Get healthy without getting lame

Healthy portion-controlled meals are typically purchased at a grocery store, then eaten alone in sadness, because you've made the Healthy Choice not to let your friends see how Lean your Cuisine's become. Eat actually tasty healthy food in public, at Vitality House, soft open now.

From husband & wife Le Cordon Bleu graduates, Vitality's an airy cafe decked out in a Mediterranean-harvest color scheme, fitting for a menu that aims to offer creative meals Tommy Lasorda would call "sensible", but that Fernando Valenzuela would call "delicioso", which Mike Scioscia would then translate as "delicious". Starters run from mozz- & marinara-topped eggplant rolls with low-fat cream cheese, to mini kabobs (chicken, meat, shrimp, veg, combo), to tuna tartare & avocado over rice crackers, as opposed to a far more terrifying diet solution, rice crackers over rice cakes. Things ramp up with dishes like bison tenderloin steak 'n 'shrooms (w/ garlic fries & green beans), a salmon BLT, a portobello 'wich with red onions, arugula, Gouda & hummus, and, served alongside parsnip mash and g-beans, turkey "meatloaf muffins" -- or, as Tyler Durden called them, Bob's b**** t**s.

Because a day that doesn't start with breakfast is only advisable if you sleep 'til lunch, they're serving AM items like housemade muesli (oats, nuts, apples, cran, yogurt, milk, honey, all soaked overnight), sweet potato waffles, and carrot cake pancakes -- the orange a sweet reminder that you can once again eat amongst friends, and not just hang out with Keith and Kerry Kashi.