Welcome to Vegan Quarantine: Day 18. This daily video series is my way of keeping spirits high in the vegan community while also supporting independent vegan business, charities, and musicians.
You may have seen my post from last week about all the amazing vegan food that I sampled in New York City during my 48-hour visit earlier this year… but there was one place that was so impressive that it deserved a blog post of its very own!
Orchard Grocer in Manhattan’s Lower East Side is one of the best-stocked vegan stores I’ve ever been to in my life, which just happens to share a retail space with a vegan shoe shop. It is filled to the brim with incredible products that are hard to find anywhere else. I was so full from my previous eating that I didn’t even get to try the house-made sandwiches but I’ve heard REALLY good things about them from others. Anyway, enough chit-chat… check out these photos:
Orchard Grocer, NYC
It was so overwhelming seeing this many incredible vegan products in one spot. Check out my Instagram video of the cheese selection:
For those who have visited Moo Shoes in NYC previously, you’ll be interested to know that Orchard Grocer actually takes up half of the store. Moo Shoes is now using just half of its original space while Orchard Grocer takes up the rest. Read more about Orchard Grocer on their website and be sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram. Happy drooling!
Earlier this year I was in New York City for just two days and obviously had to eat as much vegan food as possible in that time period. So without further ado, here is a photo-heavy collection of what I ate.
First stop: 100% vegan Champs Diner in Brooklyn where my dining companions and I devoured the following:
Champs Diner – BBQ Tempeh Wings
Champs Diner – Sweet Potato Fries
Champs Diner – Hangover Hashbrowns
Champs Diner – French Toast Slam
Champs Diner – Amazing vegan milkshakes
I love Champs so much. Everything was delicious and I can’t wait to go back to NYC just for them!
Superiority Burger – The famous Superiority Burger. Tasty but tiny.
Superiority Burger – Burnt Broccoli Salad
Superiority Burger – A broccoli rabe side
Overall I wasn’t blown away by Superiority Burger. Everything was tasty but the fact that they aren’t 100% vegan and that they have tiny servings would probably keep me from going back in a hurry. However, they did redeem themselves by having a poster of Divine on the wall:
Superiority Burger – Divine was watching over us!
Still a little peckish, we excitedly remembered that 100% vegan Dunwell Doughnutsnow have a location in the East Village just minutes away from Superiority Burger…
Dunwell Doughnuts in the East Village, NYC
Outrageous deliciousness from Dunwell Doughnuts
Dunwell Doughnuts – Choc chip doughnut… out of this world!
Dunwell Doughnuts are amazing and they have locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan so there’s no excuse not to try them. The staff in both locations are lovely and our upon entering the shop and seeing my eyes glaze over at the sight of so much vegan deliciousness, the server correctly summed up the situation as “an embarrassment of donut riches”. How very true!
It could have been the same day or it could have been the next… it’s all a blur. Either way, at some point during my 48 hours in NYC my sister and I decided to head down to Nolita/Chinatown to try the pan-Asian dishes at 100% vegan LuAnne’s Wild Ginger.
LuAnne’s Wild Ginger in NYC
Wild Ginger – Fresh Rolls
Wild Ginger – Crispy Wontons
Wild Ginger – Pad Thai
Wild Ginger – Basil Garlic Eggplant with String Beans
On my final morning in NYC, I was catching the train to Philly from Penn Station. Rather fortuitously 100% vegan The Cinnamon Snail now have a permanent location in The Pennsy, a kind of tricky-to-find food court in the Penn Station/Madison Square Garden complex. FGV has written about TheCinnamon Snail food truck in the past and I was certainly no stranger to their delicious sweet and savoury offerings. Seeing them with a permanent location was very exciting and their amazing array of sweet treats had me drooling.
The Cinnamon Snail at the Pennsy
The Cinnamon Snail – an incredible array of sweet treats
I had to start with the savoury offerings and I got the incredible Korean BBQ tortilla…
The Cinnamon Snail – Korean BBQ Seitan on a grilled tortilla
… while my dining companion got the Red Curry Grilled Tofu roll:
The Cinnamon Snail – Red Curry Grilled Tofu roll
As expected, everything was incredible and of course I couldn’t leave without two delicious donuts:
The Cinnamon Snail – donuts!
So that was my 48 hours in New York City. What good spots did I miss? Where should check out next time?
If you have visited these pages recently, you wil be well aware of my current trip around the USA in search of vegan food.
These travels landed me in New York City, where Josh and I have been hitting up food trucks, cafes, grocery stores and restaurants all in our quest for tasty treats. Josh has decided to take the controls for this post and tell you all about our experiences with a vegetarian Thai food outlet in the East Village.
Marshmallow wrapped in chocolate with a biscuit base.
If the above sentence is the key to my FGV heart, my affections well and truly rest in the hands of Sweet & Sara. This confectionery company has been churning out irresistible snacks for years and are unmatched in the field of vegan marshmallow production. From their entirely-vegan premises in New York City, Sweet & Sara gift the world with chocolate bark, biscotti, macaroons, marshmallows and the world famous smores.
During my recent US vacation, I have taken every Sweet & Sara smores sighting as a sign that I must eat one. My intuition is usually spot on and in this case, foolproof. The smores are chewy and delectable. With their chocolate shell, cookie base and fluffy inside, I can’t think of another compact snack that captures my affections the way this one does. Start picking out your wedding outfits…it is true love.
