To Live and Eat in L.A.

A proper southern gentleman invited me to pick any restaurant in town that I’d always wanted to eat at. Ever since I’d learned about the special vegan tasting menu at XIV from quarrygirl.com, I’d been wanting to try it, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. XIV (pronounced Fourteen) is the brainchild of Chef Michael Mina, and it’s not a place you would expect vegans to be getting all excited about considering it’s a restaurant that serves all manner of animal bits & bobs, but this omnivorous upscale eatery hasn’t left animal loving foodies out in the cold. XIV has created not only a special vegetarian menu but also an entirely separate vegan menu.

Think about it, that’s kind of amazing. Here you’ve got this expensive, ultra snazzy restaurant catering to Hollywood’s lobster & foie gras eating elite, while at the same time making an all-out extraordinary effort to also please herbivores. Just a few years ago restaurants like this would have scoffed at vegans, now they’re vying for our attention and practically begging for our business. How far things have come!

For vegans, XIV offers a full menu complete with appetizers, salads, entrees and desserts. The way to really get the full experience however is to go for a multi-course tasting. You have the option of 8 courses (“A light Meal”), 11 courses (“Something More”), or the whopping 14 courses (“Fourteen from XIV”). I was expecting that we would go with the 8 courses but my generous host suggested we dare for the 11 courses instead. More food? Who am I to argue?

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, let’s get started!
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Vegan fast food… it’s a brilliant concept whose time has come. Veggie Grill nailed it with their flagship eateries located in Irvine and El Segundo. They offer food that is “Nutrient-rich, 100% plant based, and free of cholesterol, animal fat and trans fats”. Translation: Delicious vegan fast food that tastes like junk food but isn’t. Or at least, isn’t as bad as regular junk food.

The ony thing that’s sucked about Veggie Grill up until now is that for those of us in L.A. proper, El Segundo and Irvine (a city lucky enough to have two Veggie Grills!) are a heck of a schlep. In traffic, forget about it (and there’s always traffic). So, it is with much joy and great excitement that I bring you the news of Veggie Grill coming to Los Angeles… West Hollywood to be exact. Opening officially on Tuesday, September 29th at 11:00am, our brand spanking new Veggie Grill is located at 8000 Sunset Blvd. at the intersection of Crescent Heights & Laurel Canyon. That’s the big building where the Laemmle Sunset 5 theater is at, and where the Virgin Megastore used to be. Out with the old, in with the new! This is seriously great news folks. The food at Veggie Grill is awesome and their new location makes them a lot more accessible than ever before. Welcome to your new favorite indulgence.

I got my first Veggie Grill experience a while back at their Irvine Spectrum location. I’d heard so much good stuff about this place that I expected it might not live up to all the hype. Boy was I wrong. First I’ll tell you about my appetizers…

These are the Chill Out Wings: Bite sized chillin’ chickin’ with tangy BBQ sauce. The fake meats at Veggie Grill are “specially seasoned and marinated veggie protein” and that’s about all they’re telling. Sounds good to me, as long as it’s not made of animal bits I’m happy to eat it. These were super delicious tasting chicken fingers, just like I used to love eating at Denny’s back in the day. Along with the rad BBQ sauce they also gave me an equally rad ranch dip, but these were so tasty they were great on their own too. The texture and taste is incredibly realistic, even my bird-eating friend who I was dining with admitted he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between these “wings” and real chicken. Our feathered friends are very pleased with these new developments.
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[Update Nov. 5, 2009: Sadly SnackBar has closed and is no more. It's now been turned into a trendy burger bar. Puke]

I love it when places you wouldn’t expect to have anything vegetarian, not to mention vegan, end up having great vegan options. Such is the case with SnackBar, a cool bar in Hollywood tucked away off Cahuenga Blvd. inside Space 15 Twenty -a small yet cute & funky outdoor mall (consisting of a great bookstore and a few shockingly overpriced clothing & jewelry stores). Along with all their snazzy drinks, Snackbar also has a full menu of burgers, salads, sandwiches and snacky things, most of which involve meat and/or cheese, but for a number of pleasing exceptions…

Ah Sweet Potato Fries, a perennial favorite of mine. They use actual sweet potatos, the yellower variety, not the orange variety many call yams but which often show up as sweet potato fries -meaning, these aren’t super sweet. They were awesome however, very lightly salted, perfectly cripsy on the outside, soft and piping hot on the inside. They weren’t at all greasy and seemed more liked baked potato wedges than something that had come out of a fryer, but I can’t say for sure. On that note, I didn’t ask if there was a seperate fryer (I kind of doubt it), so if you need to know that, ask them first.
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I told you The Valley was rad. It just got that much radder with the opening of yet another all-vegan establishment, this time on the far west end of Woodland Hills. Juice Ladies, an organic, vegan sandwich/salad/juice & smoothie shop is located on Ventura Blvd., way out past Topanga Canyon, just off the 101 Schoup exit. Now everyone from Chatsworth to Canoga Park to Tarzana and into the no-mans land beyond has tasty & healthy vegan goodness practically right at their doorsteps.

The shop livens up an otherwise forgettable strip mall which is anchored by Starbucks (what strip mall isn’t?). They don’t have a lot of seating inside but there’s plenty of it outside under umbrellas. The foods they offer are a fresh and exciting alternative in this part of town where vegetarian & vegan options are few in between (aka, it’s a nice change of pace from Follow Your Heart). They offer a variety of excellent sounding salad and sandwich options, as well as a giant list of juices and smoothies, ranging from yummy berry, chocolate and coconut drinks to green drinks to some pretty hardcore immunity boosting drinks involving stuff like garlic and onions. Ewww!

Let us banish the thought of drinks with onions in them and move on to the stuff I did like…

First I tried the Nori Rollup, because how could I possibly not? Grated jicama, pine nuts, garlic, purple cabbage, red bell pepper, miso, hummus, nori sheet (I love garlic when not in the form of a drink). They use the jicama instead of rice… how clever is that? Not only clever, but also cool and delicious. The pine nut paste stuff was awesome and I scarfed these beauties down in no time flat.
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The San Fernando Valley is no longer the dreaded no-mans land that it used to be, and while those of us who live here in the SFV are used to the derision, snide remarks and upturned noses of those who live over the hill, the tables have begun turning as the Valley fills up with delicious restaurants that have both the east and westsiders hopping over the Cahuenga Pass or Laurel Canyon and pouring into our humble basin… the same folks who previously would have never dared venture into the realm of the (818) area code are now streaming in at record numbers in order to have some of what we’ve got. What’s bringing them here isn’t the oppressive heat or the medical marijuana dispensaries on every corner… no, it’s the excellent vegan food.

One such Valley treasure we’ve recently gained out here is SunPower Natural Cafe. SunPower serves up healthy organic vegan and mostly raw dishes, though a few of their items are cooked. They’re located on Cahuenga Blvd, right where Ventura Blvd. and Cahuenga do their little dance and turn into one. This makes it a prime location for serving not only most of the Valley but also anyone right up the street over in Hollywood and beyond. It’s also conveniently located right off the Lankershim Blvd. exit from the 101 freeway.

What I really like about SunPower is that they aren’t like most of the other raw places in town. Those restaurants either tend to be on the fancier side (Cru for example), too expensive and far away for my blood (the various places in Santa Monica), or to put it bluntly, not good (I’m talking to you Leaf Cuisine). SunPower is nothing like any of those- not only is the staff genuinely friendly (and vegan themselves) but the food is also bona fide delicious without being pretentious. I’ve had the pleasure of trying a number of items off of their menu and so far I’ve enjoyed everything.

Because I love all things barbecue, the BBQ Burger naturally seemed like the first thing for me to try. “Sunflower seed patty smothered in raw BBQ sauce. Topped with marinated onions, mushrooms, chopped lettuce and ranch dressing. Served on choice of bun”. For your bun options you can pick from a sprouted sesame bun, fluffy wheat bun or a raw green bun. I’m a bread loving kinda gal, so I went with wheat. Even though you can’t see it in the photo I also got some extra avocado added on. You also get a side so I went with the kale salad (you can see it with the salad pictured up at the top of this post).

This was really good. The sauce tasted sweet & savory at the same time while the patty was meaty and full of flavor. I didn’t taste like a bunch of mushed up sunflower seeds, it tasted like a hearty, healthy and action packed burger. And when I say healthy I don’t mean bland… both the patty and the sauce were very well seasoned and quite tasty. I could totally feed this to my meat-loving dad and I don’t think he’d complain that he was eating bird food.
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Just when you thought you’d heard the last of my birthday for the year, it resurfaces it’s jolly head with another tale of celebratory feasting. I somehow managed to stretch my birthday for all of May, and then a little into June. This time around I was privileged to enjoy a lovely afternoon brunch with the masterminds behind Quarrygirl.com at Inn of the Seventh Ray. You can read their own account of the adventure right over here.

Known as an upscale restaurant that attracts both hippies and new agers alike, Inn of the Seventh Ray is an enchanting break from the norm hidden away in the hills of the Santa Monica mountains, deep in the heart of Topanga Canyon. It lives up to the stereotype while winning you over with it’s charm at the same time.

Inn of the Seventh Ray isn’t a vegetarian restaurant, and they don’t offer too many vegan options on their regular menus; where they shine is with their Sunday vegetarian brunch buffet service. But first the setting.

The restaurant is both quaint and lavish at the same time. It’s set into the curve of a lovely creek, and if you’re lucky like we were, they might seat you right at the waters edge surround by the tranquil stream on one side and a waterfall grotto on the other. A grotto!

Regardless of where you sit, you’ll be surrounded by trees, white canopies and white table cloths- you’ll feel like you walked into some storybook village set somewhere out of time, but with attentive service. At night the place totally transforms with candlelight and white twinkly lights providing most of the illumination… it’s super romantic, the perfect place for those magical moments. I know I sound like a Hallmark card but trust me, this place is special.

Ok now the food. The all-you-can eat brunch buffet comes in a vegetarian version, and it ain’t cheap at $31 a pop. If your aim however is to indulge the hell out of yourself or impress the hell out of someone else, it’s money well spent. The vegetarian options are not all vegan but there is so much that is vegan that it’s not even a concern.
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Actually, my real birthday isn’t for another week (Sunday May 10th, Mothers Day) but my week long b-day celebration got off to an epic start yesterday.

My fellow Taurus girlfriends and I, VegYogini (May 5th) of Huggerfood and Trina (May 2) of Your Vegan Mom pooled our resources and put together a mega Taurus birthday bash which we dubbed The Taurus Trifecta. We staged it at the fabulously cool & creepy Old Zoo in Griffith Park, invited a few of our closest friends, and had it catered with vegan hot dogs by The Frankenstand and mindblowing cupcakes by Vegan Bake Sale.

A swell and delicious time was had by all… too bad you missed it!

The master of vegan hot dogs sets up his stand in the shadow of the old bear enclosure. Those “toe tags” pictured top left are the cute tickets he designed which were handed out to our guests to redeem for hot dogs.
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I’ve written before about my first visit to Cru, the mostly raw vegan restaurant in Silver Lake, and I’ve been back a number of times since because I was so impressed the first time around. I’m pleased to say they continue to impress with their delicious food, cozy atmosphere and friendly service. Rather than repeat myself telling you all about this place, I’ll refer you to my previous post to get you up to date. For now I’d like to share with you more of the good stuff they’ve been feeding me.

Here we’ve got one of my favorite appetizers served at Cru, the Pumpkin Seed Walnut Chorizo Sausage with avocado lime salad. One thing to note is that Cru also serves fully cooked dishes, it’s not all raw food, and this is one of them. Calling the side an “avocado lime salad” is a bit misleading. What it really is is diced avocado served with a slice of lime and a few sprigs of cilantro. I’m not really complaining here as I love avocado and it was ripe and delicious and went well with the chorizo wraps, but yeah, I was expecting something that was more like an actual salad and instead got an avocado that had just been scooped out of it’s skin (they should change the wording on the menu, this ain’t no salad!).
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