vegansaurus!

Pause Wine Bar in Hayes Valley: Vegan desserts galore (ish)!  »

So, Pause in Hayes Valley officially opened yesterday, Feb. 2, and it’s looking miiiiighty fine! Now, you might be asking, what does some snob wine bar have to do with you, dear vegan? Well, the desserts are provided by none other than Sarah Smart of Rocket Ship Ice Cream! We looooooove this stuff, it is so g.d. delicious, truly outstanding dessert deliciousness. 

Anyway, Pause is the sister wine/food bar to Dog Patch’s Yield (GET IT?) (snark aside, this is a delightful place for vegan lushes!) and is also owned by Millennium’s wine director, Chris Tavelli—so, uh, this dude should know from vegan options. In fact, there appear to be quite a few on their short menu. I reallllllly hope we can get that dessert sampler platter veganized! It looks hopeful, as Sarah says:

Be sure to stop by for poppyseed vegan donut holes and lemon marmalade…butterscotch and chocolate ice cream terrine from Rocket Ship Ice Cream or assorted cookies and truffles. 

Um, YUM. I will be sure to stop by. Thank you, Sarah!

[Photo from Eater SF]

Guest review: Sage’s Cafe in Salt Lake City!  »

OK, more like a guest review-by-text. My dad, who is a very nice person who introduced me to kimchi and cooking without recipes, spent two nights in Salt Lake City recently, and because he is a very nice person, he agreed to eat a vegan dinner and take photos, just for Vegansaurus! I would’ve asked you readers for recommendations if there’d been more time; instead we did this last-minute style and asked Google, which said: “Sage’s Cafe.” So there my dad went, and these are his results!

Tuesday was all-you-can-eat vegan pizza night (OMG WHERE IS THAT HERE, BAY AREA? WHERE?) but my dad opted for a French onion soup, and basil pesto pasta with walnuts, because he is a man with self-control? He didn’t really provide an explanation, but one of his dining neighbors offered him a taste of her pizza (woo woo!) and he said it was “good.” But, let’s get to the food he did eat. First, the soup:

He says it “was delicious!”

Main course: basil pesto pasta!

I can’t comment on the quality of the food, except to say that vegan French onion soup sounds delightful and I wish I had some right now. My dad says that the food was “excellent,” and the service “efficient and friendly.” If he happens to be in SLC on the next all-you-can-eat vegan pizza night, that’d be his choice, as there were “many different pizza choices.” Pithy! Also via text message!

[Thanks to Meave’s dad for the photos, and for making this review happen!]

Get on it: Underground restaurant Lazy Bear does vegan!   »

San Francisco’s Lazy Bear underground restaurant usually serves omni-fare, but they also love us veggies, so this Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 22 and 23, the dinners are all vegetarian and vegan upon request! If you’re missing Brassica Supper Club, this might be the most suitable replacement yet. For more details, like their secret Mission location and making dinner reservation, go here. So secretive!

That’s a photo of a test recipe for this weekend’s dinners: It’s charred carrots with carrot glaze, kalamata olive purée, melted fennel, and chicories fresh and powdered, so you know they’re gonna get fancy on your asses. 

Vegansaurus NYC: Counter!  »

Counter kind of rules—75 percent of my meal was off the hook! It’s just vegetarian but most of the items on the menu are vegan. They have “snacks” where you can get any three for $15—I love that sort of thing, small bites and whatnot. We got the white bean hummus, cornmeal-pepita-crusted kabocha and the roasted butternut and broccoli raab crostini. The crostini was very good but the kabocha was AWESOME. The hummus: meh. It had a bit of a fennel taste and I mother-loving HATE anything that tastes like licorice. Licorice can die in a fire for all I care! Yeah, I said it.

I got the soup of the day, a white bean soup, and it was pretty good but nothing special; the side of brussels sprouts, though, goddamn they were good. I love brussels sprouts! They were the beets of 2006 and I’m still on that groove train. The 25 percent of my meal that I didn’t like was the brown rice salad. It was really hard, the kabocha in it was kind of tough, and the brown rice was minimally cooked. That was a downer, but the rest of the meal was great.

My waitress kind of blew. She was nice enough but she just wasn’t around even though the place wasn’t even a third full. It’s not a big deal; I just could have gotten several more glasses of organic wine, if she’d given me the opportunity! We wanted to get dessert too but she took so long to come over to us that we lost interest in it. I showed her! I only tipped her 15 percent instead of my standard 20!* I think she got the message.

I would definitely recommend this place for drinks and tapas (“tapa” is foodie for “appetizer”!). They have an impressive drink menu and wine list—and you know I like to get my drink on!

*Philadelphians are the nations best tippers!

[Sorry for the generic picture from Counter’s website but I couldn’t get any food shots! Damn mood lighting! Man, I need to get out for brunch more instead of dinner. But, alas, I like the nightlife!]

Pizza Plaza in Oakland has TEESE! And they DELIVER! They’re just not very GOOD!  »

They deliver to you in Oakland, SUCKAS! Well, actually, that might make me the sucker because Pizza Plaza pizza is just not that good. Dry crust, hardly any toppings: it’s a void of deliciousness. My last order was over a month ago (before they got Teese) and it was basically inedible, and I don’t use that term lightly because I’ll eat some questionable shit and I’ll like it.

The thing is, I WANT to support them. They’re local, they’re all vegetarian with tons of vegan selections, they’re super nice, they DELIVER, they have the new Teese which melts and stretches and is DELICIOUS and yet, their pizza gives me the sads. I cry pepperoni tears, much like this pizza below MADE BY A PROFESSIONAL ARTIST:

Seriously, the last time I got the garlic bread and it was so dry, I almost choked on it. HAZEL DIDN’T EVEN WANT IT. This dog eats feces, mmmkay?* Anyway, maybe it’s gotten better with the addition of Teese? Who is brave enough to order and let us know!? Will it be you? And maybe, just maybe, someone out there is an expert pizzaiola/o and wants to work with Pizza Plaza to create a superior product? IS THAT YOU? Because I love them and I want them to be the amazing best pizza in the land. I know it can happen. Let’s do this, vegans.

*ALLEGEDLY.