Juice Box Cafe: The best juice you’ll find in a box

School lunchtime there are the buyers and the bringers. My mother was known to pack a pretty mean lunchbox and so I was destined to be a bringer from Kindergarten on through graduation. Although I loved the sandwiches, cookies, and carrot sticks I would discover daily in the cafeteria, I always despised the juice box. Juice boxes are really poor concepts; they are hard to open, easy to spill, and never large enough to fully quench a kid’s thirst. Fastforward to adulthood: I’m still a bringer but have found a much more enjoyable Juice Box.

Last week Shadyside was granted a much needed addition to the eateries on Walnut Street. Juice Box Cafe serves a healthy array of wraps, panini, salads, small plates, and fresh smoothies and juices. To my delight the menu has an overwhelming amount of vegetarian options. The menu isn’t the only thing attractive about Juice Box; the new cafe was tastefully designed. Just being in a space with such bright colors and feel-good decor made me feel like a giddy third grader with a lunchpail.

As an avid vegetarian cook, I am well versed in turning classic dishes into meat-less dishes (think: black bean burgers, tempeh BLT’s, tofu steaks, etc). Although you can always cook your way around meat, there are some dishes which just don’t stand up to their carnivorous cousins. Of these two come to mind that Juice Box had attempted to free of meat and serve to their diners: mock tuna salad, and smoked tofu and spicy curry salad (spin on the classic chicken salad). I have yet to whip up an acceptable veggie version of either of these so I ordered the smoked tofu and spicy curry salad with high hopes and moderate expectations.

Since I was eating a cafe named for a beverage I also ordered a “Purple Rain” smoothie: Apple Juice, Mango, Blueberries, Pineapple, and Banana. Wow. I don’t know what purple rain is, but I can tell you that it is good. In addition to eating my way through Pittsburgh’s restaurants I am now also on a quest to drink my way through the Juice Box smoothie menu. Stay tuned.

My salad arrived in timely fashion and looked appealing although not exactly mouthwatering. The salad consisted of smoked tofu, onions, raisins, red pepper, almonds, and carrots in a curry dressing over romaine. It didn’t look like chicken salad, it didn’t smell like chicken salad, and it didn’t taste like chicken salad. It was amazing. Although the dressing could have leaned a little heavier on the curry, the chewy tofu was balanced by the crunch from the vegetables and the sweet raisins were a nice pair for the onions and curry. The salad was large enough to leave me satisfied, although the “hearty whole wheat bread” would have been better had it not come from a bag.

Capri Sun drinks may still be the most poorly designed food packaging in history, but I have found a Juice Box that is both well designed and a real tastebud pleaser.