As the Midwest and East Coast hunkered down for a late spring snowmageddon, we basked in the warm evening sun on the patio of Amy’s Drive Through in Rohnert Park. For this lifelong vegetarian, it was a dream come true.

Jim and I heard about the solar-powered, organic food drive thru restaurant a few years ago and finally had the chance to experience it for ourselves. A quick glance around and it looks like any other fast food outlet. But get in closer and you’ll see this roadside restaurant is serving up quite the opposite.

From the grassy rooftop to the electric car charging stations in the parking lot, to the diverse crowd inside, Amy’s Drive Through is everything you’d expect from the national leader in healthy frozen meals. 

The minute we walked through the doors I wore a big silly grin as I scanned the joint and looked around at the hungry patrons. More polished and fit than I’m used to seeing in America’s fast food establishments, Amy’s customers actually looked like they cared about what they put in their bodies.

Love it or not, fast food is a way of life in America. But it seems to me like Amy’s success and expansion plans reflect a better future for meals on the run. 

The gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan (your choice!) menu is affordable, uncomplicated and simple. Choose from burgers, fries, chili, mac and cheese or good looking salads, along with a healthy assortment of fountain drinks and non-dairy milkshakes. Cheerful, articulate and well-paid team members field endless questions from veganazi customers like me, and serve up the impossible: healthy, non-greasy, guilt-free grub that satisfies. 

My only complaint about Amy’s was that I couldn’t find nutrition information anywhere, not even on the Amy’s Drive Thru website. Many vegetarian foods are loaded with sodium and I do my best to avoid it, so knowing if my vegan mac and cheese was a sodium bomb would have been nice. I still would have eaten there, but I would have made better plans for my daily sodium intake.

Other than that oversight, our long-awaited trip to Amy’s Drive Through was everything I hoped for. It was so much more than the typical Super Size Me fast food experience! Amy’s is dishing hope for a better future for animals and people alike. Judging by the number of customers packed into the restaurant on a Friday night, it also gives me hope for a world filled with more people than ever who understand the health, environmental and spiritual consequences of consuming animal products.

After we left I thought about how funny it is that you can roam the planet looking for something better than what you’ve got, only to find that some of what you love most is right in your back yard. In 2007 we left the state seeking something better than what we had. And while aren’t fans of California’s crowded RV parks, potholed roads and horrific traffic, so many things about this forward-thinking state remain Golden in our eyes. Amy’s is definitely one of them.