ATXFBA City Guide: Austin’s Late Night Vegan Food

I’ve tried to write this post a zillion times. The first post, years ago, spawned into my Austin Vegan Guide, I keep updating it and now it contains almost a hundred vegan friendly places in town. I also wrote a SXSW vegan guide last year that was supposed to have late night options too, but I started writing all sorts of other festival related stuff. The thing is, when it comes to Austin, I can’t just STFU. I have so much to recommend! This post is part of the Austin Food Blogger’s Alliance’s city guide so check it out and especially see my fellow vegans work, Lizz Delicious on Date Night, and soon Red Hot Vegans on Desserts, and The Little Red Journal on Healthy Eats. There are tons of categories from gluten free breakfast to vegetarian trailers to cocktails so it’s really super cool and comprehensive. I’m going to try and keep this late night list mostly to favorites because that’ll be plenty and if you just need a reference about the town you can check out the main guide where I try to mention when places are open late or if you are visiting try The Vegan Tour it has maps!

Downtown 6th Street and Red River is kind of the epicenter of bar life in Austin. Usually Friday and Saturdays find 6th street closed down to cars as a million students, tourists, frat boys, locals, yokels, cops and every other kind of night owl converge as a drunken hungry horde. Red River still has a lot of music venues keeping people dancing….or, more often, occasionally nodding to the beat and taking pictures of the band with their cellphones. 

Hoboken Pizza- open until 2:30am Red River & 7th. Vegan Pizza on Red River with Daiya.

Be More Pacific- 5th & Colordao. This Filipino truck moves around every day but seems to end up here most late nights. Check the schedule. The Adobo Tofu and the fried rice can both be made vegan. Open until 2am

Wok Around Austin 529 Brazos St At this trailer you pick jasmine rice, brown rice, or noodles, then a sauce and then a protein.

El Sol y La Luna 600 East 6th Street. This tex-mex restaurant has tons of different options like veggie chorizo, tofu tacos, and spinach and mushroom enchiladas. Open 11 on weekdays and 1 am on the weekend. Closed early sunday.

Chi’Lantro BBQ, Korean BBQ trailer, has a fab tofu taco for 2 dollars. And spicy fries. Location changes daily, you can also follow them on twitter cause they have two trailers that usually end up downtown. Will probably be open until at least 2am during the weekend. This is where I usually go after the bars if I’m downtown.

Rainey Street  If you go a couple of streets down towards the river you will find the Rainey Street area which is all super trendy bars and hotspots with maybe a slightly older crowd. 

G’raj Mahal 91 Red River An Indian trailer with table service under a tent. Very vegan friendly and open until 2am on the weekend.

Bangers This bar has a zillion beers on tap, a little dog park, and a full sausage oriented menu but they make a vegan sausage! Also boiled peanuts, fries, a veggie plate, a fruit plate, and even a jar of pickles.

Eastside If you keep walking down sixth street under the highway you will soon find yourself on the eastside which is so hip you can find kombucha on tap and heavy late night bicycle traffic.

Arlo’s Austin- 1104 E. 6th on the Cheer Up Charlies patio. An all vegan trailer with the best Bac’n Cheeze Burger in town or maybe the world. Plus, a BBQ burger, Chili Dogs, Chick’n Tacos, and Chip & Guac. Open 8pm to 2am Thursday, Friday and Saturday. My review

Miso Hungry- Pan Asian trailer next to Cheer Up Charlies and Arlo’s. Vegan Bahn Mi open until 2am on the weekend.

Via 313 - 6th & Waller. Trailer with Detroit Style Pizza with follow your heart cheese. Open til 2am on the weekends.

Fire and Soul 1104 East 6th Spicy vegan corn dog, deep fried avocado balls and sweet potato fries. Open until midnight on weekdays 2am on weekends. Closed Sunday

Handshakes 1104 East 6th Creative milkshake stand with many vegan options. Open til 2am Friday & Saturday. Closed Sunday.

Everywhere Else If you are in a car you will want to pretty much avoid the areas above and hit up a place where you can park..and actually drive.

Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse- 1900 South 1st. The tofu scramble is next level. You can get it in anything on the menu including the omelette which are fabulous. Also try with the vegan queso, the homemade veggie chorizo and the potato hash cake. The breakfast tacos are really good. Ask for the special tea menu. They also have fantastic baked goods from Happy Vegan Baker and Red Rabbit Doughnuts. The kitchen is open until 11:45pm and I love that you can order breakfast at night but they have entrees too like the delicious BLT.

Black Sheep Lodge- 2108 Lamar, I love the sweet potato fries, they also have veggie burgers and a portabella sandwich and fried jalapeño strips breaded in cornmeal that are delicious. And tater tots. And really good beer. Serves food til midnight and 1 on Saturday but open later.

Gueros- South Congress. Special vegan part on the menu. Get a margarita (or several) while you wait. Also chips and salsa that you get yourself the best Vegan Queso in the world. Mmm vegan meat. I like the taco salad and the tostada.  Open until 11 Thur-Sun

Habana- 2728 South Congress. vegetarian friendly Cuban food and delicious tropical cocktails. I love this place! You can even sit in a little cabana hut. Here is a list of of what is vegan. I love the monfongo and the quinbombo and tons of plantains. And the servers have always seemed very knowledgeable. Open until 11 Fri & Sat

Curra’s- 614 E. Oltorf St. Great Mexican food and amazing avocado margaritas. They have a veggie taco plate with homemade chorizo and super fat tamales, both bean and veggie. The rice is not vegan but they let you double up on the beans. Also Food For Lovers queso. Make sure you say no cheese. Open until 11 on Fri & Sat.

The Hole in the Wall East Side King- Beet fries, Brussels sprouts stir fry. It is a trailer behind the Hole in the Wall and one of my top faves.

Thai Kitchen- multiple locations. Open til midnight on the weekend at the Guadalupe location but the others close earlier. Typical thai. Green Curry is popular.

The Parlor- 4301 Guadalupe St has vegan pizza with follow your heart cheese and veg sausage My favorite pizza in town. m-f open til midnight. 1am sat

24 hour places 

24 Diner- Across the street from Whole Foods next to Waterloo music is this diner that is open around the clock. Veggie Po’Boy and a Veggie Burger on the menu.

Kerbey Lane- Multiple locations in every part of town. 24 hour diner. Vegan pancakes. Tacos. Sweet potato fries and all sorts of other stuff. I am not a fan of their homemade ”soysauge” but almost everything else is pretty good and I especially love that they bring vegan butter with the pancakes. Your best bet for 4 am.

Bennu Coffee- 2001 E. MLK Blvd 24 hours Daiya Pizza from Hoboken, tacos, green cart wraps and cupcakes from Happy Vegan Baker

Star Seeds has a couple vegan items and it’s 24 hours so I am adding it but I wouldn’t really recommend it.

Magnolia is another 24 hour diner that just isn’t very vegan friendly even though it’s very vegetarian friendly. They love their butter and cheese so I don’t recommend even trying but I thought I’d mention it so you know to stay away if you can because it is really popular.

The Buzz Mill- 1505 Town Creek (off Riverside) 24 bar and coffee shop with vegan pastries from Sugar Circus. I haven’t even been there but it’s the only late night vegan option I know of on East Riverside. I’m sure by the time I hit “post” 10 new places will have opened up.

If you have a favorite that I didn’t add please put it in the comments!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope that you already made plans if you want to do something with your sweetie tonight. I know Counter Culture and Bouldin Creek are both doing special fancy dinners. If they are sold out, there are chocolate covered strawberries galore at places like Mr. Natural and the Daily Juice. And of course sundaes and now hard packed ice cream at Sweet Ritual. I’ve been lusting over the pictures. If you’re a Valentine’s Day hater the Alamo is doing a Love Bites sing-a-long which I so want to go to. We started celebrating early by going to Capital City Bakery yesterday and I want to go back today – before they sell out- to get some broken heart cookies for my friends. Dan got us a six pack of cuppies.

They are so good.

They also have pretty glittery cookies.

And non glittered for the broken hearts

My person has to work tonight but don’t worry about me, I’ll be cuddling with the snuggliest beagles in the world wearing my “eat your heart out I’m Serbian” T-shirt in true Lazy Smurf style.

Cherrywood Coffeehouse: Vegan Breakfast tacos and coffee, what more do you need

Last night I was at the Vegan Nom with, what can only be described as a plethora of vegans including the wonderful organizers of Vida Vegan Con, and I learned that the Cherrywood Coffeehouse’s vegan taco options are not as well known as I, a taco connoisseur, would have guessed. In fact, someone even accused me of “holding out”. I took this comment to heart and decided to put things right by breaking out the old blogging machine and posting some pics less than 24 hours later. If that’s not service, I don’t know what is.

Cherrywood coffeehouse is a lovely little spot right of 35 next to the monarch convenient store on 38 1/2 street. They have salads, hummus tacos and sandwiches, and smoothies along with espresso and beer but the real draw for me is their breakfast tacos with their delightful shoestring potatoes.

The range of vegan ingredients is extensive and I think they are the only place in town that puts deep fried tofu cubes in a taco…with deep fried potatoes. Ah, the healthy vegan diet.  They also have soyrizo, guacamole, mushrooms, refried beans, and lime rice. I always have a really hard time deciding but the last time I went with an tex-mex theme for one (tofu, potato, and guac on flour) and a Mexican theme (beans, rice, and mushrooms on corn) for the other and it worked out really well. And I didn’t have to eat again for the rest of the day because these suckers are pretty big.

It can get really busy during prime brunch hours, especially if it’s a nice day and the patio fills up, but on weekdays you can always find a table. And they serve breakfast tacos all day so check it out next time the taco craving strikes.

 

Texas VegFest Needs Volunteers

Last year was the first VegFest for Austin, even though we have been known for our veg-friendly ways for a thousand years. It took a group of people who were prepared to just get shit done to finally make it happen. I’m always amazed by the hard work and dedication that people have. I get overwhelmed organizing my pantry so I don’t know how these folks organize all the vendors, permits, bands, speakers, and god knows what else that goes into making such a huge and successful event. I know one of the most important aspects is that tons of people volunteer to help out and (obviously if you read the title) I am going to ask that you consider helping out too! There are great perks like you get to meet a bunch of awesome people, you get to go to the fest, you get to help the community and the animals, and when people ask you “what did you do over the weekend” you can have a better answer than “I layed around getting caught up on the past week’s general hospital on Hulu”. You get a cute T-shirt too so you can prove that you went to all the naysayers that didn’t believe you.

There are jobs for all skill levels so if you’d rather help with the planning and administration or work with kids, or clean the whole thing up afterwords, you will be able to find a spot.

Right now they are looking for Volunteer Team Leaders, the first volunteer meeting for team leaders is February 9. Team leaders are people who want to head up a group of volunteers on the day of the festival and in some cases in the weeks before for tasks like sending out flyers. They’ll have a more active role than your average volunteer. They can contact esti@texasvegfest.com to sign up.

They will also need volunteers in general to help with speakers, music, booths, entry, kids’ activities, set up, tear down, and general tasks. People can sign up for that on the website here: http://www.texasvegfest.com/volunteer/

So sign up and help make the fest super awesome.

Top Ten Austin Vegan Eats for 2012

2012 was such a great year for vegans in Austin, Rabbit Food Grocery pop-up shops expanded to include all sorts of hard to find vegan items from condoms to chocolate covered Twinkies they have got it all. Capital City Bakery and Sugar Circus both opened up their doors to cupcake loving vegans and both have fantastic reviews. Sweet Ritual added chocolate dipped homemade waffle cones to their menu and had a successful kickstarter for hardpacked ice cream, and both Sweet Ritual and Cap City made into the Chronicle’s best of Austin. Arlo’s moved their game-changer vegan burgers to Cheer-Up Charlies where ATX Vegan Drinks started having monthly events, many participated in the Worldwide vegan bakesale,and the bakesale for SARA animal sanctuary and we raised a ton of money for animal sanctuaries in Texas. Counter Culture opened their doors to their long awaited brick and mortar restaurant on the eastside. Green Island Catering started selling readymade vegan meals at the Daily Juice and hosted yet another Vegan Party Barge. Juiceland opened two more northern restaurants, the Steeping Room opened a second location, Austin Java opened an incredibly vegan friendly location on the westside, a ton of bloggers joined our happy vegan blogosphere, and that’s just off the top of my head!

My top ten is an annual tradition of what I liked the best this year, there are always repeats because I eat them all the time and I don’t want you to miss them! Other things have fallen off the list due to declining quality (using a shit-ton of turmeric in a breakfast taco for example). This year it was harder than ever to keep it to ten, somehow there wasn’t room for my beloved Bouldin Creek which I promise hasn’t declined in quality, but here is what I’ve got.

Brunch at Counter Culture.

The Potato Bowl

If there is one thing that I really wanted in Austin it was a place to sit around enjoying vegan brunch. A place to get your tofu scramble AND sausage that wasn’t chorizo or disgusting, just some good-old American vegan sausage. And fresh juice. And coconut water. Oh and maybe some tempeh bacon. And some french toast. Usually I prefer Mexican breakfast but Counter Culture gives me the option for Mexican or traditional American and your don’t have to wait an hour to sit down….yet. With Rabbit Food Grocery hosting their pop-up shops on Sunday it’s certainly become the can’t miss weekend event.

La Condesa Vegan Platter- I feel like this is the best secret menu item of all time. La Condesa has become my go to place for nice vegan meals because they have a fantastic atmosphere, the service is great, the cocktails are unique, they have 6 different salsas and four guacamoles, and the platter is always remarkable. I promise some day soon I’ll take my camera and take notes so I can properly blog about it but it’s always different every time. Truthfully, I also end up drinking too many fancy cocktails. They even have a vegan dessert. So go there next time you want to be pampered and check out Vegan Explosion’s post for an actual description.

The Specials at Capital City Bakery

Thanksgiving Pecan Pie with Caramelized Marshmallows on top, Mini Apple Pies with a side of coconut ice cream, and Cinnamon Roll Saturdays are what make me go to this magnificent vegan trailer more than I should. I think Kristen’s dedication to heard work and high quality is her secret and she makes the best baked goods I’ve ever had. Everything is just so perfect.

Wasota Vegan Platter 

This got number one last year and I couldn’t resist putting it on the list again. I just love everything about Wasota and every element of this platter is addictive and just so crave-able  Dan and I both will save leftovers only to eat them cold from the fridge at the first opportunity. I don’t know where they get their pixie dust but it sure would like to buy some and put it on all my food

Tom Kha Soup at Little Thai Food This soup has become my number one obsession, I blogged about it a while back, so check it out. Basically its the best Thai coconut soup I can remember ever having and perfect for dreary weather days.

Austin Cream Pie from Red Rabbit Bakery

Everyone loves the doughnuts from Red Rabbit Bakery. Honestly, that is kind of weird and just goes to show how great they are. People don’t even complain about them on yelp! And people complain about everything on yelp. I love all of their doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, bread, and apple fritters, but those cream filled doughnuts that you can only get at the dang farmer’s market are easily my favorite.

Chocolate Covered Waffle Cone Sundae’s from Sweet Ritual

I don’t think you really need me to describe these, just re-read the title. And yeah, the one in the photo is topped with chick-o-sticks.

Arlo’s Bacon Cheezeburger

When this trailer opened I was a little excited that there was another vegan trailer opening, but then I read the menu and thought, eh veggie burgers. The next thing I knew everyone was raving about them. One bite was all it took for me to become totally hooked. Their homemade patties topped with tofu bacon don’t sound nearly as delicious as their execution makes them. Plus Arlo’s is next to the vegan bar Cheer Up Charlies and you can get french fries and vegan milkshakes from other trailers in the trailer park next door to create a full 50s diner style meal.

The Salads at Juiceland 

While it might be true that the lure of The Originator smoothie is what brings me to Juiceland all the time I am constantly amazed by how much I adore their salads. I don’t even usually like salad. First I was hooked on the Soba Noodle Kale salad, then I finally tried the Quinoa Ranchero and that was all I wanted to eat for weeks. Though it was hard I finally, skipped it tried the Double Rainbow Quinoa salad and I loved it too! Juiceland amazes me!

The Tofu Vermicelli Bowl at Lulu B’s

This year I traveled quite a bit and I went to Vietnamese restaurants all over the place and I am more sure than ever that the vermicelli bowl from Lulu B’s belongs on this list, as it has every year I’ve been doing the list! I brought a couple of friends who had just spent the last 6 months in Thailand and Vietnam with me one day, they were so sick of noodles that they didn’t order anything and then they couldn’t believe how good my dish was and wanted to go back. Lulu B’s fantastically grilled tofu mixed with their always fresh ingredients and spicy vegetarian sauce always keeps them a step ahead of everyone else.

Best New Product – GoodSeed Organic Burger & Breakfast Sausage

I used to love the food truck down on Oltorf and I am thrilled that the people behind the trailer are selling their burger all over the place now, you can pick it up at Farmer’s Markets, Wheatsville, Greenling, Ingredients, and tons of other local spots. Additionally, some restaurants are now using the patty including Javelina, Snack Bar, Red’s Porch, and the Violet Crown Theater! I love buying a prepackaged burger from a company I completely trust that’s filled with organic non-gmo healthy ingredients.

Most Missed- Toy Joy

Thank all that is good that we still have Sweet Ritual but I will really miss the vegan ice cream at Toy Joy. I already missed the vegan cafe Dhaba Joy that used to be there. Not only do I adore their ice cream and late hours, but I also was always loved to bring friends there because instead of “vegan ice cream wtf” they would be all excited about Hello Kitty and Star Trek toys. Plus now I won’t have a reason to wander around buying toys I don’t need while waiting for my milkshake. It’s a sad sad closure.

If you live in Austin tell me what your favorites were. I love seeing everyone’s list.

Ruta Maya Coffee Trailer on South First

The Bouldin Creek Trailer Park is becoming my favorite park. Sure, part of it is that it directly on South First which I travel down every single day and I’m not always one for leaving my side of town. It’s always had different vegan friendly establishments moving in and out but once Wasota moved in, it became a top spot in book. Then Little Thai Food moved in and I became obsessed with their Tom Kha and now, the missing element of the east side of the street (I’m no good at left turns you should see my car) was breakfast and now Ruta Maya has come in and potentially changed my morning routine.

Ruta Maya is an Austin institution that’s been around forever and by forever I mean 1990 when it was a downtown spot on 4th to have coffee and talk about organic food, do some Tai Chi, and maybe bring your dog named Marley. They eventually got ousted from downtown and moved to Penn Field on South Congress into a really huge location that had tons of events like drum circles, Brazilian dancing, yoga, shows like Harry and the Potters, free classes and of course their locally roasted coffee. Now they have even been ousted from that location too as Austin gets more and more difficult to hold a lease in. I’ve heard they want to open up a new brick and mortar location but for now, in addition to still selling coffee beans in stores, they have this little trailer on at 1207 S. 1st St in the Bouldin Creek Trailer Park. I noticed it yesterday on my drive downtown and got to try it this morning. So far, it’s the soft opening and they don’t have much of a menu but they were super nice and offered to make me a spinach, mushroom, and black bean taco. I was also very pleased to see that they sold tiny 8oz coffees. I recently fell in love with the small coffee on my trip to New York and they aren’t as ubiquitous in Austin.

It sounds like their new menu is going to have lots of breakfast items but dinner specials too and they were very excited about all their gluten free options, including GF bagels. They will have regular bagels and I kind of begged them to serve vegan cream cheese so cross your fingers that they add that to the menu. If they do, it will probably become my #1 breakfast stop because as much as I desire Whole Foods breakfast tacos, I do not love the line. Also the Bouldin Creek Trailer Park is kind of beautiful, with the sometimes active creek, the nice seating, and shady trees. It’s a great spot. I am excited to see what all they decide for the grand opening in two weeks.

 

Austin’s 24th Annual Vegetarian Chili Cook-Off this Sunday Nov. 11

It doesn’t matter if you would rather eat a great quantity of chili or make a great quantity of chili, the cook-off this Sunday there will be something for everybody rain or shine! I’ve gone in years past and was completely blown away by the different styles of chili. Some teams had a million toppings, some used none. Some were spicy, some were bland, some were burned, at least one was Indian inspired, and I was surprised how much I liked the raw one! Some were packed with vegetables and some were traditional beanless Texas-style bowls of red. In the end I was so full I thought I would never eat again.

They are still looking for volunteers to work the festival and teams to compete for the hundreds of dollars in cash prizes. The people’s choice award will get $200 and a panel of judges, (including me!) will choose 4 winners in 2 categories, “Traditional” and “All Veg”. Second place in each division gets $150, and first prize in each division gets $250! The deadline is today November 7th to enter so get to it!

I think what makes the cook-off so special is that it is the longest running vegetarian chili cook-off in the world and it started right here in Austin! Everything will be vegan and a portion of the door will go to Texas Humane Legislation Network, a grassroots, nonprofit organization that fights for the enactment and enforcement of laws to protect animals from neglect and abuse, acting as the voice for animals in the Texas Legislature. The Cook-Off is returning to the site of the first cook-off in 1989, at the Burnet Road Farmers Market in Austin.

Advance tickets are on sale now and I promise you won’t go home hungry. There will be a lot of vendors selling cupcakes, hemp supplements, funnel cakes, and all sorts of other things you vegans crave. So be there. No matter what. LA is having a cook-off too the same weekend and we need to show them how it’s done.

Get down to the cupcake polls at Cap City!

Austin: cupcakes are going quick so you better get down to Capital City Bakery before they sell out! Mittens started out ahead but now the Obamacakes are the hot commodity with Anarchy close behind.

I loved seeing them all lined up. Anarchists,  Republicans, Democrats and Independents all together. Even plain old pumpkin stood by for the non-citizens, felons, and the disenfranchised among us.  Just like in the so called “official” election green/libertarian/independents were coming in last.

” Go ahead, throw your vote away”

On the other hand, coming in second was the anarchy cakes!I got two Obamacakes for us to either toast with or comfort ourselves with tonight while watching the returns.

My boss, who considers himself quite the anarchist, was thrilled to get his cake. Even though, technically, he is indeed “the man“.Go vote and please also enter to win Food For Lover’s Vegan Queso because it’s also national nacho day!!!

 

Tom Kha Soup at South First’s Little Thai Food

Ever since it turned to autumn I have wanted three things, a movie to watch, a beagle to cuddle with, and a wonderful bowl of soup to eat. The first two are easy but finding delicious vegan soup in Austin can be a challenge. Maybe it’s because it’s so hot most of the year people never honed in on their soup making skills. Maybe the problem is a certain group of dieters trying to remove salt and oil from all things vegan. Maybe people can’t imagine a creamy soup without the dairy crutch. Whatever the reason it means that a lazy smurf like myself has to suffer SUFFER through either poor soup or, of course, just making my own delicious soup. My suffering has come to an end thanks to a little trailer right next to my beloved Wasota on South First called Little Thai Food.

I first tried it on a dark and chilly night after a stop at Vulcan Video. I ordered both the Curry Fried Rice and the Tom Kha soup because soup is not a meal. The ladies working there were super nice and answered all my vegan questions seeming to know exactly what I was talking about. When I got my takeout order I thought I might have gotten someone else’s order because the portions were humongous, it looked like I had enough to feed a family. The Tom Kha comes in one of those large plastic containers that would be, like, 46 dollars at Whole Foods and there is also a carton of rice that comes with the soup. My fried rice on the side was definitely overkill for that one meal. Delicious, fabulous overkill. Since then I’ve been back quite a bit. They know me there. I always get the same thing: that glorious Tom Kha soup. It has enough lime juice and lemongrass that you couldn’t possibly add any more, and I always add more. It also has, what I would consider, a gentle spice from the chiles. There is plenty of tofu, mushrooms, varied appropriate vegetables, and cilantro. Enough to easily spread to two servings (pictured above is half). And then there is the broth coconut and galangal. That’s all you need man. It hits all the Thai flavorings just perfectly it’s hot, sour, salty, and sweet. Basically it’s bursting with flavor and totally forking delicious.

 

Wheatsville has Thanksgiving on the hot bar every Wednesday

And I can’t not go.

Earlier today I got invited to the staff Thanksgiving meal they do every year. Your choice of turkey or ham. I was so annoyed until I remembered that it was Wednesday and all through October Wheatsville is doing thanksgiving on the hot bar and they are donating a portion of the sales to the capital area food bank. So if you don’t go you are missing out and you are kind of a jerk. All the sides are vegan and they always have roasted tofurkey too. I promised myself I wouldn’t eat too much before I went. I stood at the hot bar and looked at the food and said “self, don’t eat too much.

But there was dressing, and mashed potatoes, tofurkey with stuffing, their amazing cranberry almond dressing, mushroom gravy, spicy greens, and mac and cheese. I couldn’t say no to any of it.

Now I need a nap.