"Hard to find, but well worth the drive, Garden Café offers a dining experience unlike any other in the city. It’s a place where nature and nutrition are hand in hand.
A café where children are encouraged to learn about the environment and adults can take a break, relax and recharge in Mother Earth’s green surroundings."
"Some within the local food movement want you to travel no further than 25 miles to satisfy its agricultural tenets. Wootton has got that beat: He only has to truck into his backyard, harvest his veggies and herbs, transport them a few feet to his restaurant, prepare them in the kitchen and serve them to customers, many of whom consume them on the pleasant patio in the same garden where they were grown. The bankruptcy advice he dispenses is local too. His law office is only a few yards from his restaurant."
"seating in back to enjoy the garden and a menu featuring favorites such as meatloaf, chicken-fried steak, catfish and homemade desserts. Want a chance to see a future meal grow? Head over to the Garden Café for an experience you'll tell your friends about."
"Hidden away on an East Dallas block so quiet that it's almost a secret, this delightful breakfast and lunch place boasts some of the freshest, most delicious food in town and a delightful patio surrounded by flower, herb and vegetable gardens. You'll feel that you've traveled back to a time and place when food tasted better and time moved slower."
Dallas Observer
By Spencer Michlin
January 2004
"Breakfast is served all day, and their feta omelet was the second best I've had (Meli cafe still holds the bid for number 1.) The food is friendly for everyone, vegans & meat-lovers. I look forward to taking anyone who has an appreciation for gardens or home cooked food made with fresh ingredients, which will probably be my mother the next time she is in Dallas."
"This cafe is a great source of pride for the proprietors, and their enthusiasm is contagious."
Texas Monthly
April 2004
"Salons where the intelligentsia and artsy cliques gather are usually well-kept secrets. One such spot is Garden Cafe on Junius Street - tucked behind Gaston Avenue off Munger Boulevard in a tiny, antiquated neighborhood strip center. Here, local artists, doctors, judges and rockers commingle over hearty breakfast lunch and occasional dinners, followed by poetry readings, which were a tradition in Wootton's home for 10 years. An avid gardener and cook, owner Wootton opened the Garden Cafe due to loud encouragement from friends who loved his cooking. Fresh ingredients are key, and specialties include sweet-potato pancakes and the garden omelet. An outdoor eating area behind the cafe overlooks the gardens, where vegetables and fresh herbs abound."
Papercity
"Garden Cafe has a cult of devout fans...It's not that Garden Cafe is some insanely great restaurant, though it's breakfast and home-cooking lunches are certainly good. The regulars' protectiveness has more to do with the accessibility and personality of the place, with the sense that it's theirs. It has a funky-casual brightness...The building...is the dream project of attorney Dale Wootton, who offices there as well. He's done a lovely job, with awnings, fresh scrubbed facades and nice landscaping. Even the paved parking area is impeccable. Typical entrees: meatloaf, chicken n' dumplings, baked chicken...Vegetables might include broccoli, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, carrots or coleslaw"
Dallas Morning News
By Teresa Gubbins
“…the Garden Café a few blocks away, a real neighborhood hangout you can walk to, where the friendly cooks work with stuff they grow out back, and you can sit out on the patio talking about turnip greens with owner Dale Wootton, who’s a pretty funky dude himself (for a lawyer, I mean).”
View Points
Monday, April 26, 2004
WE CHOSE THE CITY OVER THE BURBS
Rod Dreher & Michael Landauer
