Chow! EW's quarterly restaurant guide

Eating healthy as a taste snob can be a chore. But not at Tru Veg.

Crystal DuBoyce and Brian Igarta, and their 12-year-old daughter Skye, serve up plant-based foods packed with both flavor and nutrition from a tiny white trailer in the parking lot of an automotive business on Chambers Street. They’ve divided the menu at Tru Veg in two: cooked vegan food and raw, or living, food. 

While Kopi-O is the first restaurant that Azam Ismail has ever owned, chances are that you have enjoyed some of his creations before. “My dad was a chef at Ring of Fire, Adam’s Sustainable Table and Lucky Noodle,” his son Aaron Ismail says. “This is a dream he has always had, and we’ve always wanted to make it happen for him.”

Summer is shining ahead of us, and one of its brightest parts is plodding through the dirt to gather Oregon berries in the morning sun. Fortunately, u-pick farms surround Eugene, making the experience easily accessible. Check out these farms (and there are many more!) for their u-pick options; we’ve organized them by distance from the Park Blocks that host the Lane County Farmers Market.

The last time EW caught up with the dynamic duos behind Party Cart (Tiffany Norton and Mark Kosmicki) and Red Wagon Creamery (Emily and Stuart Phillips) in fall 2012, they were cultivating a culinary following at the corner of 28th and Friendly, serving savory seasonal plates and ambrosial scoops of ice cream respectively. At that point, there were only murmurs of a brick-and-mortar establishment; it was more of a long-term dream than a short-term reality.

"We take the notion of a cupcake and elevate it to the next level,” says Larry Oswald, owner, founder, baker (and mopper, he adds) at Larry’s Cupcake Café — a new addition to downtown Eugene’s food-scene renaissance. 

Cheri Esselstrom, owner of the new Dukko’s eatery in the Fifth Street Public Market’s International Food Court, knows a bit about hard times, perseverance, community and family. Oh, and food.

Some food carts create a specific type of cuisine: Mexican, pizza, Southern food, vegetarian. GastroNomad owner Ben Maude reinvents his menu on the regular not by picking a genre, but by running his food truck as some sort of delicious pop quiz.