Jessica Bryce Young at Orlando Weekly reported today that Cafe 118, the raw-food vegan restaurant in Winter Park, has apparently closed. It wasn’t exactly fine dining, but it offered a more upscale dining experience than most vegan restaurants.
The name was a reference to the preparation of the food, with nothing rendered over 118 degrees, or essentially raw. If you think of veganism as extreme vegetarianism, the food here might be explained as extremely vegan.
And it was good, too. In my review of the restaurant in January of 2009, I remarked about the high quality of the food, and I was surprised that I felt full for hours after eating there. Still, I thought a raw fod vegan restaurant would be a hard sell. I wouldn’t have put a bet on a six-year run, so I hope that shows that there is some sort of demand for this type of restaurant.