Located in Columbia's Wilde Lake Village Center, David's Natural Market is a health food store that sells fresh produce, vitamins, meats, dry goods, hair and body products and much more. It has been a family owned and operated business for over 37 years.
Inside the store, there's David's Cafe where chefs Barbara Wright and Ben Austin cook homemade, all-natural and vegan lunch specialties from Monday through Saturday.
When I was little, my mom started shopping at David's because I had a sensitivity to diary and soy products. Chef Barbara and store nutritionist Courtney Carptenter helped my family to shop and cook for my special diet. Over time, I gradually outgrew my diary and soy sensitivity but I never outgrew my love for David's.
The cafe is located near the produce department. The daily specials are written on a dry erase board. There's also a standard menu that includes sandwiches, salads, soups and sushi.
Our favorite Cafe sandwich of all time is the Powerhouse ($4.95). It's a an over stuffed sandwich with organic sliced tomato, lettuce, Monterey Jack cheese, Vegenaise mayonnaise, alfalfa sprouts and seasoned with garlic power and Italian seasoning on sprouted seven grain bread.
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| Powerhouse Sandwich |
We never get tired of this sandwich. It's always so filling, healthy and delicious. It's great for lunch, dinner or a snack. The sandwich is especially excellent before athletic events to give us a big surge of energy. When you order the Powerhouse at the cafe counter it comes with chips.
But you can also get the sandwich already made in the Grab-n-Go refrigerated glass case directly across the cafe.
When I'm not consuming a Powerhouse sandwich, I'm devouring David's tuna melt ($6.50; picture above) It's essentially the same as the Powerhouse sandwich but with tuna salad and melted Monterey Jack cheese. The tuna salad is moist but not soggy, well seasoned and packed with tuna. This is another huge sandwich.
Tip - you can buy all the ingredients to make both the Powerhouse and Tuna Melt sandwiches at home - and it's cheaper. Here's where to find the ingredients - from the produce section (lettuce, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts), refrigerated case (Shiloh Farms organic seven grain bread), condiment aisle (Vegenaise mayo, Italian seasoning and garlic powder) and form the cafe counter (sliced Monetrey Jack cheese).
The sushi bar is just as awesome. All the sushi is made fresh daily - sometimes it's made right in front of us as we're waiting for our cafe order.
My Aunt Cindy loves the vegetarian roll and my Grandpa Charles loves the raw sushi like the tuna roll. He said the fish is always fresh and tastes just as good as some high priced sushi restaurants but at a much better price. Charles and I don't eat raw fish sushi but we do like the California roll.
Check out David's Natural Market's located at 5430 Lynx Lane in Columbia. The village center is under construction but they are open during the work despite the road detour. Take Cross Fox off of Twin Rivers road, go up the hill (passed the tennis club) and turn left to the store parking lot.
- Thomas
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