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Tied for Best Interior in 77 Square Best Food of 2010. Check it out:

PHOTO COURTESY ISTHMUS MAGAZINE

Meet the Staff

Jennie Capellaro, Proprietor
Through her years living in Madison, Jennie has seen vegetarian restaurants come and go. When the last one closed several years ago, she felt Madison’s vegetarian-friendly community could support a new restaurant focused on healthy, delicious, exclusively vegetarian and vegan options. She worked several years perfecting her business plan and finding the right location, while at the same time finishing her law degree at UW-Madison. She eventually settled on the space in the former Anchor Inn, in the lovely Schenk’s Corners neighborhood on the near east side. Through the help of the Wisconsin Women Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC), she remodeled the space and hired a fabulous staff of vegetarian and vegan enthusiasts.  

Ms Capellaro aims to please vegetarians and vegans—both those who gave up eating meat long ago and those who sometimes still miss it—as well as meat-eaters who eat out with their vegetarian/vegan family members and friends. She tries to use local and fresh ingredients whenever possible. Her cuisine draws heavily from the Lebanese influence on her mother’s side and the Italian influence on her father’s side. 

Jennie was raised in New Glarus, and earned a history degree from UW-Madison and her J.D. at The UW-Madison Law School. She has lived in Sonoma, California, Istanbul, New York City, San Francisco and Chiapas, Mexico. She has held many food service positions, most recently with Bunky’s Café and The Kennedy Manor, and has catered numerous weddings and other events. She makes vegan soups for Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse. She lives a short walk from the Green Owl Café, with her long-time partner and cat (Juniper, whom she claims is the most perfect cat in the world). 

Cara, Pastry Chef
Cara’s coconut cream pies, chocolate tarts, and vegan cheesecakes have become a signature part of The Green Owl Café. Cara takes an artistic, organic approach to her desserts. She loves to play with farm-fresh, local ingredients whenever possible, and she constantly searches out new recipes and ideas to adapt for the Café. Apart from taste, she focuses on presentation. She appreciates the feeling a customer gets from having a beautiful dessert brought to them after a fulfilling meal.    Cara earned a degree in textile design from UW-Madison, but has always had a passion for food and cooking as well. A self-taught pastry chef, she started out with the Deep Water Grill in Ashland, where she was known for creative desserts such as “Beeramisu[BCL1],” that incorporated the Brewery’s own stout beer. Recently, Cara began a raw diet[BCL2] . She has been one of the driving forces behind The Green Owl Café’s popular “Raw Night,” creating delicious options that show the amazing potential of the raw food movement. Cara was born in Janesville, Wisconsin. She lives in Madison with her daughter.