I had one of those weird serendipity-like moments during my recent vacation to Florida. On the drive from Miami to Orlando, we pulled off the turnpike to do a loo break. We pulled up to Mickey D’s, only to find that the interior was being refurbed. So we wound up going to a place called Camille’s sidewalk cafe.

Now, there has been a Camille’s in my neighborhood for a couple of years now. But the place and the name made me think it was a Starbuck’s variant or like the cafes in Barnes and Noble, and since I don’t drink coffee (and don’t need sugary pastries), I never checked it out.

So here I was, a thousand miles from home, and I’m finally stopping in. Shocker…they have a really interesting menu!

According to their website, Camille is a real person, and she and her husband had the idea to go healthy at the mall:

Camille and David Rutkauskas were strolling through the mall one busy day and began thinking of a new concept…fresh food at the shopping mall. Among the throngs of hamburger and hot dog stands, pizza joints, and other greasy fast food offerings, Camille & David envisioned a cafe inside the mall that would be located away from the food court, away from their competitors. They decided to build a beautiful, and inviting oasis-a sidewalk cafe serving freshly made salads, gourmet wraps and sandwiches, fruit smoothies, desserts and coffees. Instead of having only greasy food choices, the public could now make healthier, tastier choices with more inspired offerings.

In addition to the wraps, paninis, and salads (pdf) for lunch and dinner, they also do healthier breakfast wraps. I like the Vegetarian Zenergy , which has a spinach tortilla, jasmine rice, scrambled eggs, fresh spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, chives, and sun-dried tomato pesto.

As Rachael Ray would say, yum-o!

Anyways, if you’re like me and have avoided Camille’s thinking there’s nothing there for you, consider stopping by (they have a locator you can use to see if there’s one near you). Encouraging healthier fast food is, to paraphrase Martha, “a good thing” :).