In Jersey City, a Vegan Cafe For All Palates

After going vegan five years ago, Marcell Portes found that many eateries in Jersey City lacked suitable choices. So last May, he opened his own vegan restaurant, More Life Cafe.

A ‘bacon cheeseburger’ made with a meat-like Impossible Burger patty with vegan mozzarella and smoky coconut ‘bacon.' Photo by Sophia F. Gottfried

When Marcell Portes went vegan five years ago to transform his health, it wasn’t an easy transition. Friends cautioned him against it, and his family, originally from the Dominican Republic, where meat is a big part of the cuisine, was also puzzled.

He found it difficult to find something to order when he went out to eat. But he knew how to cook, from working in family restaurants and various other kitchen jobs. So, last May, the 26-year-old decided to open his own vegan restaurant in Jersey City.

Portes, who has spent most of his life on Jersey City’s West Side, didn’t venture to trendy downtown. Instead, he opened More Life Cafe on the city’s West Side, near Lincoln Park (and just a five-minute drive from his mother’s restaurant, El Sol Del Caribe). It was a conscious choice. “I wanted people in my neighborhood to have access to something healthier, something different,” says Portes, who can count four liquor stores and more than a handful of fried food joints on his short 10-minute commute home from the cafe.

What guests—those from the neighborhood, as well as all who trek in from across the city—find at More Life is a cheerful, no frills spot with tons of options for vegans and open-minded non-vegans alike. The front of More Life is dominated by a buffet, where one can scoop up over a dozen rotating dishes into a takeout container and pay based on weight ($8.99 per pound). These recipes are Portes’ creations and lean heavily on the Caribbean flavors and ingredients he was raised on—sans the meat, seafood and dairy, of course—and cooking techniques learned from his mother. “A lot of people think vegan food is bland or not tasty,” the soft spoken and lean Portes tells me, “but that’s not true.”

The buffet bar at More Life Cafe. Photo by Sophia F. Gottfried

When I stopped in for dinner, vegan friend in tow, we found More Life’s plethora of buffet options to be super flavorful, indeed, from the cinnamon-rich mashed sweet potatoes to tangy barbecue jackfruit to a spicy chayote squash stew, which we sopped up with a flaky plantain cake loaded with plantain slices and shredded coconut. After packing a plate to share with a small scoop of just about everything from the buffet and still weighing in at around $10, we also ordered from the set menu. Featuring mostly veggie burgers, mac and (cashew) cheese and soy ‘chicken’ sandwiches, this section of the menu is plant-based, but not necessarily healthy.

Mac and (cashew) cheese. Photo by Sophia F. Gottfried

For my vegan friend, the ‘bacon cheeseburger’ ($12), a crispy, surprisingly meat-like Impossible Burger patty with vegan mozzarella and smoky coconut ‘bacon,’ satisfied a fast-food craving. For people skeptical of vegan food or healthier eating, this part of the menu is a more approachable introduction to vegan or plant-based eating, Portes explains.

There are also a dozen smoothies, juices and ‘ice cream’ shakes, a pastry case full of vegan cakes and mousses and a few goods from other local vegan businesses for sale, such as Cliffside Park-based Om Sweet Home Bakery’s vegan ‘butter,’ and Brooklyn’s Yeah Dawg vegan hot dogs.

Portes has hired two cooks to keep up with demand and now works in the kitchen himself a few days a week. He says he would love to expand throughout the city and get in on the many areas of Jersey City that are up-and-coming, where customers are asking him to open. It’s a far cry from half a decade ago, when he caught so much flak for his vegan diet, but Portes isn’t flaunting that. “I’m just happy I was able to introduce a lot of people to healthier options.”

More Life Cafe, 191 Mallory Ave, Jersey City; 201-985-0001. Open daily from 11 am to 8 pm.

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