Next time you're downtown at lunch and seeking something quick and healthy, try Cafe Options. The small breakfast-and-lunch cafe is operated by Work Options for Women, an organization that gives impoverished women the training and skills necessary to succeed in the food service industry.

Cafe Options' menu transcends typical soup, salad, and sandwich fare and offers such dishes as tabbouleh, Cuban pork sandwiches, and, my current favorite, the green papaya salad (pictured). The salad—order a small—comes with a generous helping of crisp romaine topped with succulent pulled pork, crunchy strips of green papaya, carrots, peanuts, and cucumbers, all tossed in a light, perfect-for-spring basil-and-cilantro vinaigrette. Best of all: One hundred percent of the proceeds from the cafe go to the nonprofit.

News: The Work Options for Women recently began offering cooking classes with Denver chefs, and Women Cook!, the organization's annual fundraiser featuring Denver's best female chefs, is scheduled for May 7.

1650 Curtis St., 303-573-0733