Cakes & Ale has got to be one of our favorite restaurants in Decatur. From the second they bring our appetizers, I'm ooh-ing and ahh-ing like something out of that scene in When Harry Met Sally.

 

I'm stealing the next lines right off their web site, because they say it so well:

"Our food is made from scratch every day, and we cook with seasonal vegetables from local sources; artisan-produced, freshly milled grains; and humanely raised meats and non-endangered fish species. These aren't  just good practices, they taste better and are more nourishing. We have respect for the products we use and where they come from."

Amen, brother.

Owner/chef Billy Allin came out to speak with us last night (probably because I was making so much noise and everyone wanted to order what I was having) and shared more about his vision for the restaurant he operates and the culinary creations that feed body and soul. He's a congenial man with a passion for doing what is right. He and his wife grow many of the vegetables the restaurant uses. You can see pics of their baby greens on their blog.

They don't just grow the veggies, either; after all the cheffing and dining is done they take the scraps back home and compost them. Compost them.

As you might expect, their take-out trays are compostable too, although you don't typically have as much to take home with you at the end of a Cakes & Ale meal. Allin doesn't super-size; he doesn't offer to give you a 72-ounce steak for free if you can eat the whole thing in one sitting. He believes in conservation, including the conservative consumption of delicious food. At Cakes & Ale, diners feel satisfied after a meal because it was so good, not because there was so much of it. What a nice alternative to the Big Mac fat bubble the nation has been floating around in for the past few decades.

"You can feed two people with a pound of fish," Allin said, describing a typical restaurant meal. "Or you can feed four people with a pound of fish. It's better for the body to eat the smaller portion." It's better for the world, too.

Allin chooses meats that come from animals that are humanely treated (if you don't consider eating them to be inhumane). His fish are caught by fisherpeople using a hook and line, not by scraping through the ocean with a net and a blind eye toward the harm such methods cause.

Cakes & Ale recycles their glass, which is a huge sustainable effort toward keeping waste out of our landfills. Allin pays a private company to pick up his glass for recycling, since the city has not yet put a plan into place to do this, although from what we've been told, they're working on it. I know of no other restaurant in Decatur besides Twain's Billiards and Tap that does this. Allin told us that he has offered other restaurateurs in the area space in his recycling bin, which rarely fills between pick-ups, but they don't routinely take him up on his offer, for some reason. 

The name Cakes & Ale comes from the mouth of Sir Toby in Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night. "Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Allin is doing a masterful job of demonstrating that decadent food and drink can be purchased, prepared, served, stored and disposed of with a high degree of both virtue and virtuosity. Bravo!