Vegan Guide to Michelin Restaurants: Gauthier, Soho

During my latest trip home to Philadelphia, PA (how far are theyyyy), I had just enough time to try two of the city’s newest and best lunch-time offerings. Rich Landau’s most informal restaurant yet, Wiz Kid, specializes in a few stellar sandwiches in the grand old greasy Philly cheesesteak tradition, but veganized (and so much better). Goldie highlights the street food of another big city, Tel Aviv, with an Israeli-style falafel shop selling, well, just a falafel sandwich or salad, fries (with optional shwarma flavoring!), and the greatest single and singular item in the city right now, which we’ll talk about. At the end, I’ll share my pretty accurate recipe for that magical item so let’s get to it. 

On my first journey downtown in a good six months, my first stop was Wiz Kid, the hottest little diner-looking joint from the genius of Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby (of Vedge and V Street fame). I dragged my mom and my aunt into the cute little space adjoining V Street (the bathroom for Wiz Kid patrons is actually V Street’s) at 11:30 am so we could set up camp before the lunch crowd came in. I also needed the reinforcements so we could confidently order the entire menu, or most of it. It’s a small menu but even so, I can’t do that all myself. We ordered all three sandwiches, one of the two salads (I always need a salad), and the coolest sounding fries. 

The WK Philly is the #1 thing you have to get in Philly right now (savory edition) – the vegan (and improved) take on the classic Philly cheesesteak with wiz (or is that just ‘wit’? I never ordered one). It’s a shredded seitan and mushroom steak mix, with fried onions and Rich’s famous (for dern good reason) rutabaga cheese wiz. And that roll! Ugh every bit of it was perfection, like gum. I don’t think anyone with an open mind would eat that and ever want a real cheesesteak ever again. Just spectacular. 

The Sabich Steak is the above but Israelized (getting in the mood for our next stop, below!) – the WK plus grilled eggplant, whipped tahini, Israeli salad, and harissa tofu. Mmm it was so fun, especially if you like to stuff your sandwiches full of as much stuff as possible like I do. It was so messy but this kind of food is supposed to be! It’s fun like that! The harissa tofu added a bit of spiciness and the salad added some very complementary (not complimentary it didn’t tell me I was pretty) (see we learn things here) freshness. And tahini is always a good addition (more on that later). Yum! The Sabich and the WK Philly both were kind of oily on the bread but without being greasy. It was like a masterwork of the perfect amount of oiliness for this kind of food. 

Lastly, the KFT was another glorious sandwich on this wee menu. I LOVE tempeh, and I eat it just baked with no doctoring at all a lot which is objectively gross but I still love it, so I’m a bit biased about tempeh. I realize that not everyone loves it, and I think that despite the amazing flavors in this sandwich, it’s still a big ole hunk of tempeh in the center, so if you aren’t already a lover, you probs won’t love this sandwich. However, if like me you love a big ole hunk of tempeh in your life, then this Korean fried tempeh sandwich with tomato, radish kimchee (I know), and sriracha thousand island dressing (I knowww) will be your new fave. I loved that it switched up the bread and instead of the harder cheesesteak roll of the other two, this was served on a softer burger roll. That dressing oh man, it was so good. 

As usual, I had to order a salad even though my dining companions weren’t interested because that’s how I always do. I chose the more interesting sounding King Cobb Salad, with garbanzos (what are you fancy chickpeas?), hearts of palm, pickled cauliflower olive salad, harissa tofu (you again!), and lemon sumac dressing. The dressing was a little tart (I mean obviously it was lemon based) and I think I would have preferred something not as tart so I didn’t make acidy sourface the whole time. But it was a great mix of salad ingredients, which I always love to have. My own salads at home are usually just lettuce (cue husband saying “that’s not a salad!”) so I love fun interesting ones out in the wild. I think, however, that you aren’t as Wiz Kid for the salads. Stick to HipCityVeg for salads in a burger-joint environment that actually rival the burgers. At Wiz Kid you are here for the sandwiches. Like Joey! 

Lastly, we tried the super interesting okonomiyaki fries, mostly because I want to go to Japan. These are the standard WK hand-cut fries but with Korean bbq sauce, nori (seaweed!), and kewpie, which I never knew was a food and not weird type of doll (it’s a mayo!). They were fun but I would love to try the Wiz Fries next which I assume are cheese fries. Actually I didn’t even have them but I’m gonna go ahead and recommend them. I just want to buy a tub of the rutabaga cheese. Dammit Landau! 

Overall, this place is amazing. These sandwiches, the steak, the CHEESE, lordy lord there’s a reason Rich Landau is considered a magician sent from another realm to make eating vegan easier and more delicious than mere humans ever thought possible. The only draw, really, was that the young lady working was kindaaaa a b word to me and my peeps. We were the only people there when we arrived and I’m stupid nice to strangers so like what the heck lady? I thought maybe I was just too PINK and SMILEY but my trusted Philly food guru friend said she was mean to her too. Why so mean to us lady??!! You’re surrounded by such lovely food! 

First of all, let’s all give me a hand for finally learning that it’s Goldie, standing alone, and not the possessive Goldie’s as I’ve been saying for months. Goldie has an even babier menu than Wiz Kid, but it’s exactly how it needs to be for a little falafel joint. You can choose the falafel in a pita (recommended), the falafel in a salad (what I had because see above about me and salads), fries, and/or a shake. THAT’S IT BRO. They are making just a few things and making them perfectly – as you’d expect from Michael Solomonov, the Israeli chef and restaurateur (ps just learned this minute that it’s not ‘restauranteur’ mind blown) behind Philly’s frequent #1 restaurant, Zahav. In fact, Goldie is considered ‘baby Zahav’ and not just by fans of Solomonov – Zahav means ‘gold’ in Hebrew, so Goldie is indeed officially ‘baby Zahav’. CUUUUUTE! 

I should have gotten the falafel in the pita, but you can take my proclivity to order salads to Vegas. The salad was too acidic, awash in lemon and vinegar and hard to finish because my stomach lining was wearing away. It needed hummus or tahini to cut the paint thinner finish of it. The falafel itself was good, but honestly I think there’s a falafel ceiling, as my husband once suggested and it might be the smartest thing he’s ever said (and he says smart things). Like, falafel exists on a very small spectrum of quality. It’s never bad, it’s usually good, and even the very best falafel are all kind of the same. There’s no way to make falafel that’s insanely better than your average falafel. There’s a ceiling. So even though it was really good here, it can only be so good in the world of falafel. It’s all about how it’s served, so go for the pita, for which you can choose an extra side sauce, either mango curry, harissa, or schug. SCHUG AAAAAAVERY! who’s shug avery? SCHUG AAAAAVERY! SHUG AVERY NOT A CHILD RAISIN’ WOMAN! YOU KNOW THAT! sorry can’t help it and yes I did sing this bit from The Color Purple when I saw the menu. 

Goldie got INCREDIBLY crowded at about 11:45am so prepare to take away instead of waiting for a table. It’s a tiny little cute place but guess what, they do have a bathroom! And a nice one at that! Loving these new Philly lunch spots. Philly is the best. 

But the thing you go to Goldie for is not the falafel, even with the schug avery. It’s for their milkshake, now considered the best in the city I mean WORLD. It’s a tahini milkshake. I know you’re like what hmm I’d prefer chocolate. But no. You’re wrong. It’s the best thing in the WORLD. It tastes like creamy liquid halva. Oh my god I wanted to cry. I’ll cry now. It’s amazing. They have several flavors, including coconut rose, which my friend got and I tried and yep it is also cry-worthy. I would keep crying and crying over my nonspilt milkshake but there’s no reason to now because I RECREATED IT!! I don’t know how I did it but I did it! Okay that’s not true I’m literally about to tell you how I did it, I don’t know why I said that. My god it’s so good. 

It’s rare for me to care about cooking with certain specific ingredients – I’m very flexible in my cookery – but for this I think these specific ingredients are vital. At least the ice cream. It really makes it, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted in my life. I’m not joking. I mean I would NEVER ever order or buy vanilla ice cream when literally any other (nonfruit) flavor exists in this world but this Very Vanilla cashew-based ice cream from So Delicious is beyond anything I’ve ever tried. Oh man! 

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup Ripple Pea Protein milk in vanilla
• 1/4 cup tahini 
• 1 cup So Delicious Cashew Milk ice cream in Very Vanilla
• Trader Joe’s new Coconut Whipped Cream – aka the GREATEST 

Directions:

1. Blend the milk and tahini in a blender RG (real good). Seriously please blend these before adding the ice cream because that way you will not overblend and thus liquefy the ice cream and end up with a UK-style ‘milkshake’ which is a lie and is really just flavored milk DON’T DO IT milkshakes should be THICK. 
2. Add the ice cream and blend for as short a stint as possible.
3. Pour into a glass. A pretty one!
4. Add a good 5 second spray of the Coconut whip (after you’ve shot a good 10 second spray directly into your mouth) and mix through with a spoon. Then top with a whole lot more whip, like the whole can. 
5. ENJOY!!!
6. VISIT PHILLY!!!

    Today we are making the Joey Special!!! I hope you are excited, because I am. What is the Joey Special, you ask? If you recall from “The One With Ross’s Wedding”, Joey, in London for Ross’s ill-fated wedding to Emily, calls Phoebe (who couldn’t go to London because she was 9 months pregnant) and they have the following conversation: 

    Preheat the oven to 400°, and then get to decorating! Because I had a thing of tofu and some peppers to use up, I made one Asian-y pizza. And because my mom’s twin was coming to dinner and they are ‘tah-yins’, I made one Italian-y. 

     To make this peanut-ginger tofu, I combined the pictured ingredients (and more!): rice vinegar, Trader Joe’s peanut dressing, mix of tamari and soy sauce, fresh ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and water. I poured this over the tofu and baked it at 375° for about an hour. 

     For the Italian-y one:
     I made a cheesy hummus as a base, then topped it with diced tomatoes, chopped kale, vegan bacon bits and jerky, and a drizzling of olive oil. The cheesy hummus comprised: 1 can of garbanzo beans (it’s for the Italian one, you can’t say chickpeas), juice from half a lemon, 4T olive oil, splash of water, 1t soy sauce, 1/3C nooch. 

     Bake your pizzas for about 20 minutes, until stuff looks golden. This dough got SUPER puffy, which is the best thing you could ever hope for. I’m really pleased with it! And the random topping decisions worked really well. 
     I don’t know why anyone has ever settled for just one pizza before. Two are so much better! And you’ll probably have leftovers. Unfortunately my aunt took the leftovers with her!! Ughhh! You know how I feel about that: