dead in the summer). But other times I've gone where it *wasn't* crowded, they told me I couldn't enter because they had decided to implement a "one in, one out" policy. Sorry, but I'm not waiting to get in to a place that's not even crowded. They also took away their dessert menu, which means no more vegan coconut cake, aka my favorite dessert in Delaware. Now they have carrot cake and a peanut butter cake, which are probably great but what a lame decision! Their desserts were very popular.

However, I'll probably still come, just less often, which is such a bummer because I've always really enjoyed coming here (Holy moly, this was long!!).