The Thousands

On a small table in the restroom lies a copy of “4 star” self-help book, Even Eagles Need a Push: Learning to Soar in a Changing World. This title is a good analogy for one’s experience here; Nourishing Quarter will both coddle and daunt you. They serve a pure vegetarian hybrid of Vietnamese, South American, and Mediterranean, in a space that is small and heartwarmingly betrinketed. Seating in the back courtyard is best; here one gets the revelrous atmospherics coming over the wall from the Norfolk beer garden.

Under a whimsical arrangement of subheadings, menu items are named with unselfconscious flair. There are Humble Pies, Pretty Dumplings, Pho-evermore Nourished Soup, Ancient Pearls within Our Grasps – these, and the Sacred Congee, I recommend most highly.

Ingredients are listed meticulously. Next to each item boxes indicate when something is Dairy Free, Wheat Free, Wholesome, or First Encounter. What does that mean? It has the potential to overwhelm, and even the jauntiest cavalier might at this stage, cap in hand, quail, and ask his girlfriend to order for him. But the risk to our hero is minimal: if you just relax and trust that everything on this menu will be both tasty and peculiar, filling and entertaining, familiar and quinoa, that is when Nourishing Quarter can really take over and, like a successful self-help book, have you feeling that not just dinner, but your entire life is going in the right direction.