Bay Area Vegetarians

Udupi Palace, a vegetarian Indian restaurant with locations in Berkeley, Newark, and Sunnyvale, and other cities outside the Bay Area, has opened this week in the Mission District in SF.  (Happily, that is not a typo!)  It has long been a lament in the vegetarian community about the dearth of vegetarian Indian restaurants in SF while they abound in the South Bay. This is great news for all those folks.

Udupi joins the original Herbivore, Cha Ya, and Cafe Gratitude as the 4th vegetarian restaurant in the Mission.

Udupi Palace – Ultimate Guide: read it, rate it, review it!

Thanks to Winnie for the update.

Local coastsiders, especially those at BAVeg headquarters in Montara, are rejoicing at today’s opening of New Leaf Community Market, a large natural foods store which also has several stores in the Santa Cruz area.

New Leaf Community Market – read it, rate it, review it in the Ultimate Guide

Juicey Lucy’s has closed it’s SF restaurant in North Beach. They are now exclusively focusing on selling at farmer’s markets. We don’t have any more info than that, but once we do, you’ll read it here!

Cafe Soulstice is now in Palo Alto, located in the Equinox fitness center. Serving organic, raw foods. Mostly all vegan, although some food items are sweetened with honey. They currently have 1 other location in the San Mateo Equinox fitness center.

Ultimate Guide info – be the first to review it!

I am happy to report that I am optimistic about this new vegetarian restaurant with a heavy emphasis on vegan food. It’s in San Francisco on Broadway St, just off Montgomery, and probably trekkable from Montgomery BART if you’ve got good leg muscles or are allured by vegan food. The Usual Suspects Cafe, opened by Bob Bosco, is making a splash with local veg folks already. It’s a diner, it’s familiar foods made vegan, it’s great desserts, it’s talented chefs cooking with passion & pride, and they’ve got a commitment to organic, too. (In passing, they mentioned a big percentage of their food is organic; I don’t remember the exact number.)

Just hours after eating there last nite, I wrote the official description review in the Ultimate Guide:

Styled like an American diner, this new face in the SF restaurant scene offers a variety of vegan favorites like pizzas, sandwiches, burger, falafel, lasagna .. and they make their own seitan and sauces/salad dressings/cashew cheese. And, yes, vegan desserts, too. In an interesting twist, there are a few pizzas made with dairy, then it says everything is vegan except items which are marked that can be made vegetarian. Room upstairs available for private parties.

Read the rest of this entry »

New vegetarian restaurant (with an emphasis on vegan foods) just opened in SF, The Usual Suspects. Currently only open Tuesday through Saturday but they anticipate offering a weekend brunch. Check ’em out –

Ultimate Guide: The Usual Suspects

Thanks to Bob for sharing the news!

Welcome to Seed, a new vegan restaurant in the North Bay! Seed is entirely vegan, offering cooked and raw selections. It’s restaurant doors will open May 2nd.

Ultimate Guide: Seed, Santa Rosa

Thanks to Lisa for sharing the good news!

There are now 11 North Bay Vegetarian Restaurants. Any volunteers to host our first Veganauts event in the North Bay? We’re full through summer, openings in Sept and Oct.

After being closed for two months, Vital Ital Calabash re-opened its Berkeley location earlier this month. They have a new phone number, but aside from removing a few items from the menu, it’s the same all-vegan, Jamaican food. The Oakland location remains closed at this time.

Current phone number and hours are available in the
Ultimate Guide: Vital Ital Calabash

Thanks to Greg for this update!

Souley Vegan, a new vegan soul food restaurant, opened on March 11th. Chef/Owner Tamera Dyson also sells vegan soul food at the Oakland Grand Lake Farmer’s Market.

http://www.bayareaveg.org/ug/display.htm?id=838

Thanks to Jenny for sharing the news!

(3/20 – just alerted they are closed for remodelling through the 24th or 25th; call to confirm opening.)

Gillyflower Vegetarian, a Chinese restaurant, closed in January, 2008. It opened in the Fall of 2006 and barely made it a year.