Raw Heavenly Delights at The Cider Press Café

In the heart of fashionable vintage shops and small art galleries, on a street filled with action and excitement,The Cider Press Café is the spot to receive sophisticated vegan cuisine.

After a blissful day at both the Dali Museum to see the huge Frida Kahlo exhibit and the Museum of the Fine Arts where renowned women artists Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun and Berthe Morisot have work, I took in the vibrant St. Petersburg downtown scene. Sites such as a view of the yachts and various boats sitting on majestic blue waters, the Chihuly Collection (which was closed), a hip record shop, and a string of retro boutiques were stops before entering the clean, relaxed atmosphere of The Cider Press Café. They have a vast variety of drinks, sandwiches feature well known vegan products such as Beyond Meat's Beast Burger, Field Roast Chao, and Tofurkey slices, and the dessert menu is stuff of sugar induced fantasies including a scrumptious sounding $10 sundae.

The décor is simple yet has a refined elegance, especially the ardor for crystal blue.

To start, I order the house pressed apple cider (alcohol free of course). They press apples every single day so it's fresh, new, and utterly delightful. In the background, the art is a poetic nod to Frida.

With my amazing drink, I had raw buffalo cauliflower bites served with crisp celery and tangy celery ranch sauce.

Dehydrator braised cauliflower has a delicate crunch and spicy pizzazz that one cannot resist. I can finally say that I've tried buffalo cauliflower and loved every bite.

On a bed of delicious greens (with some fancy stray heart shapes), the raw, gluten free lasagna comes out drenched in captivating beauty. Juicy, plump tomatoes and thin zucchini ribbons act as pasta buffers between layers of herbed cashew ricotta, sun dried tomato marinara, and basil walnut pesto sauce.

Close up of luxuriously seductive enticement that had my mouth watering way before my fork and knife dug in.

Genius idea to use tomatoes as the "pasta" alongside the zucchini ribbons. The chewy onion bread served as a tasty piece of heaven between lasagna bites.

Ah, the dessert menu, always my favorite part to the meal experience. The choice was hard.

The raw white chocolate lavender cheesecake topped with virgin chocolate sauce is by far one of the best vegan cheesecakes that I've ever devoured! Talk about beautiful presentation with leaving a pretty floral accent in the midst of the dreamily applied zig zag.

Cacao butter, coconut, and lavender are a few of the ingredients infusing this rich, sweet dessert atop of a crust that must be made from nuts and dates. The virgin chocolate sauce is satisfactory, nodding to the perfect chocolate taste without the milk additives we grew up indulging. That sauce was pure, unadulterated heaven. In all honesty, I wish that the café could ship me this cheesecake. Its tasted very special, so special that I took my time consuming, closing my eyes after each forkful.

An elegant end to a superb meal, to a wonderful time in sunny Florida.