​BY SHEA CONNELL​

 

Having just moved back home from Antigua, Jenan McClain was newly pregnant and looking for pure, organic food in the Lowcountry. When she couldn’t find it, the self-proclaimed “mompreneur” decided to buy a Mount Pleasant cottage and start her very own organic restaurant.

     “When you eat here you don’t have to worry about GMOs [genetically modified organisms], preservatives, artificial flavors, fillers. Everything is organic,” says McClain, founder and owner of Pureé café. “We make food for the people who have been left out, like those with gluten allergies, vegans and vegetarians, people who can more often than not only eat one dish at certain restaurants.”
     With Pureé’s one-year anniversary celebration coming up in May, McClain and her husband, Bryant, are watching their labor of love turn heads and rustle taste buds.
     “My husband and I have been eating like this for 15 years, and there just isn’t anything local that does what we do here,” McClain says. “We want to prepare food the way it has been for decades and decades.” 
     The café’s menu represents their philosophy of bringing organic, locally grown food back to the forefront of the American diet. “We call it organic,” says McClain. “Our grandparents called it food.”
     The grilled chimichurry seitan wrap is one of the restaurant’s best-sellers. “People call asking for the chicken wrap, and when we tell them it’s not chicken but a ‘wheat meat’ made from dough, they can’t believe it,” McClain adds. “Seitan is one of our super foods. Alternative foods like tempeh, tofu and quinoa that are all complex functional foods and just so good for you.”
     Head chef Maureen McNellis, health food extraordinaire and graduate of the National Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York City, inspired Pureé’s menu, from the cashew soda noodle salad to the grilled cheese with white bean spread, kale and tomato.

     Puree also offers pastries, and it has a juice bar complete with organic alcohols. “You know, guilt-free consumption,” McClain laughs.
     Riding on the coattails of a successful first year, McClain says they plan to open a spot downtown. “We’d like to expand. We want to be available to more people. For the summer, though, we plan on building a bar on the patio and having live music nights.”
     With the sounds of reggae waving through Pureé’s bustling lunch hour, it’s hard not to want to be healthy and live the simple-food life the McClain’s have so rightly offered within their colorful cottage.