Vegan Places to Eat
A Spotlight on Vegan Companies and Business
by M. 'Butterflies' Katz
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Vegan Places to Eat:
The Chicago Soy Dairy has been in business for four years and they manufacture ONLY vegan products. They say that they are the only soy ice cream that is made in a dedicated vegan facility, as well. (others are made in dairies). All of the staff and ownership is vegan. The founders have been vegan for 13 and 14 years.
Quoting Ron Howard, the owner, “I became a vegan 1/4 of the way into Diet for a new America while he was a sophomore in high school. I later studied Biochemical Engineering at Purdue University and knew that I wanted to do something in the natural foods area. The idea for a local soy dairy came up and my business partner, Dan Ziegler, and I got to work. We later developed ‘Temptation' non-dairy frozen dessert that is the bulk of our business.”
Temptation Vegan Ice Cream comes in these flavors: French Vanilla, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Fair Trade Organic Chocolate, Fair Trade Organic Coffee, Peach Cobbler, Strawberry, and Green Tea. The manufacturing facility is located in Lombard, IL. Phone: (630) 629.9667
Web site: www.welovesoy.com E-mail: info@welovesoy.com
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Sage Cafe is located in the midtown area of downtown Salt Lake City, with views of snow capped peaks of the nearby Wastach Mountains, a perennial garden landscape. It is family-owned and in business for 9 years. The executive chef and founder, Ian Brandt, has been a vegan for 8 years. About 60% of the staff is vegan. No animal products are used in any preparations. The cafe (named after the owner's son) and catering business is a range of vegan comfort food to pure raw foods, and a pizza night! A message from Ian: “....Both of my grandmothers are not on this plane today but their legacy of ‘land stewards' will always carry with me. I hope to share their message to our customers...” He also says “Many of our guests are not vegetarian - approximately 75%! We have had many say that if they could prepare cuisine as great as Sage's Café, they would eat vegan every day!”
Sage Cafe is located at 473 East 300 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 Cell Phone (801) 259-3106
Web site: www.sagecafe.com E-mail: ian@sagecafe.com
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The Blossoming Lotus restaurants are completely vegan. The owners are vegan. There are several owners ranging from 4 years vegan to 40+ years vegan. Not all of the staff is vegan. For nearly 4 years The Blossoming Lotus has been a full service vegan restaurant that is open for brunch, lunch and dinner. They offer "World Fusion Cuisine" combining recipes from all around the globe. They also have a nearby Bakery and Juice Bar; The Lotus Root, selling all vegan items along with a number of retail products.” We have an award winning cookbook with over 200 vegan and live food recipes called: "Vegan World Fusion Cuisine". The CEO became vegan at 12 and has now been vegan for over 40 years. He became vegan to address some health issues and is now a true believer. He and The Blossoming Lotus founder worked together to start a place where others could dine with healthy and delicious food, and learn the importance of veganism for health, the environment, and the well being of animals.” explains Dawn Jewell.
The Blossoming Lotus web sites: www.blossominglotus.com and www.veganfusion.com
E-mail: info@blossominglotus.com Located at 4504 Kukui St.,Kapa'a, HI. Hawaii Restaurant Phone: (808) 822-7678 Info: 1-888-445-6887
There is a second location at 925 N.W. Davis St., Portland, OR. 97209 Phone: (503) 228-0048 E-mail: Stuart@blossominglotus.com
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Spiral Diner “We only sell vegan products. This includes no refined sugar, honey, bee pollen, or anything tested on animals (including the cleaning products we use in the "back-of-the-house"). We even triple check all our beers and wines to assure that they are not processed with any animal ingredients.” says Amy NcNutt, the owner.
Amy has been a vegan for about 6 years and vegetarian for about 14 years. Almost all the staff is vegan. Out of 15 employees, a few are vegetarian, and I think only one is neither vegan nor vegetarian. A few people started working as non-veg and have since switched. They opened for business August 21, 2002. They offer a full vegan menu Including fair trade coffee drinks, beer, wine, and desserts. They sell packaged food items, vegan pet food, cleaning products and beauty care products. In addition, they also have a line of jarred food called Spiral in the House for people wanting to take food with them. About 50-75% of ingredients are organic, as well. I quote thelast two lines of her mission statement: “Spiral Diner and Bakery (the name inspired by the lyrics of the song Lateralus) hopes to advance the ‘spiraling out' of compassion and awareness that is already in progress.”
Spiral Diner & Bakery is located at 1314 West Magnolia Ave., Fort Worth, TX. 76110 Phone: (817) 3.EatVeg
E-mail: veg@spiraldiner.com
Web site: www.SpiralDiner.com
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Real Food Daily is a restaurant committed to only serving 100% vegan foods, no animal or animal bi-products are used in their cooking. The owner and founder, Ann Gentry, keeps a vegan kitchen in her home and at work. She occasionally eats animal bi-products and eats fish a few times a month. About half of their staff of 100 people are vegan or vegetarian. In June 2006, they will be in business for 13 years.
The restaurant came out of Ann Gentry's five year home delivery service in Los Angeles from 1988 - 1993 serving vegan foods made with organic produce and product. Ann saw a void in Los Angeles of not enough, if any, good quality full service restaurants serving high quality organic vegan food in an atmosphere of cleanliness and knowledgeable and helpful service. The restaurant has two locations:
414 North La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. 90048 Phone: (310)
289 9910 and at 514 Santa Moncia Blvd., Santa Monica, CA. 90401
Phone: (310) 451 7544 Web site: www.realfood.com
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The Health Deli is a vegan restaurant located in the unlikely town of St. George, Utah. The owners, Elaine French and her husband are both vegan. Elaine has been vegan for 25 years. They've been in business since December 2002 serving soups, chili, hummus and falafel, sandwiches, veggie burgers, entrees and desserts; all low fat and they don't cook with oil. Elaine's becoming vegan was a gradual progression from reading Diet for a Small Planet, then Laurel's Kitchen, then The Pritikin Program, then working for Dr. John McDougall. The Health Deli provides meals for The Body Shop; a vegan spa in St. George. The Health Deli is located at 95 West 700 South, St. George, UT. 84770
Web site: healthdeli.com Phone 435-674-7404.
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222 Veggie Vegan restaurant sells ONLY vegan food. The owners are vegan and have been for decades. Most of the staff are also vegan. The restaurant has a vegan whole food menu currently comprising around 100 dishes. The 3 founders of the company are lifelong vegetarians but have become vegans in the last 20 years. They have all studied and experimented with vegan dietary styles including macrobiotic living and cleansing diets and one is a well known vegan chef in English vegan circles. Their desire to spread the message about veganism and healthy lifestyle resulted in opening the doors of the 222 Veggie Vegan restaurant in West London England in 2005. ”We are committed to the healthy vegan lifestyle and to helping others on this healthy and peaceful way of living. We treat visitors to our restaurant as individuals and as friends and we always try to cater for any special needs including special dietary needs such as food intolerance, allergies, gluten/wheat-free diets etc.” they inform us.
Phone: +44 20 738 12322
Web: www.222veggievegan.com
E-mail: info@222veggievegan.com
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Bonobo's Restaurant is all vegan. The main principal of parent company is raw vegan for 7 years. The staff is not all vegan. Bonobo's has been in business since 2003. The owner wanted to give ‘alternative food options' to people with a mainstream diet. The owner became vegan due to the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of the vegan lifestyle. Their mission statement: “We are on a mission to let people know being a raw (live food) vegan doesn't mean eating like a rabbit and the ramifications of this lifestyle go way beyond just the food.”
Bonobo's Restaurant is located at 18 E. 23 ST, N.Y.C .10010
E-mail: EATRAW1@AOL.COM
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Organic Garden Cafe is completely vegan. The owner is a vegan for 8 years. Not all of the staff is vegan. The restaurant has been open for 6.5 years offering gourmet entrees, wraps, salads, juices, smoothies, pies, brownies, cookies, cream cheese, mostly raw food specialty items.
Over 10 years ago, as a result of the battle of a loved one with cancer, founder Robert Reid's eyes were opened to the suffering of people, animals and the earth because of the many unhealthy dietary and farming practices, as well as the web of greed and misinformation surrounding these practices. Robert transitioned from a tax manager of a leasing company to restaurateur. First Robert took on a passionate study of holistic lifestyle and natural healing, obtaining several holistic certifications until settling on to his ultimate focus of Organic Vegan and Raw food healthy eating practices. This culminating in the opening of Organic Garden Cafe, the only vegan organic cafe in Greater Boston and only predominantly raw food restaurant in New England.
“Just one meal at the Organic Garden switches a little light on that says 'wow', I didn't know you could prepare food like that, eat that way and feel so energised afterwards'. Part of our mission statement is to prepare food in the purest most healthful way possible! Life is a tricky thing to generalize on, even diet. Certain truths seem fixed, yet others are somewhat bendable; what you believe you can make the truth. One truth I believe is certain is that animals feel pain and are beings that deserve humane treatment. Another is that producing meat for human consumption is wasteful of resources and polluting to the earth, and therefore unsustainable. I also believe a great amount of our diet should come from living foods to feel truly vibrant and yet I know spiritual masters can subsist on a few handfuls of rice a day. When, what, how cooked and how much varies for each individual, their body type and their activities. Problem is most people's taste buds get thrown off with food addictions and they loose this sensitivity and connection to their bodies' innate wisdom. This is where I believe ‘raw foods' come in handy. They help cleanse, hydrate, alkalise, vitalise and restore sensitivity and proper taste, then allowing the bodies wisdom to return. In the fall and winter I eat more cooked foods in keeping with Ayurveda and warm my raw food smoothies and morning fruits.” says Robert Reid, Founder/Chef de Cuisine
Web site: www.organicgardencafe.com
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Candle Cafe is a vegan and organic restaurant that has stayed in business for 20 years! The owner, Barat Potenza, has been vegan for 13 years. About 25% of the staff is vegan. Bart Potenza and Joy Pierson, co-owners, won $53,000 in N.Y. lottery in 1993. “That was our seed money, the rest is vegan history!” explains Bart. He continues, “In over 20 years, we have served some 3 million vegan meals. This has saved a lot of animals and people too!” They also have a best-selling cookbook.
Original Location: 1307 Third Avenue at 75th Street, New York, New York 10021 Phone: (212) 472-0970 Fax: (212) 472-7169
Second Location: Candle 79: 154 East 79th Street, New York, New York 10021 Phone: (212) 537-7179
Web site: candlecafe.com E-mail: candle.cafe@msn.com
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Veggie Era is completely vegan. “With respect for all life, we proudly serve all dishes with a lot of love and free of meat, poultry, fish, egg, dairy, MSG and honey; low fat and no cholesterol.” they explain. “ We want people to be vegan and tell people that vegan food is healthy and delicious”. They've been in business 6 years featuring vegan dishes, Savory Chinese, Thai and Indonesian vegan dishes, Catering and Party Platters.
They make imitation meat products: seitan (wheat gluten) andcTVP (textured vegetable protein) in the following forms: Vegan Chicken Breast, Vegan Chicken Nugget, Vegan Fish Steak and Vegan ham, Chick'n less Potato Curry, Lemon Grass Chick'n less, Sautéed Garlic Beef-less, Scottie's Crazy Chick'n less Sweet yet Spicy Chick'n less, and Harmony Tofu.
Veggie Era is located at 903B West Foothill Blvd., Upland, CA. 91786
Phone (909) 902-3882
Web site: www.veggie-era.com
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Green Gourmet create food that is 100% vegan. The company director has been vegetarian for approximately 12 years, although not always vegan. Approximately 70% of the staff are full vegetarians with perhaps 20% vegan. They have two complementary businesses; one is a vegan Chinese restaurant and the other is a vegan grocery store (stocking mainly Chinese products). They have been in business for nearly 10 yrs. All products sold in both shops are vegan. In the grocery store, they stock a range of soya protein products, homemade sauces, frozen entrées/meals (such as peking mock duck, steamed dim sim, BBQ nugget buns, vegetable buns, all sorts of dumplings, tofu pillow with miso & lemongrass sauce, etc.)
Green gourmet is a family run business, which is focused on nourishing the body and mind. “We believe in the philosophy of eating well to benefit our body and by doing good to our body, we hope to behave in a compassionate and beneficial manner to others” says Colin Fung. When he first introduced tofu dishes in 1984 in his first Chinese restaurant. Only 20% of his customers knew or heard about tofu. Since then, Colin had persisted in bringing together a selection of fine vegetarian dishes.
When Colin became a vegetarian, he established Green Gourmet Vegetarian Restaurant at Newtown in Sydney. Colin and his sister Gloria established Vegan's Choice Grocery, which is next door to their Newtown restaurant. They provide a range of restaurant quality prepared meals and sauces which would allow busy customers to enjoy hassle free vegetarian dishes at home. With the success of the
Newtown restaurant, another Green gourmet restaurant was opened in St. Leonards. Located at 113-117 King St., Newtown 2042. This is a suburb of Sydney.
Phone: 02-9519 5330
E-mail: colin@greengourmet.com.au
Web site: www.greengourmet.com.au
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Green Palace Thai Vegetarian Café Restaurant This restaurant located along alternative King Street, Newtown has only been open for 6 months but already it's making a splash with vegans from all over the city. The owner Kijja Silanuluck says he's always been vegan. “It's in my nature”. We don't know how he does it but a choice of noodles or rice and a choice of two Thai vegan dishes – amazing authentic Thai – is only $6.00 for lunch and $8.50 for dinner. This is a worthwhile restaurant to visit time and time again. It's influence is Buddhist planting the seed of great compassion.
Located at 182 King Street, Newtown 2042.
Telephone/Fax: 02 9550 5234 Mobile: 0423 500 822
Business hours: Sun-Thurs 10am-10.30pm Fri-Sat 10am - Late
M. 'Butterflies' Katz is the co-author of Incredibly Delicious; Recipes for a New Paradigm which is published by Gentle World www.gentleworld.org
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