You won’t miss the meat at this eclectic eatery that’s been open in Columbus since 1969

Sometimes you don’t get what you want, and that can be a wonderful thing.

Maybe the mix-up happened as I tried to finish all the samples the smiling lady behind the cafeteria line at Country Life Natural Food Store and Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurant handed to me.

Maybe I thought I said I wanted the “phish sandwich” but in reality, the words that came from my lips were “veggie burger.” It happens, sometimes. It’s a new place, and I get flustered. Or maybe she misheard me.

I stopped thinking about the encounter once I took the first bite of the burger. Some things are just meant to happen.

You’d be hard-pressed to find another place like Country Life in Columbus. The natural food store and restaurant opened in 1969, and there’s not a bit of meat on its menu.

It was founded by physicians Calvin and Agatha Thrash who were searching for natural methods to help the sick. They left conventional medicine around the same time after becoming Seventh-Day Adventists. The denomination promotes a well-balanced vegetarian diet that avoids the consumption of meat.

It’s been at the Eberhart Avenue location since the 1970s. It sits in the shadow of the Aflac tower, and without the sign out front, it just looks like an elegant turn-of-the-century home. Walk through the front doors and pass the assortment of religious texts, essential oils, soaps, juices and organic lollipops and you’ll find the cafeteria.

Most of the people who work in the kitchen are volunteers who live at Uchee Pines Institute, a natural health and lifestyle center in rural Seale, Alabama. The institute was started by the Thrashes. Your cook or someone else serving you might be from another country. When we visited, the assistant cook was from Trinidad, said Richard Cecere, Country Life’s manager.

If you like soups, Country Life is the place to order them. The sweet potato and ginger is thick and sweet. It’s something that you could eat all day, and might be even better chilled. We didn’t make our way to the large salad bar. We’ll have to come back for that.

The chili was not spicy but it featured chunks of kidney beans and sweet, bright tomatoes with a taste that stayed on your tongue. I see why fellow Ledger-Enquirer reporter Mark Rice often gets the baked potato topped with chili.

L-E videographer Mike Haskey ordered the daily special — Jamaican red beans and rice with collard greens and a sweet potato. The rice and beans were sweet. The greens were seasoned but I, a meat-eater, missed the pork that often gives the dish a smoky flavor. The vegan cornbread was moist and crumbly — better even than traditional cornbread at some restaurants I’ve visited.

The veggie burger ordered by mistake was the surprise. I thought briefly of sending it back. But I was hungry, and I try to go with the flow most of the time. I’m glad I did. The patty itself was well-seasoned. It had a texture that could fool the most well-versed meat eater. The pickles were sliced thick and sweet, and those might have been my favorite thing on the burger.

Often I complain about mounds of brown lettuce on sandwiches or burgers at other places. At County Life, the lettuce was well-shredded and green. The tomato was fresh, juicy and sweet. Even the bun, made from a thick multi-grain, was pleasing. It was a burger that I could eat over and over again — better than a handful of beef counterparts I’ve eaten over the years.

Still, I guess I’ll have to come back to try that elusive phish sandwich.