Squeaker's Cafe
Business: Short Feature
Squeaker’s Café opened in Bowling Green to provide a “compassionate and healthy alternative in the community,” explains Co-Owner Heather Andre. This café and grocery offers residents access to many products unique to the area.
In 2000, Squeaker's Café originally opened in Findlay, Ohio, and relocated to Bowling
Green the following year. Squeaker's adds a special accent to the city and also attracts visitors to town. University towns often have many vegetarians, and Bowling Green is no different; the café is frequented often by students that come to satisfy their vegetarian and vegan needs.
The cafe's name comes from Heather's pet guinea pig named Mister Squeaker. The animal's health had been declining with age so she replaced the regular guinea pig feed with a vegetarian diet. Mister Squeaker lived much longer than expected and became a testimony for the healthy lifestyle Squeaker's supports.
"Squeaker's is for everyone," co-owner Jay Kirshner explains. "Whether you're vegan or vegetarian doesn’t really matter." He says the meatless dishes taste just the same as their counterparts and that people can rarely tell the difference.
Taco salads, meatball subs, veggie chili, and Sloppy Joes are just a handful of dishes that the Café offers in vegetarian style. Although there's no actual meat used, soy and dehydrated vegetable protein give these foods a very similar taste. The newest addition to the café is the vegan bakery, which uses no eggs, refined sugar, or dairy, but still promises the delight of freshly baked bread.
Customers can also browse through an assortment of home products, as well as a selection of socks, t-shirts, belts and hemp articles. Also in the café, vitamins, herbs and minerals are just some of the many supplements available that are important in alternative diets. Kirshner says "the vegan diet is perfectly safe and healthy," and that all vitamin and mineral needs are met as long as the necessary variety of foods is included.
Andre puts a lot of her personal beliefs into Squeaker’s Café. She’s been an animal activist since she became a vegetarian at the age of 16, and has been a vegan now for a number of years. In addition to the café, she’s active with the local Humane Society and several other organizations around Bowling Green.
Customers keep coming back to Squeaker's Café because they trust the food and products to be safe and healthy. Andre assures customers that the menu is all vegan and mostly organic. Many of the vegetables come from Andre’s own organic garden where there are no pesticides or steroids used. The remaining plants used in the café come from other local organic farmers.
Artists are welcome to showcase their poetry or paintings, and a stage in the front room is available for performing artists. Squeaker's Cafe is a true haven for vegetarians, but everyone can enjoy the good food offered and find something useful for their kitchen or home.