You may pass by Our Daily Bread on Kipling, thinking it’s an unassuming café serving primarily the immediate neighborhood. But think again. This eatery is worthy as a destination trip for those who appreciate a home-cooked meal from a plant-centric menu with modestly priced comfort foods that will appeal to vegans and omnivores alike.
The extensive but unintimidating menu contains sandwiches, burritos, wraps, nachos, soups, smoothies, and a plethora of freshly baked goods befitting its large bakery. The dairy-free, pesto-stuffed vegetable wrap, baked-to-perfection fruit pies, and melt-in-your-mouth seitan “steak” sandwich are delicious. But the wow-factor goes up a few notches when one learns that everything in Our Daily Bread’s kitchen is made from scratch. That’s right — the wildly popular sprouted bread is made from house-sprouted and house-milled wheat berries. The energy bars are crafted from founder-and-owner Dianna’s signature recipe. Even the seitan is made from homemade vital wheat gluten (produced via a rigorous process of soaking, rinsing, and kneading fresh-milled flour)!
The plant-centric menu appeals to vegans and omnivores alike, sporting ingredients like faux-chicken for the chickenless salad sandwich, faux-steak for the BBQ steak sandwich (both products use their homemade seitan), faux-beef for the beef-less stew, and cheeseless queso for the vegan nachos. There are also plenty of menu items for those who prefer whole-foods dishes, without imitation-meat and -cheese ingredients, such as the grilled eggplant or grilled vegetable wraps, a spinach salad, real-fruit smoothies, and a breakfast burrito with potatoes, tofu, onions, peppers, and cheese (unsurprisingly, a wildly popular item due to the dearth of vegan breakfast burritos in the area).
The restaurant is an easy one-minute drive from 6th Avenue in Lakewood, Colorado, making it a convenient choice for dwellers in Denver, Wheatridge, and Golden. December 11th marked the establishment’s three-year anniversary and it’s quickly become a go-to for locals craving vegetarian comfort foods.
The website informs viewers that Dianna, the founder and owner of Our Daily Bread, began with only one helper — who quickly left the company soon after opening. The assistant’s abrupt departure explains why Dianna can be seen busily (but gracefully) flitting about in the back kitchen on any operating day, clearly the source of the inviting smells that pervade this cozy eatery.
Dianna has been passionate about nutrition since she was a little girl. Her dedication is indisputable: she does almost all of the bakeshop work herself, practically living in the kitchen to sprout and mill grains, leaven and bake dough, and mix batters for quick-breads, like their legendary banana loaf. The establishment’s name has connections to the owner’s faith, and Dianna asserts that the bakery is “God’s ministry, not mine.” Our Daily Bread preaches a gospel of healthy living through food, and its 100% preservative-free and largely meat-and-dairy-free menu executes this mission to a tee.
Whether you’re seeking a highly nutritious meal or craving comfort food, whether you’re dining solo or with a group, whether you’re a life-long vegan or a self-proclaimed carnivore, you’ll be met with open arms at Our Daily Bread. Why choose Dianna’s eatery over another veg-friendly restaurant, you might ask? If the mom-and-pop environment and top-notch, scratch-made dishes aren’t enough to sway you, choose Our Daily Bread for the soul. There’s a sense of community and warmth that one gets from dining at a place like Our Daily Bread, which fills the heart as well as the belly while supporting a kind, tight-knit, and down-to-earth team that clearly cares about the well-being of their guests far more than a paycheck. Dianna says, “Do I need to make money? Yes, but the important part is the ministry. Since the health message is the right arm of the gospel, we’re trying to get the message out.”
