Awesome downtown L.A. restaurant article - veg dining proliferates in the city of angels!

LA Downtown News Online

What a great read. Choice quotes:

Del Pero stumbled upon the growing market for meatless meals while managing his other restaurant, Skews, just a few dozen feet away from Mendocino Farms in Cal Plaza. Customers with conscientious eating habits started making requests, Del Pero said, and he realized there was a niche for more than just a default vegetarian item.

"Most restaurants that don't really take the time are typically just going to come up with a vegetarian sandwich that has hummus, avocado and sprouts," said Del Pero.

At Mendocino Farms, Del Pero and chef Connor O'Neill embarked on a soy safari by sampling nearly 50 veggie-based proteins, sending each and every faux meat, fake cheese and egg-less condiment through a panel of vegan regulars.

Now the menu at Mendocino Farms has an entire section of vegetarian offerings, all of which can be prepared vegan or dairy-free, including standards like the Caprese and the Not BLT with vegetarian bacon. There are also more adventurous inventions like a Southwestern Chickenless sandwich that replaces chicken breast with an herbed soy cutlet topped with pico de gallo, avocado, vegan nacho cheese and chili veganaise.

"Why do you do it? It's business," said Del Pero. "I think very few major concepts with a wide appeal have actually treated that market with the respect it deserves, because it's a real emerging market."

It's a trend that isn't just local.

A recent survey by SmartBrief, a trade publication put out by the National Restaurant Association, asked business owners to rate a variety of menu categories. The report found that vegetarian menu items increased in popularity by 33% among customers in 2005 - more popular than both low-carb and low-calorie menu items.

According to a 2006 industry forecast published by the National Restaurant Association, 33% of family dining, 34% of casual dining and 39% of fine dining restaurant operators say their customers are ordering more vegetarian dishes than they did two years ago.

"When I first went to design this menu I actually wanted it to be more vegetarian and more vegan," said Fred Eric, the owner and chef of the Tiara Café, a 120-seat dining room and gourmet market that opened last spring on the ground floor of the New Mart building in the Fashion District.

It's a restaurant whose concept might have been a hard sell in Downtown Los Angeles five years ago: organic ingredients, fresh technique and mostly vegetarian meals with countless vegan-friendly options. Eric, who is well known for the creative offerings at the late Vida and for co-founding hipster comfort food emporium Fred 62, said he hoped to take it a step further with Tiara Café.

The menu is almost three-quarters vegetarian and vegan, although the restaurant does not market itself as such. Instead, Eric uses the tag line "Eat healthy more often, diet less."

At noon, Blossom's sparse dining room fills with office workers in starched shirts who power lunch under a minimalist Buddha wall sketch. Many opt for healthy soups and salads. At night the phone rings with take-out orders from the nearby Historic Core lofts. All in all, Pham said, more than 25% of his customers order vegetarian.

"I'm actually going to focus more on vegetarian dishes primarily because I think we need to offer variety to our [vegetarian] customers," Pham said.

As the Downtown workforce grows, and new loft dwellers get their keys, restaurants like Blossom are opening almost monthly to feed them. Those that aren't, or existing establishments that don't adapt, Del Pero suggested, will lose out.

"You're missing the boat as a restaurant to not understand that it's a really underserved market," said Del Pero.

"If you can knock a vegan's socks off, you've hired a director of marketing. You might as well give them a business card, because they're going to let people know."

Bolding mine, and amen to that!

Tags: restaurants

Chocolate Birthday Cake

Tonight was my first ever birthday cake that didn't come from a boxed mix. I used this recipe which was almost as easy as a prepackaged mix. The filling in between the layers is Soy Delicious Mint Marble Fudge "ice cream". My mom marveled that a vegan cake with "weird soy ice cream" could be this good.

We cut open the side of the ice cream container and then sliced the ice cream and put it on top of the first layer. By the time that step was done, it was all a little melted so we spread it even with a knife and then slid on the second layer. The icing is cookies and cream.

Cookies and Cream Frosting
4 oz plain Tofutti cream cheese
2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
1 TBS margarine
1 tsp vanilla
5 Oreo (or similar type) cookies*

Measure the Tofutti, margarine, and vanilla into a bowl. Gradually add in the sifted confectioners sugar while beating with an electric mixer. Beat until icing is fluffy. Place cookies in a bag and crush with your hands, a hammer, or another heavy object. Once the cookies are coarsely crushed, fold them into the frosting. Ice your cake. Makes enough frosting for one (tall) 9' round cake.

*Most Oreos are actually vegan. There are some rogue packages floating around with dried whey in the ingredients, so check before you buy them if you're a vegan. Alternately, Newman-O's taste almost exactly the same, are not hydrogenated, and are always vegan.


Tags: cake | vegan recipes | vegan baking

VB Down Again

Hopefully for not very long this time. We're currently working on it. Late next week we're planning on moving to a more powerful server and that should alleviate a lot of the problems we've been having.

Downtime

VB is currently down due to technical difficulties. Not sure when it'll be back up. Might not be until sometime Monday.

Farm Sanctuary Fundraiser

Each of the last two years we've held a fundraiser for Farm Sanctuary. I wasn't able to find the thread for 2005 but in 2004 we raised $780, enough to adopt a cow and turkey for a full year.

I'd like to see us surpass that amount this year so I'm once again offering to match the first $300 in donations.

For information on how to contribute please see this thread.

McNasty surprise

This is a bizarre story about a Muslim vegetarian who ordered a ‘veggie melt’ in McDonald’s and only realised halfway through eating it that it was actually pork. Now, that is bad (I once had a similar incident in a greasy spoon in Clapham in south London), and she has my sympathy, but what was she doing eating in McDonald’s in the first place? I mean, what’s the point of being vegetarian if you’re going to frequent such an unethical, meat-fuelled, smarmy establishment? Hasn’t she seen Supersize Me and McLibel? Even if she hasn’t, just the smell of the place should put any self-respecting vegetarian off – it reeks of meat (and plastic).

The bizarre bit of the story, though, was the girl’s utter surprise. Her uncle, Nick Tillekeratne, from Slough, who was with the girl at the time, said: "It was only when Jasmin began eating the veggie melt that she realised there was bacon in it.

"Believing that McDonald's has a worldwide reputation for quality, and great respect for the dietary habits of their customers, she did not bother to check.”

McDonald’s has a worldwide reputation for making the worst food in history – most of it in the guise of some form of meat. They don’t say “Boycott McDonald’s” for nothing, you know.

At Oberlin College, Many don't want meat on their pizza

Damn, man. An estimated 40% of Oberlin's student body is veg*n... That's awesome.

The Chronicle Telegram

World Vegan Day

Today's the day: Change the world by changing your diet.

While the focus at worldveganday.org appears to be on the environment -- the all-consuming topic of the moment -- a vegan diet does, of course, also spare hundreds of animals in one person's lifetime, and it's never too late to start.

Follow the link above to learn more about going vegan. It's easier than ever and, if you care about animals, it's time to stop eating them.

Tags: World Vegan Day