Embody
Looking for a lean lunch? Embody, a gourmet eatery for the fitness minded, not only serves up crisp salads (tossed or wrapped), but also juices and smoothies to boost your energy. For example, the All Green juice (kale, spinach, cucumber, romaine and celery, topped off with your choice of additions like fresh ginger or lemon), tastes earthy, fresh and healthy.
545 Riverside Ave., 203-557-4144
Craft Butchery
With a new home across from its former digs in Saugatuck center, this old-fashioned butcher shop with modern sensibility is enjoying more elbow room. What to do with the new space? Open a café. Come in for pasture-raised, organic and local meats, and stay for a delectable lunch or weekend brunch. The specials, like perfectly crisp cutlets of chicken topped with maple sriracha sauce and served on an onion roll, rotate weekly. Otherwise, you can’t beat such menu mainstays as the juicy dry-aged burger topped with an over-easy egg from local Speckled Rooster Farm. You’ll need a few napkins, but the mess is well worth it.
580 Riverside Ave, 203-226-6328
CM Gourmet Market
This impressive eatery, the offshoot of chocolate and coffee pick-me-up spot Cocoa Michelle, is a foodie’s dream. The market brims with freshly made pastas and sauces, local produce, domestic and imported cheeses and hot and cold prepared specials. But what’s your hurry? Pop in for breakfast or an early lunch in the adjoining café and try the croque madame. With maple-braised bacon, malted-ale mustard and a decadent brown-butter béchamel, you’ll feel transported to Paris.
580 Riverside Ave., 203-222-0070
The Whelk
Have you heard? The Whelk now offers lunch. No more waiting for dinner hour for mouthwatering seafood meals.
575 Riverside Ave., 203-557-0902