“Did someone order a Sweet Sadie?” asked our young waitress dressed in a pastel pink shirt adorned with the slogan, “Let’s all root for each other & watch each other bloom.” My six-year-old daughter nodded her head, her tiny fingers reaching for the intense chocolate milkshake. What she didn’t know: the drink, like the entire menu, is vegan.

Root & Bloom Cafe in the Elmwood Village neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y., opened in May, on Mother’s Day. Tucked at the back of a brick building between a barber parlor and an art gallery, it has a casual, hippie-ish vibe. Plants surround a wooden gazebo with a dining area that seats 50 during the warmer months; patrons place their orders at a counter.

A minimarket area was crammed with local products: hand-poured candles from Linwood Candle Co., coffee from Tipico, planters from Mainly Macrame and the cafe’s cultured cashew cheese spreads, cookie doughs and jackfruit jerky.

The plant-based menu is delicious and quirky. I ordered a giant roasted cauliflower floret smeared in a spicy Cajun rub accented with caramelized maple syrup, coconut sugar, a thick lemon cream drizzle and swaths of massaged kale. It was beautifully tender, the spices livening up the vegetable. The crunchy bed of corn nachos studded with a light but textured “quinoa meat” smothered in cashew cream and guacamole sounded ideal for a vegan version of a Super Bowl party.