I grew up in a town called Hartland, about a half hour outside of Milwaukee, WI. It was a small town with not a whole lot of action. So, whenever my friends and I wanted to experience city life, we’d head to Milwaukee. In high school, my good friend Emily and I used to go to a little place called Fuel Cafe. We had a great time drinking caffeinated beverages, eating sandwiches, and reading the Onion.

Now, Emily lives in Boston and I live in Minneapolis, so we don’t get to hang out very often. Luckily, our parents still live in Hartland, so whenever the holidays roll around, we make a point of meeting up. To commemorate the occasion, I suggested we check out our old fave. So we headed to Fuel Cafe. Happily, we discovered Fuel is doing quite well these days, as they celebrate their 15th year in Riverwest. A quaint cafe with a lot of character, great coffee drinks, and even better food! They have several vegan options available. I had the most amazing VLT (vegan bacon, lettuce, tomato, and vegenaise) EVER!! Check out their menu here.

So, if you’re ever in Milwaukee, head to 818 E. Center Street. You’ll be glad you stopped by! Pop over any weekend for a bowl of their homemade vegan chili.

Can you believe this mouth-watering dessert is not only vegan, but RAW? And what does that mean? Oh yeah, it’s healthy! This is Ecopolitan’s Berry Parfait. It’s coconut date cream topped with seasonal berries, whipped frozen banana, pecans and raisins. It’s as cold and creamy as ice cream and the crunchy brown stuff underneath is like a graham-cracker crust. Yum yum.

Ecopolitan has a wide variety of dishes, all of which sound heavenly. And all incredibly good for you. You can’t lose. Even if the whole raw thing freaks you out and sounds horrible, you should check it out. You’ll be amazed by the orgasmic potential raw food can have when prepared by experts.

And if the food’s not tempting enough, they also have an infared sauna, oxygen bar, eco-art gallery, eco-shop, and eco-clinic. Find out more on their website: http://ecopolitan.com/ And it all takes place in a cute vintage house. We had a great time when we went and the wait staff was incredibly friendly. We showed up for a late dinner and the place was still hopping. My sister brought her baby along and they mashed up bananas for him (his first time trying bananas), which he absolutely loved!

Ecopolitan
2409 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55405
(612)-874-7336

Vietnamese Mock Beef and Three Cup Tofu

As you jaunt down to the basement where Evergreen resides, you may come to a halt and think…did I just walk into a cafeteria? Because as far as appearances go, this place is certainly lacking. The tables and chairs look like they were stolen from a high school, and the wall decor is something you might find in an assisted living establishment.

But there is good news! Don’t scurry back up those stairs just yet. Sit down. Browse the menu as they bring some water and hot tea to your table…nice!  What this place lacks in classy decor, it makes up for in amazing vegan dishes. Ever wanted to try mock fish? shrimp? duck? beef? chicken? I have never known a restaurant to carry more mock meats than Evergreen. And they’re good too! I ordered the Lemongrass Beef, my boyfriend ordered Sweet and Sour Chicken, and my mom ordered Cashew Chicken. All three dishes with their faux meats were amazing! Simply amazing. And they give generous portions, too. So I’m happy to say I have leftovers to nosh on. They have a wide array of items listed as “vegan” and items that are not vegan can easily be prepared as such upon request. And the food is very reasonably priced. They also offer soymilk and soy smoothies. You can check out their extensive menu on their website: http://www.evergreen-chinese.com/index.html. They specialize in Taiwanese, Cantonese and Hakka dishes.

Evergreen Chinese Restaurant
2424 Nicollet Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 871-6801

Galactic Pizza is a quaint little pizza place in Minneapolis. There are several quaint little pizza places in town, but this one is special because they serve vegan pizza. As in vegan cheese, vegan sausage and vegan pepperoni. So of course I hopped at the chance to check it out.

The style of the restaurant is kind of a mish-mash. We sat outside and were shielded by an umbrella made of fake hoola skirt grass. The service was very good and we ordered vegan garlic cheese bread. Super yummy, though, as with many cheeses, this cheese had some melting issues. We ordered a pizza of half vegan cheese, half vegan “old school”. The Old School contains tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sausage, button mushrooms, organic green peppers, and organic red onions. It was pretty good. Not amazing, and not bad. It wasn’t quite as delectable as Este Pizza‘s vegan cheese in Salt Lake, but it’s nice to know we have another vegan pizza place near by. The vegan sausage was pretty tasty. The vegan pepperoni was ok, but I don’t think I really liked pepperoni when I ate meat, 14 years ago. So perhaps I should try different toppings next time. Most of the pizzas they offer can be made vegan or vegetarian, which is great. And they have quite a few interesting options to choose from.

You can check out their menu here: http://www.galacticpizza.com/menu/

The website is kind of cooky, kind of funny. It’s the second restaurant in a row I’ve gone to which has a superhero theme on their site. The first was The Bad Waitress. This is also the first year I attended Comic-Con and I’m in the process of writing a comic book right now (don’t hold your breath). I’m just bombarded by superheroism these days.

Galactic Pizza
www.galacticpizza.com
2917 Lyndale Ave S
Uptown Minneapolis, MN

Side note on vegan cheese: we may not have to put up with the less than ideal vegan cheeses much longer. There is a company in Brooklyn called Dr. Cow creating some apparently heavenly gourmet vegan cheeses. You know, cheeses that come in a wheel instead of a plastic sleeve. And they’re raw! They use old methods of cheese making but use it for making nut cheeses like aged cashew. Apparently the few stores that sell these nut cheeses can’t keep them in stock! Hopefully they’ll be spreading their wings soon so we can all enjoy some gourmet nut cheeses. Wine and cheese parties, here we come! Read more about it in this month’s issue of VegNews.

Something about 50s style diners just makes my heart sing. I love the cozy retro atmosphere. I love the vintage posters. I love booth seating (with the exception of the leather seats), bar stools and the casual yet classic mid-century modern design. So when browsing through http://www.vegguide.org for a good vegan-friendly restaurants in Minneapolis, I was stoked to find The Bad Waitress.

The Bad Waitress was built in 2005, and pays tribute to the diners that once existed in Minneapolis. One reason it’s called the Bad Waitress, which my boyfriend and I realized 10 minutes after arrival, when no one came to take our order, is… well just that. No one comes to take your order (it is also a throwback to pulp fiction book titles and reminiscent of a time when “bad” meant “awesome”). So instead, there are pads of paper on your table. You fill out the ticket yourself and bring it up to the cash register. I like this method, because sometimes it takes me a long time to decide what I want and I have to make the waiter keep coming back. Other times I know exactly what I want and don’t feel like waiting for my order to be taken. So there you go. Also, me filling out the order and writing in caps and underlining VEGAN on the sheet makes it more likely that my order will be delivered sans animal parts.

Another plus, which my boyfriend was delighted by, is they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner all day. And, though the restaurant isn’t entirely vegan, they do have several options to choose from like the tempeh scramble, black bean burger, portabella mushroom sandwich, veggie chili, grilled tempeh reuben, farfalle pasta, ingredients for building your own pizza, add-ons like vegan sausage and tofu and more! And meals that come with cheese, you can just ask for no cheese. And note that if you order the American fries, these are actually seasoned potatoes and not French fries, which I think is lovely.

So if you’re in Minneapolis and you’re in the mood for some yummy vegan greasy spoonage and a quaint diner atmosphere, do see the Bad Waitress for a bad (awesome) time. I know I’ll be back!

The Bad Waitress Diner & Coffee Shop
http://www.thebadwaitress.com/
2 E. 26th St. Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 872-7575

I haven’t had really good thai food in a long time and was very excited to find Chiang Mai Thai, a fantastic thai restaurant close to where I live, that has some lovely veg options. And when it’s nice out, as it was on the day we went, it’s got outdoor seating. Just beware of “the elements” as my boyfriend had a bird poop right on his pant leg. Haha! One unique option this restaurant has is mock duck. I’ve never had real duck before but I thought the mock duck was quite good. I had it atop the thai basil stir fry which is mushrooms, onions, bell peppers and carrots sauteed in a savory mixture of Thai basil and spices with a side of steamed jasmine rice. I thought it was a little piece of heaven on a plate. They use fresh basil, which I looooove, and the stir fry tasted amazing. I also was delighted to find they serve Strongbow, which is a hard, dry cider I enjoyed very much while I lived in England and is still, to the best of my knowledge, a vegan cider.

Chiang Mai Thai
Calhoun Square
3001 Hennepin Ave. S
Minneapolis, MN 55408
Daily 11 AM- 1 AM
(612) 827-1606

There’s a lot to love about this award-winning Indian restaurant. For one, it’s in the beautiful city of Minneapolis. It’s a quaint little restaurant in an adorable house with a cute outdoor seating area. The food I got was some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had. They pride themselves on using local organic ingredients, and though the menu’s not entirely vegan, the meat they serve is free-range. There are plenty of vegan options. And not only that- they make vegan dining a breeze by putting a V next to all the VEGAN dishes. The service was excellent, and if you arrive during happy hour (3-6) drinks are buy one get one free and you can try out some of their delightful appetizers.

Namaste Cafe, 2512 Hennepin Ave S,
Minneapolis, MN 55405 Tel: 612 827 2496
HOURS: 11AM – 11PM (SMTW)
11AM – 12AM (TFS)

Salt Lake continues to impress me with it’s vegan options. My new discovery is an amazing pizza place in Sugarhouse: Este Pizzeria. They have multiple vegan pie options: Vegan Cheese, Vegan No Cheese (extra pizza sauce, mushrooms, yellow & red onions, green peppers, tomatoes, black olives, and oregano) and Vegan White (olive oil, garlic, oregano, vegan cheese, tomatoes and red onions). AND you can add vegan cheese to any other pie they offer. And that’s not all. Wednesdays they sell vegan pizza by the slice. Which works out perfectly for me since I have my pole dancing workout class right next door on Wednesday nights. And I’m sure it tastes even better after an intense workout.

My boyfriend and I checked it out recently and the Vegan Cheese Pizza was delicious (and also amazing cold the next day). We also ordered their Homemade Garlic Knots, which are also vegan, and were not huge fans. They weren’t as tasty as we’d hoped. Kind of bland. Perhaps it was just a bad batch. Regardless, I highly recommend you check this place out if you get the chance. Este Pizzeria 2100 S. Windsor St. (840 E.) Salt Lake City, UT. 801.485.3699

Lately, I’ve been getting pretty bored with the raw food I’ve been making. And the last several recipes I’ve made were not to my liking. I was starting to feel pretty down about raw food. But I had heard there was a raw restaurant nearby, and last night I finally made the trek over there. I am soooo glad I did.

Omar’s Living Cuisine, located in the Sugarhouse district at 2148 South Highland Dr. in Salt Lake City, has the appearance of a “natural” cafe. The unpainted wood furniture and natural colors throughout the restaurant are comforting. Our waitress was very sweet and very dedicated to the raw lifestyle. She said she wasn’t even vegan or vegetarian prior to going raw. She ate meat and dairy and thought she was fairly healthy until she went to a raw seminar and was blown away. It took her about 2 years of gradually incorporating raw food into her diet and now she maintains about a 97% raw lifestyle and says she drinks alcohol occasionally. She also said working at Omar’s helped her with her raw diet because she has learned so much about raw food and they have a constantly changing menu so she gets to try many new recipes. One customer asked her what she recommended (you could tell he was unfamiliar with the raw diet) and she said, honestly, I can’t recommend anything because I love it all.

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I was in San Francisco this weekend for a newspaper conference. I love visiting San Francisco because I know they’ll have some good vegan restaurants for me to check out. I ended up at a fabulous vegan restaurant called Golden Era located on 572 O’Farrell Street, which serves vegetarian and vegan, award-winning Vietnamese fare. Here’s the link: http://www.goldeneravegetarian.com/

One nice thing about this restaurant is you are given the option of having your meal prepared vegan or vegetarian. And the food is sooooo good. I went with one of my co-workers who had never had vegan “meat” before and he was blown away by how delicious it was. The service was good. And we showed up around 8:45 and they closed at 9, but they didn’t try to kick us out- we took our sweet time and they were quite generous. And it’s very reasonably priced.

So if you’re in SF, go check it out! You shan’t be disappointed.