Vegan Pizza Day and Beyond 2012 part 2 of 2
This is one very special day. Saturday, July 1st, 2012. First we went to the grand opening of Native Foods in Santa Monica, then we drove out to the ALL VEGAN grocery store Viva La Vegan. Viva La Vegan is roughly 50 miles from downtown Los Angeles and definitely worth the trip, it’s so awesome and they just expanded so go check them out. We went crazy, I know, and we haven’t even officially started eating pizza yet. After Viva La Vegan we went to three different pizza places to celebrate Vegan Pizza Day. We hit up Pizzanista first and they have one of the best pizzas ever, the “Seitan Meats Jesus” covered in Upton’s Seitan’s. Beg Pizzanista to make this a regular menu item, it’s addictive, I have been thinking about it non-stop ever since. Big New York style slices with the perfect amount of thinly sliced toppings, foldable, delicious. After that we slowly went over to Mohawk Bend and split the vegan truffle mac n cheese calzone, Alix got a salad daze pizza, I got a pranqster. We walked around for a little bit talking about childhood celebrity crushes and what not, you know the usual stuffs. Then we figured why not just top this day off with a deep dish from Masa around midnight.
hi! AMAZING photo skills on this blog. LOVE LOVE LOVE. i'm a vegan in LA. just wondering what your top 3 (in order) restaurants are here and san fran and portland? :)
stacy
Asked by
stacymichelson
This is one of the hardest questions to answer ever. And sorry it took me two months to answer your question. I do love fantasizing about vegan restaurants in other cities. It’s one of my favorite past times. For me an amazing restaurant isn’t just about the food, it’s about the atmosphere and the friends who want to join in on the fun. My favorite restaurants always have great stories.
LOS ANGELES
-I Love Native Foods in Culver City. I love the big group tables. The Chicken Run Ranch Burger with a side of kale is a family staple.
-I’ll go to Pure Luck any day of the week. I went opening night and waited two hours for my meal to arrive but I had friends and drinks with me. I have loved Pure Luck and it’s craziness ever since.
-Madeleine Bistro is one of my favorites, especially for special occasions. Engagement party, Thanksgiving, Valentines Day, I’m here.
Our nice little engagement party at Madeleine Bistro
-I’ve been going to Real Food Daily for 15 years. It’s where I mingle with the old school vegans.
-I’ve also been going to Sunday Brunch on Holidays at Inn of the Seventh Ray for 15 years. Their regular menu has now skimped on the once awesome vegan options.
I love the vegan duck at Inn of the Seventh Ray. The duck is in the top left corner. So many lovely options for brunch.
-Take me to the valley for Follow Your Heart. It’s been around forever.
-I love to go to lunch and brunch at Flore.
-Hook me up with pizza from Purgatory Pizza, Hard Times, Masa.
PORTLAND
I Love Portland. I could go on all day about Portland but I’ll keep this brief.
-Portobello so awesome, the best food
-The Bye And Bye I got engaged here :)
-Vita Cafe I ate here four times in four days
-Sweetpea Bakery and Back to Eden mind blowing!
SAN FRANCISCO
The San Fran area use to be my haven for vegan friendly restaurants. I know it still is a haven but I don’t make as many trips up to San Fran as I use to. So my list is kind of dated.
-Greens Restaurant I still like going here. This use to be the premier vegetarian restaurant that people would travel from all over the world just to visit. It’s still excellent and the location is pretty. The last time I went here I had the worse service in the world but it was so awful and ridiculous it’s actually a long funny story. I’ll be back.
-Millenium I haven’t been in a few years but I’ll always have great memories of Millenium.
-I always stop at Rainbow Grocery and I have a thing for Maggie Mudd sundaes and Ike’s vegan sandwiches.
Thanks for the question. This was actually a pretty fun exercise down memory and taste bud lane.
BONUS
Here is a picture of a cute dog with one eye.
PIZZA, PIZZA PARTY Vegan Pizza Day I’m so excited for Vegan Pizza Day on January 29th, 2011. As many of you know I’m a sincere pizza addict. I honestly can’t believe I can get a vegan pizza at an endless amount of restaurants in Los Angeles. My days of bringing shredded vegan cheese to pizza shops are long gone. If you live in an area that doesn’t have vegan friendly pizza shops bring your own cheese. I’ve never had a shop refuse me. But wow are we so friggin lucky in Los Angeles. Here are some snaps of my favorite pizza hangs and some homemade pies as well. Of course I sometimes enjoy a nice beverage with my slices so I posted some photos of pizzas good friends, beer and ale.
One of my new favorite hangs is Hard Times Pizza. It’s 2 blocks from work. The best Follow Your Heart Cheese Pizza in Los Angeles.
I’m a sucker for the Sunday special $10 pizza with 3 toppings at my local Whole Foods. This is the most inconsistent pizza around though. Sometimes it’s huge, sometimes it’s small. Sometimes they load on the toppings, sometimes they put square slices of Daiya and shredded Daiya on the same pie. Scope out the craziness below. Regardless it’s always pretty good.
Homemade pizza with Follow Your Heart.
This is an awesome deep dish pizza in Austin, Texas. Insane. The Parlor
I dig the ambiance and the vegan options at the Pizza Cookery.
This is definitely one of the best pizzas ever made in an apartment. Made with Teese, homemade pesto and roasted garlic. Pizza Tip of the day: Make a traditional pizza and add a few splashes of pesto on top for absolute magic.
Every once in a while I’ll get pizza at Native Foods. It’s very good. Daiya cheese. Personally I don’t go for personal pizzas usually.
A quick pit stop at at Pizza Guru in Santa Barbara is an awesome experience.
One of our all time favorite pizza shops, Purgatory Pizza in downtown Los Angeles.
Oh my god its Masa of Echo Park. Teese. Best Crust. Deep Dish. So good. Don’t be fooled, there are layers of technology in this pizza. The cheese is underneath, the sauce is on top. Order toppings and they blanket the entire pie, head to toe. Masa is quite the experience.
Vegan Pizza in Las Vegas. Yes it’s for real. And yes it’s awesome. Wynn.
And even frozen vegan pizza. I’m not a frozen pizza guy. But I’ll gladly eat Tofurky pizzas with Daiya any day of the week. I can’t wait until Vegan Pizza Day 2011.
