Cafe Viva Pizza

On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, there is an out-of-the-ordinary pizza parlor called Cafe Viva Pizza. It serves kosher, mostly organic, natural vegetarian food with many vegan choices. The pizza crusts are made with whole grain flours, with a choice of spelt flour, corn or whole wheat. You can also get gluten-free pastas. We sampled three pieces of pizza. Clockwise from top: Zen, Carozza, and Santa Rosa. The Zen is vegan with green tea enhanced spelt crust topped with green tea miso tofu, green tea basil pesto, shitakes and maitake mushrooms, red onions, sundried tomatoes and roasted garlic. The Carozza also has spelt crust and is topped with mozzarella, tomatoes, spinach, and Kalamata olives. The Santa Rosa is vegan and has whole wheat crust and is topped with sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, roasted garlic, olives, tofu marinated in miso and soy cheese. We are disappointed that we didn't try one with a corn crust. But, we were way too full. In any event, we were certainly happy with what we ate.