vegansaurus!

Nevermind Eggs, Throw an Easter Beer Hunt!  »

I don’t usually celebrate Easter, but this brilliant idea has me pondering a party. It’s apparently a THING in Europe: Sending your buddies all over the yard/park/house in search of pastel-painted delicious adult beverages. Not only is this much more vegan-friendly than hiding eggs (assuming you pick your beers well; barnivore.com), it’s also SO MUCH TASTIER. Beer, people! On a Sunday morning! With pastels!

You can get fancy and invent rules, winners, blind taste-tests, etc. Or you can be lazy and just hide cans of PBR in your roommate’s bathrobe. Whatever you do, tell us about it! Get the full scoop on Food Republic.

Photo by Shawn Allen on flickr.com

Tonight: Vegan happy hour at Source in San Francisco!  »

The rumors are true—Source now carries organic, GMO-free wines and beers!

To celebrate, we’re hosting our own vegan beer and food fest on our patio, from 4 to 6:30 tonight, Wednesday, March 27. We’ll be serving all-you-can-drink beer and house wines, as well as some tasty bites including mac n’cheese, chocolate stout cake, salads, and bruschetta.

It costs $25, but if you picked up a Source pin on our anniversary, we’ll take $5 off. What a steal, right? Small bites, dessert, AND drinks for $20-$25? This shindig is my little brainchild, and if it’s a success, I’ll get the green light to keep it up, which I’d like to do probably once a month!

Let’s party, vegans—and be sure to bring your omni/vegetarian friends. What better way to show them the thrills of veganism than with cake and beer? 

Source is located at 11 Division St. in San Francisco. Call us for more details at 864-9000. See you tonight!

Olde Depot Public House is open/awesome in Oakland!  »

As Laura informed us way back in August of last year, one of the owners of Oakland’s venerable Beer Revolution (aka “the place where all the beer lives”) planned to open a new place directly next store called Olde Depot Public House, with yet more beer and what Laura charmingly called “a veg eatery.” Slated to open in early fall 2012, many of us waited and waited and, upon inquiring, were invariably told that it would probably be open “next Saturday” … a day that, sadly, never seemed to arrive.

I’m pleased to report that next Saturday is officially here.

I don’t know when Rebecca and the Beer Revolution crew formally opened the doors of Olde Depot Public House, but I noticed as I walked by during lunch and popped my head in. Obviously, I returned after work to grab a beer and see what’s up with veganism’s slow, steady takeover of 3rd Street. Here’s what I learned.

First off, Olde Depot has lots of beer and another sweet, dog-friendly patio, which is positive news for fans of beer and dogs.

The menu, which will be expanding, includes salted traditional pretzels that come with mustard and are delicious. (They seemed the go-to order out on the patio. Also, they brought me an extra one by accident, so that was a bonus.) There’s perogi filled with caramelized onion and potato in a mushroom sauce. I didn’t get this the first time I stopped by, because I am an idiot, apparently, but I split an order with a friend today and they were pretty stellar. Given that they were fairly crisp, they actually seemed more in the samosa/empanada arm of the Bread Filled Savory Stuff family, but really good all the same.  

The focus is on the sausages, which are all made in-house and come with two of the different toppings, from grilled onions to fennel and dill kraut: options are Apple Sage Onion, Cherry Rosemary Herbed, “Currywurst (with curry Catsup),” and Rauch sausage. I went for the Cherry Rosemary Herbed Sausage with grilled onions and sweet peppers, and tried both the Rauch and Currywurst. All were delicious, though I think I liked the curry one the best, because it’s a sausage with curry on it.

There’s also pommes frites with a bunch of dipping options and what is described as a “daily European potato salad (rotating countries).” Today’s was Ukranian! Plus a tuna salad sandwich as a special.

It is all very exciting. I’m told you can also text your order from the Beer Rev patio and they’ll bring it to you, where presumably you already were drinking an Imperial Stout in the sun, because you are awesome.

Rick Kelley spends his days at an Oakland workers’ rights nonprofit and his evenings probably playing moderately accurate renditions of Propagandhi songs with his awesome partner and their rescued pups, Bandit and Emma. He’s currently active in organizing for an Oakland urban agriculture proposal that does not include animal exploitation, and both writes and serves on the advisory board for the Food Empowerment Project. He used to blog, and might do so again someday.

Guest post: Let’s crawl together with L.A. Beer Hop!  »

Pub-crawling reeks of being 21 and not having to care about waking up on time and decisions you’ll regret early the next morning. But as real adulthood rears its ugly head, pub crawls are actually great ways to spend a night out with friends, if you pick the perfect “pubs” to “crawl” to. Well it seems LA Beer Hop was created with such nights in mind.

The places worth heading to in Los Angeles aren’t close enough together to warrant a good “crawl.” But now, for just a $5 ticket, you can be whisked away by shuttle to three of the L.A. area’s newest and best beer-and-bar-food joints. The Pub at Golden Road Brewing, Tony’s Darts Away, and Mohawk Bend make up the trifecta of destinations that LA Beer Hop will shuttle you to-and-fro every Wednesday in November. Take a peep at the tour schedule and reserve your tickets ASAP, because they’re sure to sell out.

Not only do each of these places have vast collections of tasty microbrews to sip on, they each have a cornucopia of vegan eats that’ll make your non-vegan friends say “I WANT THAT!” Tony’s Darts Away has gourmet vegan hot dogs, Mohawk Bend has vegan pizzas and buffalo cauliflower, and the Pub at Golden Road Brewing has ginormous vegan pretzels and fried avocado sammies, just to name a few!

Vegan-friendly bar-hopping, and no one has to worry about parking or driving for just $5? Oh L.A., sometimes you complete me. Who’s coming with me?!

Andrew E. Irons is a blogger from Long Beach, Calif. He co-created and contributes to Rhode Island-based hip-hop website The Echo Chamber Blog under the pseudonym Verbal Spacey. You can track his daily diatribes by following him on Twitter.

[photo by arvind grover via Flickr]

Vegan MoFo: It’s fall, drink yourself some Hefeweizen!  »

Yes, Oktoberfest is a September celebration, but here in Northern California we’re still getting warm days with our rapidly cooling nights. This, I feel, is the perfect time to drink beer. Something bright and crisp, like the fall air, but with enough body (ugh) to make you feel full. Friends, Hefeweizen is that beer. It’s German! It’s fruity! It’s unfiltered and beautiful!

My top vegan German picks are:

Paulaner

Franziskaner

And Weihenstephaner!

Because these beers are all made in the traditional German method, they are totally vegan. The only problem I found, thanks to Barnivore, is that Paulaner uses casein in the glue on its bottle labels, which, what? Solution: Buy it in cans, or drink it on tap.

If you want something local in the Hefeweizen style, I highly recommend Sierra Nevada’s Kellerweis. It’s so light and delicately citrusy!
 

The funny glasses are designed specifically for Hefeweizen beers, and I love them. You can’t really use them for anything else, so having them is like really committing to having a beer. Plus I love the fizzy head; you get a big whiff of yeast (“Hefe” means “yeast” in German) and spice and fruit, and then you have to wait a little bit to drink it.

Hefeweizen! It’s the beer for autumnal vegan drinking.

[Photos, from top, by Feeder Wang, Bernt Rostad, and edwin, via Flickr]

Eating vegan at chain restaurants: BJ’s Brewhouse has vegan options! Vegan pizza options!  »

I love hanging out with my family and getting away from the city for a few days. The only bummer can be going out to eat with everyone, as I usually end up getting a side of vegetables and a salad with half the ingredients taken out (cheese). I’ve made my peace with the Cheesecake Factory, but that is not the place to go every time I’m visiting. I mean, you gotta wait at least, AT LEAST, a half-hour to get a table, and it’s kinda fancy. What about casual? I just want to eat lunch with my mom somewhere, where we’ll both enjoy our food. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

No it is not! BJ’s Brewhouse just opened up near my parents’ house and guess what? They have a few vegan options! Not only vegan, but some gluten-free options too! Plus tons of beer, including a gluten-free one (shudder), and delicious cocktails (I’m thinking of you, margarita). When my mom mentioned BJ’s for lunch, I figured I’d be eating a salad, yandet took to the internet to see what the vegan word was. You know what? QUARRYGIRL LOVES BJ’S BREWHOUSE.

Now, I do too! When Quarrygirl said BJ’s pizza was one of her all-time faves, I was excited, but skeptical. Silly me. That Quarrygirl knows her pizza! It is pretty epic stuff. 

I got their Portobello Mushroom pizza, with caramelized onions, balsamic vinegar, oven-roasted mushrooms, and fresh herbs. I just left off the cheese, obviously! They let me get my pizza on a gluten-free crust instead of deep dish, too. I’m one of those people who tells themselves gluten-free is healthier for me, because I love lying to myself! The gluten-free crust was spectacular, by far the best I’ve ever had. It was light and flaky, with herbs baked into it. As for the toppings—taste party! They were the perfect balance of sweet and savory! I saved half my pizza, just so I could enjoy it when my mom and I got back home too. I told her I want to go to BJ’s every time I come visit!

Oh, Portobello mushroom pizza, I wish I could eat you again today (accompanied by another refreshing Piranha pale ale).

Drink all the tasty beer in Oakland TONIGHT!   »

SF Bay Area! Go to this beer drinking event TONIGHT in Oakland!$18 gets you a custom sandblasted, bottomless tasting glass (!!!) to sample over 25 beers. All beers are produced by local homebrewers, spanning a wide range of styles and brewing techniques. It’s not specifically vegan event but these beers are from small brewers so the fuck are they gonna get dried fish bladders?!?! Still, you might want to ask in a non-obnoxious way to raise awareness and make sure you’re not drinking fish butts.

There’s gonna be food for purchase from Spice Money, who looks rad because they’re all about building community via fresh eats, but also kinda stupid, because their vegan options look like they might be pretty weak, but what do I know?* There will also be DJs, do with that information what you will.

If you want to go, you gotta RSVP and you gotta be 21 years old because IT’S THE LAW, SON.

*but you’re in downtown Oakland and so there are mad delicious vegan places to eat! Go on a food crawl before the 8pm start time and then make it your job to get drunk even though you ate hella food already. VALUE, FOOL.

Restaurant review: the Handlebar in Chicago!  »

I’m going to Chicago next week and I couldn’t be more excited! I’m exhausted and the daily grind is killing me. It’s time for a break in lovely, humid Chicago! Instead of Muni, there will be CTA! Instead of AT&T Park, there will be Wrigley Field! Instead of Bottom of the Hill, there will be The Hideout! Instead of freezing Ocean Beach, there will be the Michigan Lakefront! Next Friday cannot come soon enough and though there are many things I am looking forward to, going to The Handlebar is at the top of my list. I love that place so much.

The Handlebar is a hip little restaurant, located in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. When I say hip, I mean it’s usually swarmed with bike messengers and hipsters, but that is okay with me, because they are quite an attractive demographic of people. I do enjoy eating with both my eyes and taste buds. Don’t let me forget the fetching* waitstaff, with their creative haircuts and tattoo sleeves. Speaking of waitstaff, I’m just gonna gloss over this part as best as possible—don’t go to The Handlebar if you are in a rush. Enjoy yourself. Bring something to read if you are alone; there may be a little wait between those pints or coffee refills.

Tattooed servers, bike messengers, hipsters and vegan food, I’m COMING. I can’t wait! In the meantime, let’s you and I look at pictures from my recent trip in January. Fun. (Please forgive the incredibly bright flash, the lighting was just atrocious—oh, those dark winter nights.)

Hush puppies with tartar sauce. Yes it’s vegan! Unbelievable!

Samosas with tamarind chutney.


This is the Buffalo “Chicken” Wrap with collard greens, and the only dish I ever order. I am a creature of habit. I just want it all the time. You understand, right? It’s spicy and creamy—it’s bliss. The wrap my dreams are made of.

The Handlebar has a smallish menu, with many vegan options. Everything they do is done to perfection. This is going to sound totally crazy, and I know it, but they make the most delicious samosas I’ve ever had. Is that blasphemy, considering it’s not an Indian food joint? Anyway, the chutney that comes with them—SUPERB. Their seitan? So tender and scrumptious. Their beer selection? Awesome and varied. When I was missing Humboldt, I needed to look no further than The Handlebar, as they have Lost Coast Brewery beers on tap.

Handlebar, I love you, I miss you, and I cannot wait for us to be reunited.

*Daaaang, have you been working out? You look really great. Doing anything this weekend?