For a little while there, Community Food & Juice was our go-to spot whenever we were up in the Morningside Heights / Columbia University area. With its comfortable, convivial room and a menu filled with simple dishes, made with fresh ingredients, consistently prepared with care, this uptown outpost of the great Clinton Street Baking Co. was the prefect mid-priced neighborhood place. Then came a fire, just a few months into its run, and Community Food & Juice NYC had to shut down for nearly half a year. Had it lost its momentum, its warmth, its talent in the kitchen? A return visit a couple of weeks back confirms: Community Food & Juice is every bit as good as we remembered, and remains one of our favorite restaurants north of 96th Street. 

We started our fine and varied feast in our usual location, the "Breads and Spreads" section of the menu, this time ordering the Sourdough (with free re-up!), with Artisanal Cheese, which turned out to be a crock of dense, oil-drizzled ricotta, and two hunks of cheddar. Sounds ordinary, perhaps, but this Community Food & Juice dish tasted great and for only $6 was definitely a solid shareable. Our fondly-remembered Lotus BBQ Chicken Wings seem to be no longer available, but the Baby Back Ribs were an excellent substitution, the meaty, chewy fivesome all spicy, sweet and sticky, well-paired with a bright pile of crispy cole slaw. 

The "Bowl O' Beets" was next, a satisfying take on that locavore restaurant standard, the heirloom beets sweet and tangy, balanced well with bitter greens, crunchy pistachios, an orange balsamic reduction, and a fluffy mound of whipped goat cheese. Finally we split the Community Food & Juice NYC Free Range Brick Chicken, which maybe was a tad dry in parts, but the skin was crackly and rich, the roasted vegetables firm and fresh, a mound of lemony rosemary couscous adding acid and comfort, all in a puddle of intense, natural jus. Good stuff, all of it. And apparently brunch is insanely popular at Community Food & Juice, which is no surprise, considering its menu shares many of the same items that people wait literally hours for down on Clinton Street. 

Community Food & Juice is located on Broadway between 112th and 113th Streets, just a few blocks down from the main gates of Barnard and Columbia. Community Food & Juice is open for breakfast, lunch, brunch, snacks, and dinner, on Mondays through Thursdays from 8:00 a.m. until 9:30 p.m., on Fridays and Saturdays until 10:00; Saturday and Sunday brunch is served from 9:00 until 3:30; dinner service starts everyday at 5:00 p.m. For more information and a look at the menu, please see the Community Food & Juice NYC website.