There’s a color chart on the menu at Fuel Space, and it looks like the Pantone guide to spiritual fulfillment through salad. Each hue is paired with certain foods and mental states: Damask rose corresponds to red cabbage and self-awareness, terra cotta to hope, joy, and quinoa.
Here we are at the vast new Lululemon outlet, upstairs in the lifestyle chain’s first all-day café. That color chart is a more or less accurate indicator of what the menu contains: mostly bowls, salads, toasts, and smoothies. Strangely, the more Gwynethy the dish, the less it satisfies. Undercooked beet wedges and goat cheese meet in a flavorless tangle of greenery. A parched tempeh rice bowl sets tempeh’s cause back 20 years.
But then, almost unbelievably, there’s a stellar cheeseburger. The juicy grass-fed beef patty is smartly accessorized with caramelized onions and smoky bacon, all of it tucked into a brioche bun. It conveys the message that wellness isn’t kale or bust — sometimes it’s indulging your desire for red meat.
The burger isn’t the only reason to visit. Tap away on your laptop amid the soothing, white-spined books. Order a coffee and know this: Oat and almond milk are on tap.