Andrea Huspeni Jamie Graber outside of the cafe.Next month, the East Village’s latest vegan (and gluten free!) café will make its debut at 130 East Seventh Street, between First Avenue and Avenue A. Will Gingersnap’s Organic sell gingersnaps? Not necessarily. “My friends call me Gingersnap because they joke that I’m a redhead,” explained the owner, Jamie Graber.
A native New Yorker, Ms. Graber spent a few years in Los Angeles where she did marketing for Juliano’s Raw and was a manager at Euphoria Loves Rawvolution, which now has an outpost in the East Village. When she returned to New York, she continued working with raw supplements at Live Live & Organic on East 10th Street.
“The East Village is the mecca of health. It is my favorite part of the city,” Ms. Graber said, describing Seventh Street (which has, of course, become a foodie strip of sorts) as “magical.”
Believing the majority of New York City’s vegan restaurants specialize in soy-based dishes, Ms. Graber hopes to find a niche by serving mostly plant-based items (details about the menu are still under wraps). Customers will also be able to sign up for consultations with a holistic nutritionist.
Though the café will serve mostly pre-packaged goods for takeout and delivery, it will have eighteen seats for those who want to tap into its WiFi connection. The ambiance, said Ms. Graber, will be “community, luxury, and hip,” with an open kitchen, tables made from reclaimed wood, and a mobile register up front so customers can pay with their cell phones.
For the latest on an opening date, stay tuned to The Local, or keep an eye on the cafe’s Facebook page.
