i just got the news that starting today, native foods in westwood is offering 5 new flavors of homemade vegan cookies!
native animal cookies shaped like chef tanya's favorite animal. $2.95 per bag
i haven’t tried them yet, but the pictures are adorable and the menu descriptions sound delicious. just check out all the cookies they have to offer…
now apparently this cookie offer is just a test run, and these treats are available at the westwood location only. so head on over there and try some! if you like them, buy a few bags…and hopefully they will continue to remain available.
who doesn’t love fresh homemade vegan cookies?!?
native foods
1110 1/2 Gayley Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 209-1055
As Sister Margaret said to Maria in The Sound of Music: “When one door closes, another opens”. The door above has, thankfully opened and what lays behind it is very special indeed. Exactly a year ago today, I first heard about a new brewery opening in Eagle Rock yet couldn’t find out anything at all to corroborate the rumor. To be honest, on that day I was more focused on heading over to Doomie’s “all you can eat” swan-song event at Southgate, where one of our favorite chefs took over an art studio and cooked his entire stock of food following the closure of his space at Roberto’s Club in Chinatown.
Now, though I’m very pleased that I can drown my sorrows of Doomie’s demise at the brand, spanking new Eagle Rock Brewery. Often rumored, sometimes previewed and certainly heavily anticipated, Eagle Rock Brewery has been teasing me since November as I’ve enjoyed their brews in most of the bars I frequent. I’ve had the XPA or Mild in Verdugo Bar, Blue Palms, The York, BoHo and (of course) Pure Luck and every time I’ve very much appreciated the taste and quality of the brew.
The brewery is located in an Eagle Rock industrial park, at the intersection of Delay Drive and Roswell Street (sounds like a cold-war era space alien conspiracy thing, right?) and has no exterior signage, so be very careful to note down the exact street number of the building, or you’ll be lost forever.
Finally, after two years of construction and LA County Dept. of Building Safety bullshit, Eagle Rock Brewery opened the doors of their tap room this past Friday. Now, a tap room is a special place. It’s not a typical bar per-se, and there’s rarely food (although Eagle Rock Brewery thoughtfully puts out pretzel bowls for the customers), but you do get to enjoy the brewery’s beers served by, and often in the presence, of the brewers themselves in the shadow of the brewery.
I’m used to gritty tap-rooms with oafish brewers (the large, white guy type with a long beard) who begrudgingly serve a dribble of lukewarm beer in the bottom of a tasting glass, yet I’m pleased to say that Eagle Rock Brewery was quite the opposite. The tap room has a proper bar with stools, shiny stainless steel taps and comfortable tables for you to sit at with your friends.
When we were there, a very nice lady served our beers and was overjoyed to be telling us about the brewery’s new products, as well as give tasting notes.
Talking of tasting, we were lucky enough to sample all three of the brewery’s current taps:
Revolution XPA: (a TLA for eXtra Pale Ale) This refreshing beer has a good balance of tangy palate with a delightfully hoppy finish. Although it’s absolutely tasty, I can’t help thinking there’s an IPA (India Pale Ale) in there waiting to get out, and I think this brew – above all their others – has the most promise for some very interesting variations (double hopped, anybody?!).
Solidarity Black Mild: The archetypal English mild: A session beer (meaning one can drink a lot of it without falling over) – low in alcohol and very malty. My late grandfather used to drink pints of this ad-infinitum back in the 60s and 70s. Malty ain’t my thing particularly, but this is actually quite drinkable. I could see several of these disappearing rather quickly in a typical afternoon session!
Manifesto Eagle Rock Wit: Now you’re talking. This beer tastes like something you’d find in a Bavarian Beerkellar (and I mean Bavaria, Germany not Bavaria, Kansas). It’s a white beer, very wheaty at the base and somewhat cloudy. There’s a citrus edge throughout followed by a smooth, flowery ending – probably because of the coriander and rose petals (yeah, they add rose petals – what a great idea!).
In case you’re missing the vibe here (it took me a while), Eagle Rock Brewery has a neo-Soviet cold war angle: Revolution, Solidarity, Manifesto and “Beer for the People”, along with the eagle and wheat logo. This written and visual imagery takes me right back to Vladivostok in the early 60s, and drinking on a street named Roswell is the icing on the cake.
You can take a tour of the brewery during opening hours and there’s a Beer Education Series, where they explore and teach the fine art of brewing. In the next workshop, the brewers will explain about malts and how they affect the taste of one’s beer. You don’t have to be a brewer to appreciate these classes, but you have to be a beer lover for sure.
Wherever you run into Eagle Rock Brewery – be it in your local bar or a visit to the tap room, you’ll enjoy what you find. The beers are up there with the best, and there’s a dedicated and friendly team to bring it all together. Eagle Rock Brewery: We have HIGH expectations of your future, and I’m sure there will be many supporters of your business. Keep the beer flowing.
Fiiiiinally, the beers are not clarified with animal-based finings (so are completely vegan). The fact that Ben Ling’s Pure Luck serves it is good enough for me.
Eagle Rock Brewery
3056 Roswell Street
Los Angeles, Ca 90065
Tap Room Hours Open To Public:
Friday + Saturday 4-10pm
Sunday 12-6pm
the wait is finally over, and the vegan-friendly vietnamese food truck mandoline grill is ready to hit the streets of los angeles. we were at their launch party today at the verdugo, and although they are still working out some of the kinks, the food was overall bomb!
mandoline grill was supposed to start serving at 3pm today, but sadly they didn’t start taking orders until around 3:40. thankfully, the verdugo is a great bar with plenty of beers on tap and a comfortable atmosphere where you can easily lose yourself. when the truck finally began taking orders, it turned into a bit of a clusterfuck. we waited in line for awhile, placed our orders, and stood waiting about 50 minutes for our food to be ready. oh well, considering it’s mandoline grill’s first day on the job, we were definitely willing to cut them some slack.
i was with a grip of hungry peeps, so we literally ordered everything vegan on the menu. here’s a rundown of our haul (in descending menu order of course…)
vegan cha gio. $4
first up, my dining companions sitting opposite me ordered the cha gio, some fried spring rolls stuffed with fake meat and vegetables. since our last visit, mandoline grill has upped the portion size of the cha gio. this stuff is tasty, huge, fried, and cheap…win/win/win/win.
lemongrass tofu banh mi. $6
next up, my husband and i shared a lemongrass tofu banh mi. at 6 bucks, this sandwich cost a dollar more than the mandoline grill banh mi we had last time, but was a full 6 inches longer as well! the sandwich was massive, hearty, fresh, and full of some of the most amazing marinated tofu i’ve ever eaten.
rice vermicelli lemongrass tofu bowl. $6
we also got a lemongrass tofu noodle bowl, which tasted good… but not nearly as good as the banh mi. it came with the same perfect tofu that the sandwich did, but on a bed of thin cold noodles to be eaten w/ chop sticks.
cha gio noodle bowl. $6
lastly, my friend sitting beside me ordered the cha gio noodle bowl which was basically like the tofu noodle bowl, but w/ spring rolls plopped on top rather than tofu. she agreed that it was tasty, but the banh mi was better.
although we waited ages for our food today, i really want to encourage y’all to check out mandoline grill asap. they are a small food truck and almost half the menu is vegan…that alone deserves our support.
today they may have been a bit overwhelmed by the long lines…
and the spotty rain on their launch day.
best of luck, mandoline grill!!!! we can’t wait to eat more of your food.
Whereas a beach cafe in my home country of England looks, shall we say, a tad less exotic, especially on a rainy, blustery October day. However, while the Paradise Cove might LOOK attractive from the outside, what’s inside it is positively ugly. Tanks of dying “fresh seafood” – lobsters, crustaceans and even fish waiting to be plucked and cooked in boiling water.
VBites, on the other hand, is a wonderful and entirely vegan cafe on the “English Riviera” at Hove, just west of Brighton on the South Coast. Yeah, there’s no sandy beach outside the door or palm trees waving in the wind but what’s inside will warm you right to your soul on the coldest of winter days.
Once you walk through the doors of VBites, it’s like being transported to a city-center cafe like you’d find in London or New York. Bright colors adorn the walls, and everything is light wood, concrete, stainless steel or funky plastic. Right away, you know you’re somewhere different as the first thing you see is a large bar dining area with a “cupcake conveyor belt” rotating, you guessed it, many varieties of vegan cupcakes past your nose as you eat. It was off hours when we went there, so sadly the belt was not operational which is a pity.
To the left of the bar is a children’s play area with soft mats and toys – a real boon to vegan parents who can pop their toddler in a safe environment and keep an eye on them while they eat. What a great idea!
Towards the rear of the restaurant is the dining room which has a long bar down one side and comfortable tables along the other. Funky music, cool lighting and bright decor really did make me feel very urban, not at all like I was sitting a few feet form the beach.
The huge menu is delightfully varied, and has to be one of the best I’ve ever seen at an entirely vegan restaurant. You can start the day with a tofu scramble or vegan full English breakfast, then eat your way through plenty of lighter options such as burgers, hot dogs, nachos, sandwiches, and salads. If you choose to go for a romantic dinner in the evening, there’s also a full-on lunch menu, and a long list of entrees (Italian, Indian, you name it!). Additionally, there’s a “build your own vegan pizza” option with tons of toppings, all baked on dough specially brought in from Italy.
Nachos with soya melted cheese, salsa and guacamole. £4.75
We opted for some down to earth comfort food: nachos followed by bangers and mash. The service was very fast and attentive, the food arrived extremely well presented, and didn’t hang around long on the table. The nachos were awesome – home baked chips, salsa, guacamole and cheezly cheese topped off with jalapenos and a lime.
Soya bangers and mash with onion gravy. £6.95
The traditionally English “bangers and mash” sincerely blew us away. Creamy, buttery mashed potatoes (probably the best I’ve had since becoming vegan) topped with three hearty VBites sausages and smothered in a rich, creamy onion gravy. I know my description sounds like something off a menu, but those adjectives are all highly accurate, I can assure you!
Our only regret when we visited VBites is that we were on the south coast for just a few hours, and had to get back to London for the evening otherwise we would have tried far more things on the menu. On the way out there are fridges full of VBites food items (VBites is the brand formerly knows as Redwood Foods) so you can get many of the ingredients to take home and prepare. The bangers, cheezly, fake meats, burgers etc. are all available at the same prices you can pick them up in a supermarket.
Oh, and talking of prices, VBites is remarkably inexpensive considering what you get. The portions are large, the prices are low and you’d usually expect to pay a heck of a lot more considering the beach location and standard of decor and service.
Finally, there’s one more contrasting fact between our English version of a beach cafe and what exists in America: NO BEACH VIEW. Yeah, due to the crazy winds on English Channel there’s a large storm wall and built-up promenade between VBites and the sea.
That’s not a bad thing, though, as our beaches are a lot less picturesque than the ones in Southern California. Just ask Holly Walsh who made this great video just a mile or two from VBites:
seriously, these brownies couldn’t be any easier to make. you just defrost the batter, pour it in a pan, and bake it for 30 minutes. the brownies come out soft and fluffy with just the right amount of crispy-ness around the edges!
i never ever bake, and these things came out great even for me. my only issue with them was they were falling apart a little until i let them cool for a while. maybe that’s normal though…i dunno.
each package of brownie batter makes an 8″x8″ dish, and costs $7.50. i think that’s a pretty good deal for the taste and convenience. i can’t wait to order another batch.
hit up luscious for more ordering info. and hooray for easy, lazy vegan baking!!!
today is one of those rare cold rainy days here in los angeles, and what better way to spend it than with a big bowl of warm comforting noodles? if that sounds like a plan, viet noodle bar is your place. the small minimalist asian cafe located in atwater village has long comfortable communal tables and a vegan-friendly menu. the service is friendly, the food is good, and they know what the word “vegan” means. i first learned about viet noodle bar from a positive review on cute and delicious, and after just one visit there i can tell you i’m a huge fan.
viet noodle bar has a couple clearly marked vegan items on their menu including a tofu banh mi and a tofu noodle bowl. they also have a jackfruit and tofu noodle bowl (pictured above), which the chef confirmed was vegan. as this place serves lots of dishes with fish sauce and mayo, i would urge you to be safe and re-iterate many times to your server that you are vegan. that’s what i did.
anyways, about the noodle bowl…it was absolutely delicious. i was expecting it to be all liquidy and soupy, but it wasn’t. instead it was just a huge pile of soft, thick noodles covered in hunks of jackfruit and fried tofu. plus the crispy rice crackers, fresh cilantro and little bits of onion all added to the amazing combination of flavors. at only $8.50, this thing was way too much food for one person to eat—i was seriously filled to the brim just half way through it.
if you want a big hot mess of tasty asian noodles for under 10 bucks, free of fish sauce, in a chilled out environment…well then definitely check out viet noodle bar. i know i am gonna make an excuse to go there next time i’m anywhere near silverlake.
viet noodle bar
3133 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90036
323 906 1575
Open Daily 11am to 10pm
