A Meadow has popped up in the city.

The new Meadow café, tucked away in Odgers Lane, celebrates a sustainable way of life, making a difference in its own way and enabling customers to do the same. Meadow’s menu offers honest plant-based food that is kind to the environment and good for your health and soul.

The brain child of Manager Nathan Sami, and Carlo Krikowa, who owns sustainable furniture company boyandgirlco with his wife Anita, Meadow has a relaxed and down-to-earth vibe. It’s where Loading Zone used to be and, with respect to the environment, the team behind Meadow repurposed the space instead of tearing everything down and starting all over again. Dining is undercover outdoors and plans are underway to hang heaps of plants under the awning.

Meadow’s kitchen is tiny but that doesn’t stop it from pumping out innovative dishes all-day. One dish that will make you weak at the knees is the cheesecake pancake (short stack $12 and double stack $16). It’s a buttermilk pancake with maple comb, cream cheese mousse, ginger nut crumble and sambucca berries. A real treat for those looking for a sweet kickstart to the day.

The tasty Meadow roll is proving popular ($13), created with fried haloumi, sous vide egg, chilli jam and chipotle on a brioche bun. Also packing a punch with flavour is the Taco ($16)—salsa fresca, turtle beans, charred bell pepper, avo and parmesan crisps on tortillas. Thai toast, a teriyaki burger and other dishes also spice matters up.

Nathan has a fair bit of hospitality experience under his belt, having worked at several establishments while studying in Sydney, including at Pablo and Rusty’s Coffee Roasters and at Anvil Coffee Co. He came to Canberra and worked as a pastor for four years. He then worked at boyandgirlco making furniture out of recycled timber pallets. Nathan isn’t vegetarian but loves the food at Meadow anyhow. “You don’t even think about meat with our menu,” says Nathan. “The food, created by chef Adrianne Davo, is about creativity and taste.”

For convenience, Meadow offers an online lunch order option—a toastie and drink neatly packed in a brown paper bag. Choose from the Ponzu pear, Reuben or Three cheese toastie. Place your order by 10.30am and pick it up when you’re ready.

Meadow welcomes mums, bubs and prams and is breastfeeding friendly. The kid’s menu is perfect (and inexpensive) with the little ones enjoying options like cheesy soldiers ($7), frog in a hole ($9) and a bento lunch box of falafel, tempura veggies, edamame and cheese dip with fruit salad ($12). Drinks include a babycino and choco milk. Adult drinks include smoothies and a wide range of cold pressed juices by Canberra’s The Fix.

Also true to its sustainability ethos, Meadow reduces its carbon footprint by sourcing most products from local or regional suppliers, who each practice sustainability in their own businesses. Bread is sourced from Three Mills here in Canberra and honey from the capital’s Honey Delight. Coffee is from Melbourne’s Seven Seeds, and tea from Melbourne’s Storm in a Teacup. Holbrook Paddock Eggs are from Holbrook NSW, and 100 per cent Jersey milk comes from Country Valley in Picton NSW. Meadow is the only Canberra outlet to stock for sale yum pickles, relishes and jams from family run business Cornersmith, Sydney.

Meadow is more than just food and drink. It’s about a healthy and sustainable lifestyle and so the café hosts Laneway Yoga on Saturday mornings (7am to 7.45 am, $10 a session) and Local Sessions on some Saturdays with musicians providing entertainment.

The café will also host a truly engaging dining experience one Saturday each month called Gather Dinner. The curated three-course meal for 60 guests will be held on a pay-as-you-feel basis with all profits going toward the Meadow Matters Program which supports local not-for-profit organisations.

Meadow: Monday to Friday 7am to 2pm; Saturday brunch all day 8am to 2pm. Odgers Lane, Melbourne Bldg. Parking off London Circuit, Corner West Row (1 minute walk).