BMuse Cafe offers a plethora of salads, both pre-designed and make-your-own. Photo by Abigail Chang/The Choate News
Though downtown Wallingford is home to many restaurants serving gourmet pizza, comfort food, and rich desserts, there are very few restaurants with a menu designed largely for vegetarian and vegan diets. This once niche local market has started to take off, however, with the pricey vegan fare of Pure Alchemy Juice Bar Cafe, Arles and Boggs, a new vegan restaurant still under construction, and the salad locale BMuse.
“Our business is first and foremost catering,” said Mr. Bob Bourassa, the owner of BMuse, who opened the brick and mortar restaurant five years ago. “We opened this [restaurant] for two reasons: One, there was a need for it, and two, we want this to be a living business card for our catering.”
Unlike Pure Alchemy, whose eight- and nine-dollar smoothie prices are often the result of unusual ingredients like spirulina and bee pollen, BMuse does not make exclusively vegan cuisine and has more conventional ingredients in its soups, sandwiches, and salads. “We have a lot of gluten free items on the menu,” explained Mr. Bourassa. “We have a lot of healthy, a lot of vegetarian.” The restaurant’s menu includes a list of pre-designed salads, with options including everything from Roasted Beet to Mozzarella Burrata salads. This is supplemented by an extensive list of salad ingredients so that customers can alter current menu items or create their own.
BMuse is also committed to serving fresh food. The restaurant prepares and cooks the meat for its sandwiches and salads, avoiding pre-cooked and preserved alternatives. “Some of these chain restaurants, their chicken is already grilled; it’s frozen; it’s already cooked; they just thaw it out,” said Mr. Bourassa. “We work with real, fresh ingredients. We do it in house.” BMuse’s vegetables maintain the same quality of freshness, with crisp, tangy tomatoes and creamy avocado enriching many menu items.
The restaurant currently boasts a bit of Halloween spirit, with a handful of miniature pumpkins resting atop the granite countertop that stretches the length of the front window. The restaurant’s name is a play on the first initial of Mr. Bourassa’s last name and muse, the word for an artist’s inspiration, making it a homophone to the word “bemuse.”
BMuse staff members interact with customers as they package up their salads, extending greetings and patience to all, even when some spend several minutes pondering the menu. “The people that work there know all our regulars by name,” said Mr. Bourassa. “We have a sense of community and friendliness.”
BMuse’s mission is clear. Mr. Bourassa explained, “We like to serve fresh, healthy, nutritious food in a friendly environment.”
