Audra McDonald at Madrid's Teatro Real: She Ran Spain by Randi / February 3, 2015
Philadelphia’s vegan scene keeps getting better and better. Seriously, every week an announcement comes for a new vegan something in the works. The most important announcement of last year was that Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby of Vedge were opening a more casual vegan joint with a menu inspired by global street food. Considering the owners’ track record, we all expected V Street to be top-notch. Well, now having eaten every single item on the dinner menu, I can assure you that it’s more than you could possibly wish for. It’s incredible. Let’s take a look at this ridiculously great dinner (an epic lunch happened as well; we’ll do that later.)
On my recent trip home to Philly, my parents told me to pick a restaurant for a special dinner out. Obviously we went to V Street, the restaurant I’ve been freaking out waiting to go to since it opened. With four non-vegan adults eating with me, I was extra hoping that everything would be incredible, to prove how great vegan food can be. That’s a lot of added pressure that I secretly put on V Street, but they more than came through. My dinner mates were blown away.
On my recent trip home to Philly, my parents told me to pick a restaurant for a special dinner out. Obviously we went to V Street, the restaurant I’ve been freaking out waiting to go to since it opened. With four non-vegan adults eating with me, I was extra hoping that everything would be incredible, to prove how great vegan food can be. That’s a lot of added pressure that I secretly put on V Street, but they more than came through. My dinner mates were blown away.
As my non-vegan parents and two of our non-vegan friends pored over the menu, my dad (I think) said to the waitron (omg p.s. this is my new fave non-gendered word) “Why don’t we just get everything?” I love that that was not my idea. Never knew I could get away with that. Having done it now, I realize it’s really the only wait to eat out. Get the entire menu, every time. I don’t care where you are. It’s the coolest.
Waitron was like, that’s actually a good amount to order for a group of five, so right on. Plates started coming out reasonably soon considering how edge-of-my-seat eager I was. First up were crunchy papadums with whipped dal and aleppo pepper. I freaking adore the idea of whipped dal, or lentil puree if you don’t want to sound as fancy.
Waitron was like, that’s actually a good amount to order for a group of five, so right on. Plates started coming out reasonably soon considering how edge-of-my-seat eager I was. First up were crunchy papadums with whipped dal and aleppo pepper. I freaking adore the idea of whipped dal, or lentil puree if you don’t want to sound as fancy.
In Indian restaurants in my neck of east London, papadums are always already on the table with little saucers of pickley things and sour sauces. Not my favorite. If papadums regularly came with what was effectively hummus made with lentils, I’d eat them nonstop. This was a fantastic start. (Also easy to share, which when you are sharing everything five ways becomes important.)
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One of my favorite dishes came next, and it was something we didn’t order, just a thank you treat from the kitchen. These were soft pretzels – what Philly does best – with a gingery mustard. These pretzels, oh my god. They were so perfectly greasy and somehow melty and doggone delicious. I like to think that they gave this just to us because we were the special table and I’m so famous, but I’m pretty sure everyone got it.
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Soft pretzels. I may have just loved them because they were free. I love free things. Nah they were delicious. |
Shishito! That’s fun to say! |
Another appetizer-type dish was the shishito robatayaki. While we still enjoyed this, it was everyone’s least favorite dish. The slender green peppers were nicely grilled, but they just kind of tasted like grilled peppers. Nothing more, no pomp, no circumstance. If you don’t love plain grilled peppers (none of the saucing really came through because man ‘grill’ is a strong flavor) then you should skip this. It was totally fine, just not special.
Luckily, everything else was! Next up was the market greens, with honshimeji XO sauce and little circles of braised turnip. Now I have no idea what honshimeji XO sauce means, but I know I like saying it and I really love eating it. Okay I think it means mushrooms because there are some in there. This was a fantastic side dish that could make anyone love eating your greens. |
Lighting was much better at lunch, stay tuned.
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Now we’re getting to the unbelievably mind-blowing stuff. One of these fantastic dishes was the harissa grilled cauliflower with spiced avocado and green olive chermoula. This was a party, oh my goodness. I can never eat cauliflower any other way. The mix of complex flavors worked so well and the stems seemed almost deep-fried, they were so perfectly grilled. Oh man, so good. This is a must-get.
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Who knew cauliflower could be so good? Or, good? |
Another must-get are the Peruvian fries. These are really big chunky potato wedge-style fries with aji amarilla, cilantro, olive, and peanut droppings. They tasted like the best loaded cheese fries you may have had in your ignorant youth. Just amazing. I want these again right now.
Carrot asado and jerk trumpet mushrooms. So so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so…good.
Two more dishes under the “Market” section of the menu were equally stellar. The Carrot Asado comprised whole long grilled carrots with smoked black lentils, a bbq glaze, and curtido, which is a Central American fermented cabbage relish. Some cilantro was thrown on top and it was all perfect. Below left is the Jerk Trumpet Mushrooms, mushrooms glazed with dark rum, dotted with cashew pieces, and served with a dollop of sweet potato mash. Mushrooms are one of my favorite foods, and these were some of the best ever.
Next up came the dishes under “Plates”, which are more like entrees. All of these dishes were also just I can’t even continue to think of words they were that good. My absolute favorite, maybe of the whole night, was the Langos, an Eastern European deep-fried flatbread, sort of like an extra greasy focaccia, with smoked beets and sauerkraut remoulade. This, man alive. This was like an extra-puffy savory donut. If you go to V Street get 5 of these. Even if you are by yourself.
WHY ARE YOU SO BEAUTIFUL
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Another flatbread was also beloved by our group and may also inspire epic poems in its memory. The Charred Eggplant Flatbread with zhoug hummus and za’atar pickles was perfection. I’m pretty sure zhoug is a ghost in the upcoming (amazing) Ghostbusters remake and I didn’t know you could za’atarize pickles but whatever’s going on here, it’s RG (real good).
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YOU’RE EQUALLY PRETTY |
Blurry tofu. Blurfu. No that doesn’t work.
The other two ‘mains’ were more main-like, focused around a protein of tofu or tempeh, which along with seitan are cooked by Landau like no one else in the entire world. The Piri Piri Grilled Tofu with coconut chana salad and pickled celery won over our guests who were scared of tofu and I’m pretty sure had never really had it before. I loved it because I finally had great piri piri something! I live next to a Nando’s, where everything is piri piri (well peri peri), but they literally have not one vegan item, so this has been a long time coming. Just delicious.
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Next up is one of the absolute best dishes of the night. It might be my favorite. I mean everything is my favorite but this, man, this is awesome. The Korean Fried Tempeh Tacos with gochujang and radish kimchee was, well, a taco to start, so it couldn’t really go wrong. But this may have been the best taco EVER. The Korean fried tempeh is spectacular (you’ll see it again at lunch) and all the accoutrements made a mix of flavors so good you wanted a thousand of these. Gochujang is a Korean fermented red chili paste, so this was spicy but only like a medium level. The tortillas were the best I’ve had in a long time. Ugh just look at all those toppings. I am so excited to do the taco cleanse in Austin in May and I hope that anything there can come close to this taco. This was hard to share with five people so if you are not alone I would suggest getting at least three.
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Next we have the bowls! The Singapore Noodles with char sui tofu, broccoli, peanuts, and lime sambal were absolutely delicious. Sambal is another type of chili pepper paste, so this was very spicy, but the flavors weren’t overpowered. The angel-hair-like noodles were unexpected and lovely. The Mushroom Dan Dan Noodles with shaved zucchini and spicy sesame also blew me away. The thicker creamier sauce was fantastic. I expected them to be my preferred noodle bowl, because a) mushrooms and b) dan dan noodles are like the greatest thing on earth, but I think I may have preferred the Singapore noodles. Maybe they’re tied. You should get both and see for yourself. I think I just have been spoiled by Han Dynasty’s dan dan noodles, which are unparalleled even in China. I’m assuming.
Singapore noodles. You’re BLURSULA
Mushroom dan dan noodles
Halo Halo. So much better than Beyonce’s.
That’s it for the savory food. Whew!!! I’m exhausted and also super hungry and very sad that I can’t have this food tonight; how about you? We still have dessert though. Getting all the dessert on the menu isn’t as notable a feat because there were only two options. (Their soft-serve machine wasn’t working that night, which is probably the saddest turn of events you could ever imagine, but luckily I had soft-serve at my lunch there, and we still had two excellent desserts.) The Halo Halo parfait contained taro ice cream – holy mother of god – and orange granita with pickled fruit mixed throughout. For a fruity dessert, this was surprisingly excellent. It was like fruit mixed with a sweet white cream but in ice cream parfait form. So lovely. Even better, obviously, because it’s a waffle, was the Waffle. Lolol that’s what it’s called on the menu. So the Waffle of Dreams which I renamed it (you’re welcome Rich) had a base of the most perfect waffle you could ever imagine, topped with chocolate ganache (like there’s ever any other kind of ganache), banana, miso caramel ffs, and sriracha peanuts. And then there was this peanutty chocolate cookie circle stuck on top. Freaking extraordinary. That’s all Kate Jacoby, mastress of the desserts. These people are amazing. Also, Danielle Konya of Vegan Treats was sitting near me, and I really wanted Kate to invite her backstage (into the kitchen) so the two of them, poss the best vegan desserters in the entire world, could work together on something and probably cause a new planet to form in the resulting wonderful flavor explosion.
WAFFLEMEISTER
So that is V Street, at least its current menu. I think I can safely say that this was one of the top five meals of my entire life. And I’ve eaten at all the great restaurants. Oh man. I cannot wait until May, when I am going back to visit home, and I get to eat here again (for my birthday!). I CANNOT WAIT.
V STREET, PHILADELPHIA
Water speed: Great – they give you glass bottles for the table! My favorite!
Service: Fantastic. Helpful and nice and had perfect timing. Of course, coming from the land of terrible service in London, I probably would think anything was good.
Bathrooms: Past the kitchen with the bar seating around it, so every time I went (all the time) I got to see Rich holding court.
Food: Freaking. Amazing.
Bonus: Since you can share everything, it ends up being a great value. They also had a superb drinks menu, according to my companions, especially the tequila-horchata specialty. Also, they don’t take reservations, but they do take your phone number to call you when your table’s ready so you don’t have to wait outside. And if you are like me, you can see Kate, Rich, and Danielle all in one night. If there was a vegan celebrity bingo game, I prob would have won.
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Manchester, England (England): The Allotment Vegan Restaurant
Recently, we traveled to Manchester England (England) (you can’t not sing it, right?? well I can’t not) in order to dine at the famed vegan restaurant The Allotment. We spent the weekend in the city, but dinner here was our primary purpose for the trip. We’ve heard only amazing reviews about this restaurant, which was named the Best Vegetarian Restaurant in the UK several times over, and the chef is acclaimed for having delivered fancy vegan fare to Manchester (England England). When the restaurant moved from outside the city, in Stockport, to the Manchester city center, we booked in immediately, ready to be blown away, or at least to enjoy a great meal. I hate to say it, but I assuredly was not and did not.
The quality of the food at The Allotment may have suffered in the move, as they’re only two months into the new space. Maybe they’re still getting settled. Or maybe it has to do with the fact that two days before our dinner, it was announced that the head chef and the man responsible for all the restaurant’s success, Matthew Nutter, was leaving. It was unclear when he was leaving, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was an immediate resignation, because I don’t think that acclaimed wonder of a chef was cooking my food. It was very nice to have a fancy dining option outside of London, and it was great to have a relatively affordable tasting menu (£65 for ten courses is prettay prettay amazing in the tasting menu world), but the food was not up to standard. In general, the dishes that tasted good were basic and uninspired, and the dishes that showed creativity and invention didn’t taste very good. It’s a disappointment and I hope that they find their footing again.
Before we get into the food, I’m gonna snob out and say that including the amuse bouche – usually a gift from the chef – as one of the ten courses is kind of bullshirt. At any other restaurant where we’ve had the tasting menu, the chef would send out amuse bouches (amuses bouche?) just to say hayy. Since this meal was quite cheaper than those, it’s fine and makes sense that we didn’t get extra dishes, but like don’t even call it an amuse bouche on the menu, seems a little ‘ya basic’ ya know?
Okay, speaking of that amuse, it was a yummy Fried Ball. Like a cheeseless arancini, made with wild rice. It was one of those times when you’d quote Jon Lovitz on Friends and be all “I could have 100 of those!” but you just get one, to amoos you (if I spelled it right you wouldn’t have understood how to say it okay), and you get over it because after all it was just a Fried Ball.
Fried Ball on a cool plate
Our first real course was roasted butternut squash soup, with a topping of porcini mushroom pieces and toasted chestnuts. This soup is the prime example of one of the dichotomies I stated above: it tasted good but basic, so basic I even said to it “ya basic…that’s devastating, you’re devastated right now.” Don’t get me wrong, it was a fine soup, but I’ve made the exact same thing (or more interesting) 100x. To make it worthier, there should have been 5x as much of the porcini and chestnut topping. But it was fine, and best of all it was served in an old-fashioned bowl with a handle that made us feel like we were on the Oregon trail or some such. Luckily no dysentery!
trail soup
I was very excited for the next dish, one of the intriguing, innovative items on the menu. It was listed as ‘baked plantain, jerk billtong.’ Biltong (apparently the proper spelling guyzzz) is a South African dried meat, so, gross. I love baked plantain so I was set to be impressed. Unforch, this is a prime example of the second main issue I stated above: it was inventive, but did not taste good. The first problem was that instead of baked plantain, it was plantain ice cream. I was not ready for ice cream, and the flavor was off – sweet but sharp and unpleasant. The biltong flavor was even more unpleasant, with a very sour bite that was hard to accept. The sauce that went along with everything was that same flavor and it was kind of hard to eat this dish. I commend them for the originality, but the execution is lacking. Even just losing the ice cream in favor of plain baked plantain would have improved this.
you owe me baked plantain
Another inventive but lacking dish came after the biltong debacle. The celeriac shwarma, with coconut, mint, and orange, could have been interesting but the three accompanying flavors – the coconut, mint, and orange – just did not work. It wasn’t ‘shwarma’ in any way, just hunks of celeriac, and there was way too much shredded coconut on top. I liked that there was raw spinach, because I like greens, but the flavors did not coalesce in any way.
shwarma?
I almost feel bad talking about the next dish, but the public deserves to know. This may have been the worst dish I’ve ever eaten in a restaurant. I really do applaud the creativity here, but the result is NG. The chicory terrine was a great idea in theory, because terrine is usually a French pate, full of gross meats, so to make a vegetable version of that shaped dish was an interesting goal. However, it tasted like Jewish deli at the end of the day. It was just the taste of pickle, of vinegar, of raw pearl onion. I couldn’t finish it. The main part of the terrine was too vinegary and off, while the giant onions took up half the space. The pickled cauliflower on the side was more of the same flavor, so I don’t know what it adds.
green emoji face
Thankfully, the rest of the savory dishes all tasted fine, even delicious, but they were regular, unexciting kinds of food. However, after the terrine incident, I was happy to have some basic af food for moving on. First we have the slow roasted squash, with fried oyster mushroom rosti and smoked aubergine. There was also surprise tenderstem broccoli and amazing little tiny cubes of fried tofu. It all tasted exactly how you imagine, since no doubt you have eaten regular broccoli and a big old chunk of roasted squash in your lives. It was good, and plain. To make it better, the big old chunk of squash should have been tofu – for a vegan restaurant, there was surprisingly little protein, to our dismay. We always complain about nonvegan restaurants’ giving me tasting menus with no protein, so I expected better at an actual vegan place.
i mean ya fine, but ya basic
The last of the savory dishes was confit potato, with black olive, pickled daikon, and crispy kale. This was by far my favorite dish, because the layer of black olive tapenade added a new and interesting flavor to the other basic ingredients. The only real disappointing aspect was the freaking GIANT baked potato. There’s the mashed potato on the bottom, you see? and then the mushrooms (yum!), and then the tapenade layer, and then that big hunk of a yellowish thing is BAKED POTATO. It was so much! Like why not tofu, or seitan, or beans, or anything but baked potato on top of mashed potato? I mean in a city famous for its chip butties I guess I’m not surprised but duuuudes. The crispy kale was a nice addition though, and while the daikon was wholly unnecessary and felt supes random, overall this dish was the best and I’d happily eat it again – without the giant potato.
you say potato, I say potato
Another kind-of-cheating-to-count-this-as-a-course thing came next, the ‘pre-dessert,’ or what you might call the palate cleanser. Kind of a cop out, right? It was a decent water ice situation, but it was made with gin, which was disappointing. I maybe should have told them that I didn’t want straight alcohol in my food but who would have ever known that was going to be a problem.
The first of our two desserts was ‘apple noodles, yuzu sorbet, and cumin pastels.’ I know what you’re thinking – apple noodles? that sounds interesting! And I was intrigued, before I realized – oh dip, this is literally raw apples in noodle-ish form. Like how spiralized zucchini makes ‘zucchini noodles’. So this was a gigantic pile of shredded raw apple. Don’t get me wrong, I love apples, but like, a dayum. The sorbet was decent, and I loved that they tried something creative with the little cumin gummies and the dusting of chili pepper throughout the dish, but yeesh, straight cumin in a dessert is kind of gross. I appreciate the risk but it would have been better with say ginger gummies. This is the actual conversation my husband and I had during this course; I took notes so I know it’s accurate:
Me: How do you feel about the cumin? I think it’s weird.
Husbo: Yeah but I do think you need to liven things up, otherwise it’s all very same same.
Me: But they could do that with like crystallized ginger or something, some flavor that’s more desserty and less curry.
Husbo: Yeah. And they would need to mix something all through the dish, not just on top, because otherwise you’re just sitting here like an asshole eating a pile of apples.
it looks like a normal amount of apple shreddings but it was literally at least two whole apples
Lastly was the warm whiskey cream over chocolate mousse, with chili and hibiscus. This dessert was pretty delicious. The chocolate mousse was wonderful, sturdier than your average mousse which I liked. The tangerine slice was random but I’ll let it slide. The ice cream I think was the hibiscus? It’s hard to gauge that one, but the honeycomb bits and the mousse were good enough. The best part was that it came with a little pot of the whiskey cream, which did not taste like whiskey (yay) really, but just like warm vanilla-y cream sauce with a punch. It was really good!
chocooo
So, overall it was a very interesting meal, with a few delicious dishes, a lot of weirdness, and some questions, like, what are they smoking back there? Is anyone trying the dishes as they make them? Or oh, is this like when Sookie didn’t know she was pregnant and her tastes were all over the place and all the food she sent out of the Inn’s kitchen was a mess like some were overly seasoned to the point of inedibleness and some were unsalted and it was all off and then she was like NORMAN MAILER I’M PREGNANT that might have been a different pregnancy, Sookie was preggers a lot, but you get what I’m saying. Something was off, and I am disappointed to have missed out on a visit to The Allotment that was on par with its illustrious history. Maybe next time, maybe next time.
The Allotment, Manchester, England (England)
Water speed: They brought carafes and were pretty good about it.
Service: Pretty nice. I thought the dishes were well timed.
Bathrooms: Fine, clean and bright (small and whiteeee)
Food: Decent, but finding its footing.
Bonus: It’s amazing to have an all vegan restaurant outside London, and one with a fancy tasting menu to boot.
Eating in Madrid, Spain: All-Vegan Bar Food at B13
In our short time in Madrid, we weren’t able to hit all the vegan spots I put on my list. (I was saving my food-tour kind of living for Austin.) Adding to the struggle was that we found at least two spots closed when they were supposed to be open. (I hate Uncle Siesta!) Luckily, we did get to eat at B13, an all-vegan bar the name of which I assume refers to how they’re even better than vitamin b12. Or that like b12, vegans need them. I doubt it’s that. It’s a cool, chill, punk-ish hole-in-the-wall with an unreliable but fun menu. The food was decent, nothing extraordinary, and at times hilarious, but it was just a treat to have an entirely vegan place, even if that place smelled of spilled beer and felt like it too.
globbible
We were very hungry after a day of walking and wandering, so we were happy when they brought a complimentary starter of bread and ‘salad’. Or were we? This was one of the most hilarious plates of food. In the middle of two pieces of bread was a mayonnaise-y clump of mayonnaise, as far as I could tell. Or potato salad, but the mayo outweighed the presence of potato and other vegetables. Yes, it was vegan (doesn’t look like it!), but still, there’s not much that’s appetizing about a big puddle of mayo, vegan or not. Not the most auspicious start, although it did taste okay in little bites. It’s hard to tell, but this was a huge portion. We tried to attack it at various points in the meal but it was just too much for our soft Western feet.
Not having had enough beige, our first food order was calamari. Having fried calamari on the menu was a main reason I wanted to go to B13, because it used to be my faaavorite. And guess what that came with? More bread!
beige food, beige food, a-whatcha gonna do
The calamari was pretty good! It didn’t have a discernible fishy taste, which I think is a good move, and it was maybe more like very chewy onion rings, but it was one of the more enjoyable fried foods I’ve eaten. The hunk of bread we could have done without. Perhaps a salad (not of mayo) would have complemented it better.
I was also lured to B13 because it actually has vegan Spanish omelette, the staple dish of potato-filled omelette. It’s so good and I really really wanted a vegan version. Guess what. None that day. They also were out of the croquettes, which sounded great. Arghaaanauts.
I was also lured to B13 because it actually has vegan Spanish omelette, the staple dish of potato-filled omelette. It’s so good and I really really wanted a vegan version. Guess what. None that day. They also were out of the croquettes, which sounded great. Arghaaanauts.
For our mains, we created two combo platters. The combo platter situation was quite something. You can pick one item from three different sections, which we did. So, three separate items, okay. One of ours came out as expected, like a full plate of food. But one was kind of funny in execution. For this unexpectedly funny one, we chose the sausages, the green peppers, and hummus. Like, it was three foods. On a plate. Just chilling. This is kind of weird, right?
I mean, yes, here we have sausages, hummus, and peppers, which we did order, but they’re just, I don’t know, sitting there! All the components are just sitting there. I don’t know, it’s a weird plate! This also came with a basket of bread. It’s like a deconstructed plate of food or something. Weird. The peppers were really great, grilled until they were super soft. Although I may have just been excited about seeing a non-mayoed vegetable. No they were good. And the hummus was quite enjoyable, as almost all hummus is, despite it being the first food that needed bread but the 3rd dish that came with bread.
The other combo platter we made was the breaded seitan steak with salad and onion rings. Hrm. This seitan steak was…weird. It was super soft ‘seitan’, like you could tell it was maybe made with flour and not vital wheat gluten and not made correctly, and it was suuuuper sweet. It actually tasted like a maple syrup-covered pancake. But it was seitan. Husband couldn’t eat it. I tried. I did not fully succeed.
The other combo platter we made was the breaded seitan steak with salad and onion rings. Hrm. This seitan steak was…weird. It was super soft ‘seitan’, like you could tell it was maybe made with flour and not vital wheat gluten and not made correctly, and it was suuuuper sweet. It actually tasted like a maple syrup-covered pancake. But it was seitan. Husband couldn’t eat it. I tried. I did not fully succeed.
At least this plate looks more like an actual plate of food, right? And that salad was so good. Well, it was average normal green salad with tomatoes and carrots, but I was so happy to see it after all this beige. The onion rings were decent but unnecessary. If I returned, I would combo platter the burger, which we didn’t try and I bet is really good just because of odds, the salad, and the peppers.
This is the point where our story gets very very sad. One of the best parts about B13 is that they have soy milkshakes! And milkshakes are one of the best foods out there! The availability of milkshakes was my #1 reason for wanting to go to B13. You’ve probably already guessed what happened: no milkshakes that day. Sadface.
They did have one last piece of cream cake. Or pie. I am not really sure what this was, but it had a wide layer of light thick sweet cream that was just really really good. The wondrous fluffy cream came on top of a spongy vanilla cake layer, and it was all topped with delicious caramel-ly crushed nuts. So yay for that.
This is the point where our story gets very very sad. One of the best parts about B13 is that they have soy milkshakes! And milkshakes are one of the best foods out there! The availability of milkshakes was my #1 reason for wanting to go to B13. You’ve probably already guessed what happened: no milkshakes that day. Sadface.
They did have one last piece of cream cake. Or pie. I am not really sure what this was, but it had a wide layer of light thick sweet cream that was just really really good. The wondrous fluffy cream came on top of a spongy vanilla cake layer, and it was all topped with delicious caramel-ly crushed nuts. So yay for that.
thank you. thank you. thank god for you.
B13, MADRID, SPAIN
Water speed: Hooray for a carafe, though refills were slow.
Service: Staff is mostly behind the bar, which we were near, so we could talk to them easily.
Bathrooms: One or two very typical bar bathrooms.
Food: Disappointing if you want great food (or anything you were jonesing for on the menu), but good if you just need somewhere vegan.
Bonus: An all-vegan place in the middle of any city is pretty cool!
Water speed: Hooray for a carafe, though refills were slow.
Service: Staff is mostly behind the bar, which we were near, so we could talk to them easily.
Bathrooms: One or two very typical bar bathrooms.
Food: Disappointing if you want great food (or anything you were jonesing for on the menu), but good if you just need somewhere vegan.
Bonus: An all-vegan place in the middle of any city is pretty cool!
