Strong Hearts Café brings late-night vegan cuisine to the east side of downtown

By Nathan Turk

Pass through the lobby doors at 719 E. Genesee St., and then past the inner facade of the new Strong Hearts Café, and you're suddenly more at ease. It's not just the muted colors and aesthetically pleasing high-counter layout at work, but the menu: “milk”shakes, sandwiches, salads, sodas, waffles (even for dinner). The stuff of comfort, like Grandma's house.   

Vegan slingers: Joel Capolongo, left, and Nick Ryan, owners of Strong Hearts, have established a wee-hour haven for hungry vegetarians. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

But that extra little pang of newfound love is from the fact that all your dairy-free, organic-leaning, locally grown, ecologically packaged concerns are being met. The all-vegan menu's options generally aren't too bad for your body, like the café's name says. And the kicker? You could take your grandmother here.

"Our target audience is the average guy on the street, not hardcore vegans," says Joel Capolongo, who owns the café with Nick Ryan. "We wholeheartedly appreciate the support from that community but strive to appeal to people who may not even know what the word vegan means."

So far, it appears they're succeeding; try to find the dining area empty, ever. Near-constant business has earmarked their long daily hours, which stretch to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and begin at 8 a.m. weekdays. Just 11 days after their May 21 opening they’d sold 689 milkshakes, a blog at www.myspace.com/strongheartscafe reports. At the basic level, it’s hard to find a better option for fair-priced, honest, filling food, even if it’s breakfast at midnight. 

“One of things that Nick and I discussed when planning the business was to make sure we were open later so there would be a vegan option past 9 p.m. in Syracuse,” says Capolongo. “We didn’t want to make vegans go to Denny’s and get french fries any more simply because there were no other options in the later hours. We’ve done very good business past 9 p.m.; some Friday or Saturdays, we still have customers in the café near closing time.” 

And yes, vegan diets often preclude those midnight French toast cravings, as this reporter can attest—which may or may not explain the café’s breakfast-any-time-of-day option. Still, no “egg-trick” muffins (like Egg McMuffin, get it?) or tofu scrambles can be had from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday nights, when pizza takes over the regular menu. Convincing cheese alternative Teese and loads of veggie options await those who typically can’t or don’t partake in Acropolis or Nick’s Tomato Pie fare. 

The café, fittingly, is about halfway between downtown and the Syracuse University area; a small wooden foldout sign outside lets you know you’re there. The name Strong Hearts is both conscious marketing toward passers-by—a strong heart means a healthy heart!—and a nod to respected animal rights activist Rod Coronado, who self-published a periodical of the same name years ago. Coronado, explains Capolongo, co-opted the term from Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, who at the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn called for “strong hearts, brave hearts to the front!”