Food for thought: Itality features a plant-based menu with Pueblo favorites

At Itality, the menu is based on a way of life.

The offerings are plant-based and are not intended to be a substitute for a protein or a dairy product. The ingredients are what owner Tina Archuleta refers to as whole foods that come directly from the earth and have a long history with the southwest region.

“The concept is plant-based Pueblo food,” she explained. “And that is food that I grew up with, and I just wanted to do what I call ‘italize’ it, or veganize it, so that I could still enjoy the food I love.”

Archuleta devloped a menu based on traditional foods she loved in a plant-based way.

“I just wanted to provide culturally relevant food or a food option to community members, people in need,” she explained. “And so that’s what sparked this concept.”

The name for the restaurant was inspired by Ital, a plant-based diet and way of life that originated in Rastafari communes in Jamaica in the 1930s.

“Ital living is where my journey started as a plant based person,” Archuleta said. “When I was thinking of a name for my business, I wanted to pay reference to the Ital way of living that was already present in the community.”

Archuleta, who developed her business over 18 years, said she saw a shift in the plant-based movement about six years ago.

“I saw the movement kind of shift and I saw it kind of coming off as brand new, and it wasn’t so brand new to me,” she explained. “That’s kind of what sparked (Itality), as well as the concept of plant-based Pueblo food. Some people act like this is so out of this world to have a Native American plant-based restaurant, but in my mind, it’s not.”

Historically, Pueblo people were agriculturalists and connected to plant foods in the southwest region and in the Americas, Archuleta said.

“Native American people have been plant food cultivators,” she added. “I kind of wanted to pay reverence to all of that journey and not skip over it and act like it’s a brand new concept in that sense.”

Plant-based whole foods are the shining star of Itality’s menu.

“A lot of vegan restaurants, even in this area, are really focused on replacing meat, imitating meat, and that’s not what we do here,” Archuleta said. “It’s more whole food, plant-based, so we’re only utilizing whole food ingredients and making everything from scratch.”

Patrons seek out Itality for that purpose with many seeking out particular dishes and special features including its top seller, the Ital Indian Taco.

“It’s just a straight up Indian taco, but made plant-based,” Archuleta said. “We put our pumpkin cheese, which is our quote, unquote cheese, and we use a multigrain fry bread that we make here. It’s kind of a little spin on what an Indian taco is.”

Another top seller, is Itality’s fry bread special.

“People really love that,” Archuleta said. “That’s seasoned potatoes, zucchini, greens, black beans and seasoned tofu on top of that same multigrain fry bread. It comes with red or green chile and garlic sauce that we make here.”

The blue corn pepita waffles are also a patron favorite.

“It’s gluten free first of all,” Archuleta said. “We grind our own pumpkin seeds down to a flour, and then we incorporate that with blue corn, another flour blend, and then we top it off with some wojapi berry sauce and coconut whipped cream that we make in house as well.”

Trying to pin down the top requested items off the menu is not that simple. Patrons also frequently request the restaurant’s Lion’s Mane posole and the Lion’s Mane taquitos, which are a rotating special on the menu. The Lion’s Mane mushrooms are obtained from local grower, Midnight Disco Fungi.

“We shred (the Lion’s Mane mushroom) down, and we season it, roast it, and then we roll them in the corn tortillas, and just kind of serve that up with the pumpkin cheese, the energy sauce,” Archuleta said. “It comes with pico de gallo and guacamole. That’s a really popular special and people really like that.”