Bliss Raw Café and Elixir Bar doesn’t exactly scream for attention.

It’s a little brown house located at Greenville Avenue and Park Lane, with few parking spots and six bar stools inside for customers. Yet, the little eatery is the only one of its kind in Dallas, with two more locations to open in the next several months.

Yoga practitioners and health nuts are regulars, stopping in for a quick pick-me-up of marine phytoplankton or a “superfood” elixir.

Skeptics who are reading this, heed my advice: Don’t knock it ’til you try it. Raw food restaurants are popping up all over the country, although this “eating clean” trend has spread most recently from California and has drifted south.

Those who regularly “eat clean” or partake in “raw foodism” consume foods that are not heated above a certain temperature, so that all the nutrients are retained in the ingredients. At Bliss, the only type of “cooking” that occurs in the open kitchen is a dehydration process with produce.

So why eat “raw?” According to Matt Porco, Bliss elixir bartender, the benefits include getting a week’s worth of nutrients, feeling fuller longer and keeping the body’s immune system elevated.

Porco, a vegetarian-turned-vegan-turned raw foodist, has been “eating clean” for three years; for him, raw is a lifestyle, not an eating habit.

“I opened myself to a world of new flavors,” Porco said of his decision to eat only raw food. “I feel grounded, centered, strong, flexible and I don’t even need to work out all the time.”

Just because all the food on the menu is healthy doesn’t mean it lacks in taste. There are no alfalfa sprout sandwiches or tofu dogs to be found at the soy-free, gluten-free, 99 percent organic restaurant.

“Everything is meant to taste good and be good for you,” Porco said of the menu items, which include pizzas, salads, noodle bowls and desserts created by a local pastry chef.

One of the most popular entrees, the tacos, features two homemade flax and corn tortillas piled high with a spicy sunflower seed-based meat substitute, lettuce, jalapenos, homemade guacamole and a creamy, dairy-free dressing. And they’re really good.

Although perhaps unintentional, much of the menu draws from Southwestern flavors, like the gazpacho, mole and corn chowder.

        The lasagna – or “Rawsagna” – is a healthy portion of alternating tomatoes and thin slices of zucchini, topped with a “ricotta cheese” made with pureed pine nuts.

“That ricotta is addicting,” Porco said.

Even more intriguing is the Elixir menu, which offers add-ins to its basic superfood drinks. “Superfood” is just a term for a fruit or vegetable with an obscene amount of nutritional value, like bee pollen and goji berries. Each add-in or shot has its purpose. Goji berries offer essential vitamins -amino acids and minerals – while bee pollen boosts the immune system. Marine phytoplankton is the superfood; one drop is complete with omega-3’s, amino acids and almost all the necessary nutrients for the human body.

I highly recommend the Minty-Help Elixir, which is a natural appetite suppressant and a glass full of mint chocolate deliciousness.

Those who are still skeptical of Bliss, take advice from owner Dee Pisarro. Asked if she was a raw foodie, Pisarro takes a sip of her vitamin B-12-infused water and replies, “Not in the least.”

But even this meat-eating restaurateur enjoys her food raw sometimes.

Bliss Raw Café and Elixir Bar is located at 6855 Greenville Ave., on the southwest corner of Park Lane. Its second location, at Northwest Highway and Forest Lane, is set to open tentatively Nov. 1, while the third McKinney Avenue location will open early 2010.