Tofu croquettes with mushroom parmesan gravy? Polenta layered
with sauteed spinach and covered with an onion dressing? These are
just two of the original dishes Judy Nome will prepare at the
downtown vegetarian cafe she’s opening.
Gilroy – Tofu croquettes with mushroom parmesan gravy? Polenta layered with sauteed spinach and covered with an onion dressing? These are just two of the original dishes Judy Nome will prepare at the downtown vegetarian cafe she’s opening.
It’s her first restaurant venture, and the first vegetarian place here, but she’s open for the challenge.
“I’m confident enough in the cooking that people will find it tasty, and they’ll be people serving it to you who care,” Judy Nome said of her husband, whose name is just Nome, and her two daughters. “Of course, you know, there’s always the thought that it may not take off, but it’s in the hands of a higher power now.”
With about two weeks until opening day at 7461 Monterey Street, between Fifth and Sixth streets, Judy Nome is working through final inspections with the health, fire and building departments before Judy’s Cozy Coffee can sell sandwiches, soups, smoothies, breakfast paninis, salads, baked goods, pies, organic coffees, pastries, and, of course, different hot-dish “Judy originals” every day.
All of this is a far cry from the drone of Judy Nome’s old desk-job in the publishing industry.
“I’m in my early 50s and have been sitting at a computer for 25 years. I was thinking one day, ‘Do I really want to sit at this computer for another 15 years before I retire?’ ” she said. “I like to cook. I like to serve people, so that’s a good combination for a restaurant, and plus, why not work for myself instead of working for somebody else?”
Working for herself, she has produced many ideas: portabella with whipped cream cheese, cucumber and red peppers; “four-nuts loaf,” a meat loaf with nuts instead of meat; and the more traditional lasagna with soy protein ground beef.
“I’d try it out,” said Dulce Saucedo, an employee at Mafalda’s Bridal Shop downtown. “Not a lot of people are vegetarians, but it’s still a good idea.”
Samuel Barboza, 18, agreed and said the restaurant would serve as a “retreat” for the vegetarian and curious alike.
“In every community there are people who are pro-vegetarian or vegan,” Barboza said while he was browsing the Downtown Skate Shop between Fifth and Sixth streets. “I know five people personally who are vegetarians, and I went to a vegetarian place in San Jose that was packed, and we are ethnically and culturally similar down here.”
The Nomes “saved thousands” because the city waived their development fees in its ongoing effort to lure businesses downtown.
“This looks like a town that has great potential and probably in a few years will be booming downtown, so we thought, ‘Why don’t we get in in its infancy and see where it takes us?’ ” Judy Nome said of her thought process last December when she and her husband came up from Alameda to peruse downtown Gilroy. They returned a few times to gauge the number of buildings going up and coming down, and now, eight months later, they’re about to bring a new flavor to an evolving atmosphere.
“We’re just the kind of people who have a hunch about stuff,” Nome said, “and we had a hunch that when we came down here, we didn’t need to look any farther.”
Judy Nome’s husband, 53, is a spiritual teacher at a Hindu temple in Santa Cruz, and Judy owns a small publishing company now that publishes his books.
To help run Judy’s Cozy Coffee, the couple’s two daughters, Jessica, 27, and Sarah, 23, will work in the cafe, with “Sarah the baker” cooking most of the cafe’s baked goods, Judy said. Everyone in the family is a vegetarian, and Judy said she hopes she can share her family’s lifestyle with a new community.
