Veggie’s Take the Spotlight

Lila

Ryan Boeve doesn’t like labels. At Lila, his restaurant on Main Street, he’s forced to use terminology such as “vegetarian” and “vegan” because his diners demand it.

“Every one of our guests is very inquisitive. They have a lot of knowledge about food, and they want to know what’s in it or what’s not,” Boeve says. Although he’s been a practicing vegan himself for four years, he doesn’t wear the lifestyle like a badge.

“I think labels constrict you in a way. They make you stay in one little area instead of maybe branching out into other things,” he says. “I always say, if I were in France at a three-star Michelin restaurant, and they roll the cheese cart up to me, I’m digging in. I’m not gonna go, ‘Oh, I’m vegan. I can’t have that, I’m sorry.’ I’m here to live life.”

In 2016, Boeve created Lila as a veg-forward experiment, one that has only become more centered on plant-based cuisine over the years. Lila marked a departure from Pomona Bistro & Wine Bar, a favorite among local foodies, which Boeve molded in the traditional French image and ultimately closed to focus on Lila.

“The reason why Lila came into being was, I wanted to do more vegetables. I was starting to eat a little healthier at that time—or I should just say, more vegetables, not necessarily healthier. That can mean a lot of things,” Boeve says. “At Lila, I meant to do more vegetables and still feature a lot of meat. And it just turned more vegan because that’s who was coming in the door.”

Where a menu item like duck confit would have been all the rage at Pomona, at Lila the demand dwindled. But Boeve found that if he made his own vegan cheese for a tomato and “burrata” salad, he would sell out in a night.

“One day, I just said to myself, you know, I need to see how it is for my guests,” Boeve says. “So I’m going to try serving a menu that’s the opposite of another restaurant’s menu, where there are maybe one or two things that vegetarians or vegans can eat. When I want to stop, I’m going to stop. And I just haven’t wanted to stop.”

As far as Lila’s evolution goes, Boeve can’t talk about what’s changed over five years in business without glancing at a photo hanging up at the back of the restaurant. It shows Boeve standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Arthur Lopes, Boeve’s co-creator in three restaurants, including Lila. Cancer stole this beloved figure in Sarasota’s dining and hospitality scene one year ago this fall. His absence from Lila is felt in far more than the disappearance of breakfast or the bakery cabinet missing from the front window.

“You’re in each other’s lives every day when you’re in the restaurant business,” Boeve says. “We were like brothers, really. It’s hard to define the change or loss—I mean, it’s everything.”

Lopes’s raw chocolate tart remains on the dessert menu, which, as it turns out, is still prepared by family—specifically by Boeve’s 19-year-old son, Aaron.

“Restaurants are hard, and I never wanted my kids to be in the business,” Boeve says. “I always steered them away from the restaurant business, although they grew up around it and ran around in restaurants as little kids.” Exploring the family business today, Aaron not only carries on Lopes’s legacy with the dessert menu; he expresses his creativity and talent through Lila’s vegan sushi rolls, starring star ingredients such as hearts of palm and gourmet mushrooms in the place of raw fish.

Unlike her new sister restaurant, Lucile (see sidebar), Lila doesn’t have a human namesake. Boeve came across the concept of lila in literature.

“I read a lot of weird books, people would say, and in there they talk about ‘lila’ a lot. To simplify it, lila is the creativity that makes life like a play,” Boeve says. “In restaurants, when you come in and sit down, the first act starts with the appetizers and the drinks.”

But at Lila, the experience doesn’t end when the curtain closes on the last indulgent bite of dessert, the final swirl in the wineglass, the warm invitation to come again soon. Boeve is interested in a restaurant experience that follows you and transforms how you feel after the meal.

“I really don’t know what’s up with the popularity of plant-based stuff,” he admits. “Maybe when people come and try a place like Lila, they find out it’s not so bad. … I try to use the best products, so when customers walk out the door, they feel good. And if they feel good, then I see them back at Lila every week—two, three, four times a week.”

Lila: 1576 Main St, Sarasota, 941-296-1042; lilasrq.com

Lucile Pizza and Wine Bar:1660 Main Street, Sarasota, 941-330-0101, lucilesrq.com

Lila Has a New Little Sister …

… and Lucile’s favorite food is pizza. Boeve named his new plant-based pizza and wine bar after his mother’s mother, who endowed him with an adventurous culinary spirit. That would be a necessary ingredient in anyone who endeavors to open a restaurant amid the uncertainty of a pandemic. For Boeve, the timing was uncannily right, proven in how perfectly things fell into place for Lucile to launch.

Boeve had watched closely as a small building for sale, just a short walk up Main Street from Lila, went under contract.

“It was so funny because I happened to be in New York with my wife and my kids. We were going to eat at this vegan pizza place. I was in the car going into the city, and I got a call from the realtor to tell me the building was available. … I got back to town, put some things together, and the next thing you know I’m buying a building.”

Beautifully appointed in a clean, minimalist design with its blue-tiled oven the centerpiece, Lucile specializes in pizzas loaded with creamy cashew- and almond-based cheeses; “bacon” and “pepperoni” from mushroom and coconut; and hearty “sausage” crumbles and meatballs made of walnut. Meat lovers, never fear: Plenty of top-notch meat and dairy options exist for you to build your dream pie, too.

Who knows how many times a day Boeve hears the five words, I can’t believe it’s vegan, but he takes it as a compliment: “That’s the point!” he says.