Editors note: Even the most devoted Thanksgiving turkey enthusiast eventually needs a change of protein. To that end, Rivard Report staff roamed the city to find hidden gems, longtime local favorites, and other independent eateries that serve slices of San Antonios manifold cultures. For more stories in our Escape the Turkey series, clickhere.
If you didnt know to look for the place with the sunflower mural on its wall, you might pass right by the Sweet Yams restaurant on Cherry Street in a tiny, bright-yellow building on San Antonios East Side.
Inside the building, delicious smells and a friendly atmosphere filled the small space on a recent Tuesday afternoon, as owners Shannon and Gus Bard greeted regular customers by name and served plates piled high with vegetables and lean meats.
Signs in the front advertise the restaurants organic, gluten-free, vegetarian and even vegan options, but that doesnt mean a meat-loving customer cant find something on the menu.
I dont consider us the health food, but the transitional diet, said Gus, the chef and culinary artist behind the restaurants unique flavors. You can get your delicious food, get your delicious meat, but its not the heavy stuff. The chicken is clean. Theres no pork or any red meat on the menu.
Jennifer Norris for the Rivard Report
Sweet Yams, an organic, health-themed restaurant with vegetarian and vegan menu items, is located on Cherry Street on San Antonio's east side.
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Jennifer Norris for the Rivard Report
Gus and Shannon Bard, husband and wife and co-owners of Sweet Yams, stand in the entrance to their restaurant.
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Both the Bards are vegetarians themselves and firmly believe its the healthiest option for a diet, but they are on a mission to help people eat better and recognize it might take some incremental adjustments.
Really our mission is to bring healthy, delicious food and not compromise on taste or anything, and just make it affordable and accessible for everyone, Shannon said.
The couple, who met while working at another restaurant, opened the storefront operation of Sweet Yams in 2012, but their online food ordering and delivery service had been around since 2011. They chose the name based on the fact that yams, which are closely related to sweet potatoes, are one of the most nutritious vegetables, Shannon said.
The restaurants location on the East Side was ideal, Shannon said, because its a food desert. But she and Gus consider the whole city of San Antonio to be basically a food desert because of the lack of healthy restaurant options.
In the whole city, I know of maybe five healthy restaurant options, Gus said. And thats out of [thousands of] restaurants.
Gus said he became passionate about healthy eating around 20 years ago when both his mom and sister died of cancer within a year of each other.
Cancer was kind of made to us to seem like this mystery disease that appears, and its just going to take your life, and there was no way to win, and that just didnt make sense to me, Gus said. Thats when I started doing research and found that nutrients can solve about 95 percent of the things we deal with.
Jennifer Norris for the Rivard Report
Gus Bard, the chef and creator of Sweet Yams' unique menu, waters the plants on the back patio after the restaurant closed for the day.
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Jennifer Norris for the Rivard Report
A lemon tree grows on the back patio of the Sweet Yams restaurant.
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Gus believes the barbecue culture in Texas, as he refers to it, makes it hard for Texans to break with meat, and has slowed down the progress he and others have made toward getting people to make healthy food choices.
You can become vegetarian; its just all about flavoring, he said. Its not that people dont want to eat vegetables, they just cant figure out how to make vegetables taste good.
But Gus has figured it out, Shannon said, after about 10 years of working on perfecting his special spice blends and sauces. The two main seasonings his food is famous for are the blackened seasoning and one that she and Gus jokingly refer to as the Jesus seasoning.
Jesus is the main seasoning, but we call it Jesus because its the perfect spice, she said. You can use it on anything and its going to taste delicious. You put it on salmon and its going to taste different than if you were to put it on chicken or vegetables. It just pairs well.
Theres no doubt that their loyal customer base agrees that Gus has found the right mix of delicious and healthy.
Marcia James was at the restaurant on Tuesday to pick up one of her favorite meals, the Lemon Chicken, for lunch but had also ordered enough for her and her husband to have dinner that night and some more for the next day. She had even ordered cupcakes for co-workers who are crazy about Sweet Yams desserts.
Oh my God, I have her on speed dial, James said, referring to ordering takeout from Shannon. Ive gotten other people hooked on this place now, too.
Jennifer Norris for the Rivard Report
Bethany Overzat, left, and Cloud Naranjo enjoy a salad and lemon garlic salmon on the back patio of the Sweet Yams restaurant.
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Jennifer Norris for the Rivard Report
A chef's special includes organic brown rice, red beans, avocado and mixed veggies in a spicy marinara sauce.
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James said she is a believer in the power of organic and healthy food to heal. She said she was very sick with an autoimmune disease about 10 years ago when she decided to try a gluten-free and organic food diet, and the change in her wellness has been dramatic.
My antibodies that were attacking my thyroid are down, so I know that it has to do with what were putting in our mouths, she said.
The Bards have worked hard to improve the building by adding a dining area next to the kitchen and an outdoor eating area in the back. The garden area they created from two parking spaces will be the spot for the restaurants new vegan evening dining hours, called Solstice, beginning in 2020.
The restaurant is technically an open-air restaurant right now as most of the walls are just made of screens, but thats another thing thats about to change in the coming year with a remodeling of the dining area already underway to add real walls and air conditioning for those hot San Antonio summers.
Shannon estimated they are able to source about 30 to 40 percent of their food locally, and some of it comes from their own gardens. The new patio area they created houses lemon, avocado, and mandarin orange trees, as well as spices, such as basil and dill plants. Around the parking lot, Gus has built boxes for growing vegetables and plans to add more next year.
But ultimately Sweet Yams is about the food and not the interior, Shannon said.
A lot of people would say this is like a diamond-in-the-rough or a hole-in-the-wall kind of thing, she said. We dont care about dcor. You go to the restaurant because its good food, so thats really our focus.
As for those families who love the idea but think they could never afford to be vegetarian, Gus recommends going back to what he calls the real, economic originals of beans, rice, and potatoes.
People always say, Oh, its so expensive to eat organic or vegetarian, he said. Meat is expensive. You take the meat off your shopping list, [and] youve got a lot of leftover space to play with.
But in the end, Gus doesnt believe that anyone really needs the meat they think they crave.
We dont tend to want meat, we want the bite, he said. Meat makes you feel heavy, tired, youve got to sit down. Youve usually got some cramps going on. What were looking for is more of a bite, and you can get the same thing from a portobello mushroom.
For San Antonians who want to take a break from the meat this Thanksgiving, Sweet Yams will be open on Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving week.
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Escape the Turkey and the Meat With Sweet Yams' Plant-Based Offerings - Rivard Report
