Cox: Healthful dose of the future at Native Kitchen

You can see the future of food at the Native Kitchen and Kombucha Bar in Petaluma.

The future is shaping up to be less meat and more plant-based foods. It’s called a healthier way to eat, not only for us individually, but for the planet as well. Modern science supports the benefits of cutting down on meat and increasing vegetables in the diet. But at the heart of the new food recommendations is something very ancient: the way Native Americans have been eating all across this continent for many thousands of years.

Of course the indigenous people ate meat, especially the Plains tribes that hunted buffalo. But at the core of almost all tribal diets were the three sisters: corn, beans and squash. Cornstalks supported the climbing beans while squash ran between them, suppressing weeds by shading the ground with their big leaves.

So when you walk into the Native Kitchen, it’s no surprise to see each table decorated with a Delicata squash. Or to find cornbread and corn cakes on the menu. Or to discover smoky beans accompanying two corn tortillas used for tacos. Chef Jasmine Dravis isn’t trying to replicate ancient Native American foods the way paleo diet fans try to eat like our forebears from the distant past. She’s bringing these foods, all of them domesticated by native peoples over the past 10,000 years, into the present to improve the future. She’s a nutritionist and food for health is her objective, so all her ingredients are organic or Biodynamic. And gluten free, of course.

The main dining area’s tables are wine barrels set around with high stools. The bar features drinks made with whiskies and vodkas of reduced alcoholic strength, which makes the mixed drinks smoother and less dangerous if you’re driving. You can get kombucha straight or mixed with fruit juices and sweet syrups. The ‘buch, as its aficionados call this live-culture fermented beverage, is made by former winemaker Joseph Dravis, the chef’s husband.

There’s a back dining room with bare pine tables and ladder-backed chairs. Candles flicker. There’s sophisticated art on the walls. The staff likes to have fun. Our table heard shouts, murmurs, grunts, and laughter coming from the front room. Gaiety is good, but don’t forget the customers. It took close to 15 minutes before someone took our order, and another 15 or more before the food started coming from the kitchen.

Instead of alcohol, I had a Grapefruit Smash ($7 ???) made of kombucha, grapefruit juice, a touch of honey, and a hint of mint. Another in our party had a noteworthy mixed drink, a Persimmon Sidecar ($11 ???) made with 40 proof whiskey, persimmon puree, and a squeeze of lemon juice.

First out of the kitchen came Jalapeño Cornbread ($5 ??). Two warm wedges with a consistency more like stiff polenta than fluffy cornbread came with a house-made pepper jam. The jalapeño was undetectable, the flavor mild. It needed the jam to give it some oomph.

A Mediterranean Pickled Vegetable Plate ($10 ??½) featured house-made, live-culture fermented cabbage and carrots, quinoa tabouleh, and house-made hummus that lacked the kind of garlicky bite the folks at our table like - but that maybe isn’t for everyone.

Negimaki ($13 ??) is a Japanese dish of skirt steak strips marinated in teriyaki sauce and rolled around chopped scallions. Here the strips aren’t rolled but are mixed in the pan with brussels sprouts. The beef is organic, from Thistle Meats, a nifty little butcher shop just up the block. Everyone in our party agreed that the Sweet Corn Cakes ($13 ??) were the hit of the evening. The cakes are made with organic sweet corn and topped with house-made salsa. They burst with fresh corn flavor. They’re served with quinoa and baby kale leaves soaked in a tangy marinade.

A dish called Taste of Petaluma Poultry ($12 ???) was a perfectly cooked and spice-rubbed leg and thigh of organic chicken served with arugula, broccolini florets, and halved, roasted brussels sprouts.

Vegetarian Tacos ($13 ?) consisted of more brussels sprouts (in Chef Dravis’s defense, it was January, after all), arugula, quinoa, and beans but exhibited no spicy heat and an underwhelming flavor. For dessert, we tried Apple Cobbler ($7 ??), a straight-forward and unexciting piece of cake.

To sum up: This food definitely has the nutrition, but it would be even better if it had more flavor.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review for the Sonoma Living section./ He can be reached at jeffcox@sonic.net.