Restaurant Roundup: Fresh Pizzeria, Au Bon Pain, Black Market Bistro and Chipotle

A busy week prepping for one of my office's major events meant a lot of eating out this week.  I feel like the times when people are pressed for time and on the go are the times when it's easy to fall off the vegan wagon.  Fortunately, there are a ton of options available to make eating out as a vegan easy.

After a late work night Thursday, my husband and I decided to try Fresh Pizzeria on Rockville Pike.  I was disappointed when Z Pizza closed, since it was a reliable source of vegan pizza.  When Fresh Pizzeria took over the space, fortunately, they decided to keep the vegan pizza options open, offering daiya cheese and vegan burger crumbles, and a variety of vegan pies to choose from.

I tried the Vegan Garden Pizza. without olives.  The crust was good and the veggie toppings were fresh.  Additional vegan menu options include the Vegan Fiesta, which has black beans and guacamole, and the Vegan Burger.  You can also make your own vegan pizza.  Also, if you're gluten free, any pizza can be made with a gluten free crust.

Friday, I had to grab a quick lunch before running back to my desk, so I hit up Au Bon Pain.  There are at least five Au Bon Pain locations in walking distance to my office, so it's incredibly convenient.  They seem to have moved away from the "make your own sandwich" slips to more of a set menu, but they will still happily make an off menu sandwich for you.  I chose multigrain bread, avocado, arugula, tomato, onion and cucumbers.  The woman making my sandwich couldn't believe that I didn't want mayo, but I assured her the avocado made an excellent condiment.

I also had a chance to peruse the soups, which are clearly labeled with their ingredients, including milk, so it's easy to choose a vegan soup.  I went with the Barley & Creamy Lentil ,which I found to be hearty and flavorful.

I wish Au Bon Pain had a vegan sandwich on its set menu, but since they offer a variety of veggies, it's easy to make your own sandwich.  Most of the breads are vegan, but note that some include dairy, including the Ciabatta and the Cornbread.  The soup menu includes a plethora of vegan options, including the 12 Veggie, Black Bean, Tomato Lentil, Gazpacho, Tuscan White Bean and Vegetarian Chili.  Not all soups are available every day, but there should be at least one vegan option.


Friday night, we took my parents to Black Market Bistro in Garrett Park.  Black Market Bistro is located in a historic post office, and tucked away in a residential neighborhood, over by the Garrett Park MARC  station.  One of my favorite things about Black Market Bistro are the quality of their salads.  Last night, I had the Black Market Salad, which was a variety of lettuces, orange wedges and almonds with a citrus vinaigrette.  The salad normally comes with goat cheese, but the kitchen was happy to leave it off.

For dinner, I opted for the Black Market Vegetable Plate.  When I asked the server if it was appropriate for a vegan, she shared that the chef normally finishes the dish with butter, but that they could easily omit it.

The veggie plate changes regularly, based on what fresh vegetables are available.  My plate included eggplant, yellow squash, broad beans, cauliflower, asparagus, carrots and wax beans.  It was beautifully seasoned with a variety of fresh herbs and sea salt. As you can see, the portion is enormous, but I easily got three meals out of the plate above, which helps soften the $22 price tag.

Today, my husband and I were running a bunch of errands, and we ended up grabbing a quick lunch at Chipotle.  Chipotle is a fantastic choice for vegans.  Choosing a black bean burrito or bowl with a peppers and onions, any of a variety of salsas and guacamole will make a hearty, satisfying meal.  As it's clearly stated on the Chipotle website and on signage, the pinto beans are cooked with pork, so stick with the black beans if you want to stay vegan. 

My preferred meal is a burrito bowl with brown rice, black beans, peppers and onions, fresh tomato salsa, chili corn salsa, guacamole and lettuce.

I know living in the DC area means I have a ton of food options, but, no matter where you live, vegan options can be plentiful.  What are some of your favorite vegan menu options?

Vegetarian on the Road - East Coast City Edition

Well, so much for my editorial structure I promised to stick to last week.  One of the things about traveling often for work (I've been on two trips so far this month) is that it's hard to stick to any kind of schedule, much less an editorial one.

But, one benefit of a crazy travel schedule is the opportunity to sample vegetarian fare beyond my home base of DC.  To that end, here's a round-up of some of my recent dining adventures:

New York City
Let's start with an amazing fine dining vegetarian experience I had tonight at Blossom, a cozy restaurant in Chelsea.  All of the menu items are organic and vegan.  I spoke to the server about my soy allergy, and she noted that a number of the dishes were finished with a soy butter, but she made some recommendations that she thought I would enjoy.  I ended up having a black-eyed pea cake, a "crispy cake of yukon gold potatoes, black eyed peas and chipotle aioli."  The seasoning on the pea cake was impeccable, and I loved the smooth texture of the veganaise aioli.  I followed the starter with the evening's special, pan-seared seitan cutlets with a rosemary tomato sauce, yukon gold potatoes and hairicot verts that was so good I kept taking smaller and smaller bites so it would last longer.  I've never had handmade seitan before and I am not sure I can go back to the boxed stuff from Whole Foods now, which means you can look forward to a blog about my attempts to make seitan from scratch in the future.   But anyway, Washington, DC NEEDS a fine dining vegan restaurant like this.  Or maybe it doesn't, because I could eat at Blossom every day if I lived near enough!

Philadelphia
I was in my hometown for a quick conference last week, which meant I got to take a side trip to one of my favorite places, Reading Terminal Market, a historic building with a variety of food stalls - produce, candy, pastries, you name it.  There are a number of places vegetarians can happily dine at Reading Terminal.  For nostalgia's sake, I hit Spataros, which makes a mean vegetarian hoagie.  Some other good vegetarian options include Kamal's, Mezze and Basic Four Vegetarian Snack Bar.

I also had the chance to experiment with the salad bar at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian style steakhouse with locations around the US.  Some fellow conference attendees who I enjoy catching up with every year really wanted to go there, so I decided to give it a shot as a vegetarian.  In my meat eating days, I had happily eaten the unlimited meat and I remembered that Fogo has a wonderful salad bar.  So, while my colleagues enjoyed their meat meals, I feasted on marinated mushrooms, hearts of palm, tomatoes and bufala mozzarella, yellow peppers and more.  It is a little off-putting to be around so much meat, but it's good to know that if I have to attend a work function at Fogo, I'll have plenty of options.

Baltimore
My life hasn't been all work and no play this month - my husband and I spent Saturday evening in Baltimore, where we took in a Buddy Guy concert in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  We originally planned to go to Little Italy, which has some amazing restaurants, but since we were running late, we instead opted to try a restaurant in Power Plant Live, which is the complex that housed our concert venue.  We decided to try Joe Squared, which had a sign outside that said they were "Named the Best Pizza in Maryland."  I tried the veggie pizza, which had "pink sauce, arugula, zucchini, eggplant, fennel, mozzarella and Boursin cheeses."  I was actually a little disappointed with it - the crust was meh and the veggies would have benefited from either being roasted at a higher temp or being sauteed first.  Overall, the whole thing was very bland.  However, my husband enjoyed his sandwich, they had a mushroom "cheesesteak" that looked good, and the servers were super nice, so I would be willing to give them another shot.

Washington, DC
It was my birthday recently, and my husband took me out to dinner at Poste, which is located in the Hotel Monaco in Gallery Place.  There isn't a wealth of veggie options, but the ones that are available are exceptionally good.  I started with an arugula salad with basil, mint, figs and sherry vinaigrette.  For my entree, I had the Autumn Vegetable Crepes, which included four individual crepes - one with beets & goat cheese, one with cauliflower, one with farro and chanterelle mushrooms and one with polenta and roasted red pepper sauce.  The presentation was gorgeous and the results were super tasty.   Via, twitter, I confirmed that there are different seasonal versions of the crepes available throughout the year, which means I have an excuse to pop in every few months or so to sample them anew.

Wednesday Restaurant Round-Up: Foggy Bottom

Recently, a new development opened in Foggy Bottom, right by the George Washington University campus, that includes a number of restaurants and eating options.  Since it’s close to my office, I’ve had the opportunity to try a few places:

Circa at Foggy Bottom:  This is one of three Circa locations, with the other two at Connecticut & Q in Dupont and in Clarendon.  There are a number of vegetarian items on the menu, including fried green tomatoes, a variety of salads and pizzas and a mushroom ravioli.  I had the wild mushroom pizza, which came with cremini, shiitake and portobello mushrooms, pesto, Gruyère and shaved parmesan cheeses and arugula.  I loved the pizza – it was super cheesy and the mushrooms were extremely tasty.

Burger, Tap & Shake: Those of you who have been reading for awhile know that I love a good veggie burger.  I am so happy to have found one at Burger, Tap & Shake.  The Haight-Ashbury is a falafel patty with pickled vegetables and feta.  I loved both the seasoning and the texture.  Of all the veggie burgers available in downtown DC, this is my new favorite.

Whole Foods Foggy Bottom: District Commons is also home to a new Whole Foods.  The grocery store is on the bottom and on top is the bakery and to go section.  One cool thing they have at this location is a kiosk where you can put in your order for salads, “good earth bowls,” sandwiches, pizza, etc.  Think Sheetz or WaWa, but with farro and quinoa.  I tried out a good earth bowl, with mixed success.  First, I assumed by the ingredient options that this would be a hot meal – it was not.  I picked kale as my base thinking that it would be cooked, but when I got to the counter, I realized it was going to be raw.  Also, the system forced me to pick a sauce, which, for someone with a soy allergy, is a no-no.  I ended up placing my order with a sauce and then hustling over to the counter to ask them to omit it.  Then, I also discovered that a number of ingredients I selected on the kiosk weren’t available.  In my case, this meant farro and parsley.  But, I was able to get barley as a sub.  The rest of my bowl included the aforementioned kale, eggplant, tomatoes, chickpeas and onions.  I ended up microwaving it back at the office and it was good hot.  I’ll keep trying to see if they work out the kinks.

Some other options include new outposts of Roti and Sweetgreen, both of which I’ve written about before and have tons of great options for vegetarians, as well as District Commons, a new fine dining restaurant I have yet to try, but hope to soon.