Sure, you might think of Los Angeles as a mess of freeways, traffic and smog… an urban sprawl nightmare. And you’d be right. But along with our near-year round perfect weather (present incoming storm not withstanding), we Angelenos have a few other gems to boast of which help give us the fortitude necessary to stay here. One of those is Griffith Park, the largest urban park in North America. People who do not live here don’t realize that along with all the car chases and crazy city hustle & bustle, our humble metropolis is also home to this wonderful natural wilderness area right in our own backyard (well for some it’s actually their front yard).
Just off Los Feliz Blvd., turning north onto Fern Dell Drive sets you on your way to exploring the various trails the park has to offer, including the hike up the mountain that will take you straight up to the Griffith Park Observatory and it’s accompanying spectacular views of Hollywood and all the way out to the sea. But what’s a hike without some nourishment in your belly first?
That’s where The Trails Cafe comes in. The Trails is located in a converted old snack shack along the left side of the main road leading up the Observatory, almost directly across from the shady fern forest. The setting is really beautiful, situated in clearing among the trees. They’ve taken the concept of a snack shack and kicked it up a quite a few notches… instead of serving crappy junk food they serve freshly made baked goods such as fruit & savory pies, muffins and scones along with other stuff like avocado sandwiches, salads and chili. There’s also all the coffee drinks you might expect from a cafe such as lattes and espressos (though I didn’t check to see if soy milk was available, sure seems like it would be).
The big news as far as we’re all concerned here today is that they’ve got a few vegan specialty items on the menu which are great, and much higher quality than you’d ever expect to get from a shack in the woods.
What we’ve got here is the Vegan Pie, the vegan version of their savory meat pie, which if I remember correctly was made with mushrooms, tempeh and cashews, yummy spices and baked in a flakey vegan crust. This seemd to be slightly different from the vegan pie described on their menu, but it was really good all the same… I think they often come up with new stuff that’s not going to be listed on their permanent menu. It came with a dipping sauce which I think was also mushroom based. It was fantastic. One bite and I could tell that the person who made these really knows how to cook, this tasted like something created by a real pastry chef.
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