Vegetarian food is more than just salads and tofu at Tasty Harmony in Fort Collins.

Tasty Harmony has added organic wine and local beer to its vegetarian menu. The Fort Collins restaurant opened in February with an ambitious lineup that should give other meatless eateries in Denver and Boulder a run for their tofu.

Tasty Harmony delivers complex, savory soups, salads, sandwiches and entrees that satisfy without the use of any animal fats. Even though his kitchen is meat- and dairy-free, chef/owner Sacha Steinhauser doesn’t necessarily want to be known as “that vegan place.”

“My whole philosophy is, ‘This is just a restaurant.’ It just doesn’t serve meat. You don’t have to be a vegetarian to eat vegetables anyway,” says Steinhauser, who cooked his way around Southern California’s vegetarian restaurants for 10 years, all the while looking for the right location for his own place.

Meanwhile, the northern Colorado food scene was beginning to coalesce around local farmers, ranchers, cheesemakers, breweries and markets.

“We moved here to open this restaurant,” says Steinhauser. “I liked that Old Town was still the center. It’s a mix. You have your cowboys, your hippies, students and professionals.”

On a recent weeknight, that diverse crowd filled the restaurant, which occupies an Old Town building repainted eggplant, olive and saffron inside. Alissa Nash and Jenna Davis (below, from left) ordered tacos filled with tempeh (soy protein) and jackfruit ($12), a starchy Southeast Asian fruit that tastes a little like artichoke.

Actual artichoke, blended with tofu and seasoned with dill, makes a zesty spread so good we made a special trip back just for the Artichoke Dillite sandwich ($9.75).

The Heart of Provence ($12.50) combines grilled polenta cakes (crispy on the outside, creamy in the middle) and tempeh triangles, made crackly with a cornmeal and almond crust with an intense tomato sauce and tossed greens.

The restaurant also features a daily raw special, an extensive tea list, house-made desserts and “whole-meal” smoothies.

– TASTY HARMONY –

Vegetarian. 130 S. Mason St., Fort Collins, 970-689-3234. Open 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

– Kristen Browning-Blas