Vista Weekly Popups

The plant-based food scene is growing throughout San Diego. And a big part of this growth is Vegan Food Pop-Up, which now boasts three monthly locations, thanks to the November 12 arrival of its Saturday market in North Park. The farmers-market-style event attracts vendors from all over Southern California, bringing everything from sushi to dog treats (including donuts and jewelry), all of it made within the bounds of a plant-based lifestyle.

Organizer Michelle May launched Vegan Food Pop-Up as a bimonthly event in Encinitas back in 2019. Now having made it past a few Covid-era speed bumps, VFP is expanding toward a goal of hosting a market somewhere in the county every weekend.

The market is currently scheduled to pop up the first Saturday of every month at the Heritage Museum in Encinitas (12 p.m.-4 p.m.), every third Friday at the Local Roots kombucha brewery in Vista (5 p.m. to 9 p.m.), and every second Saturday at the North Park Mini Park (12 p.m. to 4 p.m.), which was recently installed behind the Observatory music venue.

But May—who also operates vegan space ice cream and coconut jerky brand Seva Foods—is not finished. Approaching holidays in November and December preclude launching a fourth weekend in 2022, but the vegan entrepreneur is already on the hunt for additional spots. She says, “I’m hoping that by January we’ll be ready to announce at least one more new location.”

Michelle May Vegan popups

In addition to bringing the plant-based market to additional communities, one of the reasons May wants to increase the number of market days is that she says she’s got a waiting list of vendors wanting to participate. “There’s just such a hunger (pun intended) for these kind of events that it’s been really easy to book them,” she explains.

The pop-up expands mostly by word of mouth. In a tight-knit Southern California vegan community, Los Angeles and Orange County-based vendors have grown to appreciate San Diego’s reliable vegan demand. To the north, May speculates, a higher frequency of vegan events leads to uneven attendance and increased competition between vendors. They’re willing to come south, she says, because “They tend to do better at the pop-up than they do at some of the regular markets in L.A.”

May does her part by carefully curating each event to prevent overlap and prevent food waste. “I’m straddling this very fine line of wanting a great user experience for my attendees,” she says, “I don’t want them to wait in line too long or—God forbid—get there and all the food’s gone.” She invites roughly 50 vendors to the Encinitas market, while Vista and North Park run smaller, about 30 a piece. A few core vendors appear at every market, including plant-based fish substitute SeaCo Catch, Vegan Mirai Sushi, and Maribel y Olivia Cocina, purveyors of vegan Mexican dishes such as jackfruit and mushroom birria.

The vendor drawing the longest lines at each event is OC-based food truck The Donuttery. “I don’t think you can mention the pop-up without talking about The Donuttery,” May says, “They are without a doubt the most popular vendor that we have… the line is usually nonstop.”

While most of the food vendors represent 100 percent plant-based businesses, May is open to omnivores that serve vegan-friendly menus. One example, Sabor Piri Piri Kitchen, appears regularly at farmers markets serving traditional dishes of Mozambique, but for the pop-up it forgoes chicken curries for the broccoli, black eyed peas, and collard greens of its vegan menu.

the-donuttery.jpeg

Similarly, the baker behind market mainstay Bonjour Patisserie has found ways to produce plant-based versions of traditional French pastries including croissants and crème brûlées. “He’s worked really hard to source some really high-quality vegan butters,” says May, noting Bonjour will be one of the vendors appearing in North Park.

Clearly, culinary diversity is a priority at all the pop-ups, but perhaps the best reason to attend regularly is that vendors at the pop-up have been the first to introduce local vegans to a growing spate of plant-based meat alternatives coming to market. The past year has witnessed the introduction of meat replacements by Omni Foods, Next Meats, and Nature’s Fynd, which makes sausage and cream cheese out of mushrooms. Attendees can be the first to try these meaty treats, in addition to activities like tarot card readings, henna painting, and reiki massage.

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“There was an empowering of our staff to step up and own our solutions,” says Kory Stetina, owner of South Park’s vegan death metal restaurant, Kindred. “Including efforts they made to help our other staff out, working with grants and getting employee meals set up.”

Dining During COVID / Kindred Food

Photo courtesy of Kindred

Stetina and his crew’s solution? “Kindred Crypt Sessions,” where they transformed half their space into a restaurant-within-a-restaurant for a series of seven-course pop-up dinners (five food courses, two cocktail courses). So much of Kindred’s appeal depends on the art of its decoration (from the ornate grandma-on-psychedelics wallpaper, to the massive black demon head lording over the dining room). The thought of making it a cubicle farm of social-distance Plexiglas crushed their soul a bit.

“We were a bit skeptical that it would be a diluted version of itself,” he says.

Dining During COVID / Kindred Interior

Photo courtesy of Kindred

Crypt Sessions solves this. By selling tickets ahead of time, Stetina can send the “do’s and don’ts” over email, and doesn’t have to clutter up the environment with handmade lists of rules. Guests enter through a separate side alcove. A few tables in the middle of the dining room have been turned into a plant installation, a lush way to ensure six feet. A chandelier in the bar has been interspersed with pulsing gothic candlelight. Flowers abound. Their pagan church windows are propped open for airflow.

“It’s the answer to ‘What if we throw out all our normal rules of efficiency and really reach for our most experimental and ambitious sense of identity?’” Stetina explains. “We envisioned guests getting lured into our space to have a private meal from these fictitious mystics that dwell inside Kindred.”

What the hell does that mean? Well, Kindred is San Diego’s version of a prog-rock band, infusing their food and drinks with Tolkienian backstory. Practically, it means using more primitive sourcing methods (foraging for local pine for one of their cocktails), ancient cooking methods (grilling, which also helps speed up the cooking process), and older-world spirits (sherry, brandy, fortified wine, Chartreuse). Menus like old archeological stone carvings. Anything to cast the vibe of the night back a few hundred years, to anywhere but now.

Dining During COVID / Kindred Cocktail

Photo courtesy of Kindred

It also gives the cooks a creative license they didn’t have before coronavirus, when they were too slammed to tinker. “The hope is that we strip away our constraints and do some really fun and wild things with our menu,” he says. “Start to think about some of these dishes as part of our eventual reopening.”

For Stetina, the best part about the Crypt Sessions is, because the more elaborate food requires a ton of prep, he’s been able to hire back almost 100 percent of what he calls the “heart of the house”—the kitchen staff.

“The day I had to furlough my employees was by far the worst day of my professional career,” he says, noting that through the Crypt Sessions and the daily takeout and partial dine-in service, he’s been able to hire about 60 percent of his total staff back. “The good side of all this is the conversation and understanding between restaurants and customers has become more real. We’ve been far more transparent with our financials. They’ve shown a greater desire to learn. They’re asking, ‘How can we help?’”

Kindred

1503 30th Street, South Park

Dining During COVID / Kindred Feature

Photo courtesy of Kindred

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To be fair, the badgering went both ways. Vegans (some, not all) accused omnivores of being murderers driven only by our own gluttony, environmental nihilists ushering in doomsday with every callous bite. Omnivores (some, not all) in turn belittled vegans as sickly looking crusaders, just another wacky religious sect, the Scientologists of food. Eventually, I assumed we’d get to a less judgmental middle ground. Someone would give San Diego an exciting vegan restaurant and bar that was less a territorial pissing and more of a come-all plant party.

Kindred in South Park is that place. It’s a restaurant for any human, really, who likes cool things. I’ve been a fan for years. I hadn’t, however, ventured in with their late morning crowd and seen the full evolution. Now that the food is catching up with (or caught up with) the cocktails, Kindred is a force.

Their breakfast strudels are some intoxicating carbs. Our favorite is the savory shaved seitan with tapioca mozzarella and pickled peppers. It’s spicy, meaty, cheesy, bready. The cinnamon and brown sugar strudel with candied pecans and coconut syrup is flaky on the outside, pure molten, thick, and gooey cinnamon roll inside. The pancakes with bruléed bananas, bourbon butterscotch, and whipped coconut cream aren’t good for your waist size, but they are good for your soul. Their hash is also very good, with fried potatoes, black beans, smoked coconut (vegan bacon), soy curls, maitake mushrooms, charred kale, jicama salsa, and Creole aioli.

The vibe has always been modern art. It’s the massive shiny-black demon head that lords over the main dining area. What an elegant, imposing beast. It’s the ornate pink wallpaper that appears cute and grandmotherly until a closer inspection reveals illicit scenery. It’s the gothic windows and the two-top tables that look like desks pulled from pagan Sunday school, or sidecars for Wiccan motorcycles. It’s the sludgy heavy metal on the speakers offset by the flood of fresh, natural light pouring in.

Previously, plant-based restaurants had a reputation as antiseptic prayer rooms for self-serious wellness people. Kindred owner Kory Stetina decided not to do that, and enlisted art-restaurant makers Consortium Holdings (Morning Glory, Born & Raised) to build a noisier temple for more entertaining urges.

In doing so, he positioned Kindred to be the Casbah or CBGB of vegan food and drink.

Because the plant-based movement is not just here to stay—it’s remodeling a sizable wing of the restaurant industry. Overall, the stats are still small. Gallup reports that about 5 percent of Americans claim to be vegetarian, and 3 percent vegan. But a report by The Economist in late 2018 raised eyebrows when it reported a full quarter—25 percent—of Americans in the 25-34 age demo claim to be either vegetarian or vegan.

There’s a good chance some of those people secretly cheeseburger in the dark. But even if they’re pretending to be plant-based, that means the lifestyle is now an aspiration, a status badge for an entire age demo.

If your eyes are open, you know it’s at least partially real. Meatless Mondays have been growing in number for years. Serena Williams and Tom Brady are vegan. So are Ellen Degeneres, Bill Clinton, Joaquin Phoenix, Paul McCartney—just lots of famous people. Plant-based meat companies like Impossible and Beyond are booming. Some of the world’s top chefs have plant-based menus (at French Laundry, we preferred the plant-based menu) or even entire restaurants (like ABCV from Jean-Georges in New York).

In San Diego, Kindred is the weird and fuzzy center of the movement. It’s not a trap meant to get omnivores drunk on Prohibition cocktails and guilt them into declaring legumes the one true god. At least from an outsider’s perspective, there doesn’t seem to be any agenda aside from being an exciting restaurant. And it’s pulling this off.

Kindred’s vision of the future isn’t the only one, but it is one of them. And their brunch is excellent whether you’re omnivore, vegan, or merely ambivalent and hungry.

Kindred, 1503 30th St., South Park

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The inaugural event takes place on June 23 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at North Park Way between 30th Street and Granada Ave.

Individual tickets ($20) buy 10 samples, while shareable tickets ($35) buy one sample from each vendor and can be shared with an unlimited number of people.

Not only is Scoop San Diego dog-friendly—dog ice cream will be available—but it’s for a good cause. The event benefits the Monarch School, whose students will serve an ice cream of their making (overseen by Stella Jean’s Ice Cream) created with produce grown in their school garden.

Here are a few of our faves to look for:

Bing Haus

The Southeast Asian-style rolled ice cream takes shape before your eyes as it gets poured onto a cold plate, mixed with toppings like fruit and cookies, then scraped into tight rolls.

Holy Paleta

Angelica Gonzalez trained in Mexico City and Guadalajara before creating the distinctly Mexican flavors (like mango chamoy and avocado mango), as well as frozen takes on some classics (like Key Lime, cookies and cream, and banana Nutella) for her Bonita-based popsicle business.

An’s Dry Cleaning

From-scratch gelato in refined flavor combinations like watermelon mint, rice milk cinnamon, and honey blueberry. So good you won’t mind if you get a few drops on your freshly laundered clothes.

Stella Jean’s

Making their signature Earl Grey citrus tea cake is a two-day process that requires steeping the milk with tea, baking tea cake with Thai butterfly pea flowers (for color), and folding it all together with blueberry compote.

Four favorites to try at Scoop San Diego ice cream fest

Photo courtesy of Scoop San Diego

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I lived here for two years. I believe it was 1999–2000, or it could’ve been 1968. The town isn’t anti-progress in dumb ways; it’s just against dumb or needless progress. That’s why you’ll see many streets willfully without sidewalks, and a lack of giant, ugly planned communities along Pacific Coast Highway. Trailer homes, albeit elaborately designed like an HGTV special, are perfectly acceptable beachside living spaces.

Peace Pies is tucked in a tiny storefront off Pacific Coast Highway. Their original location is, actually, in OB. There’s enough room in the dirt next to the fence for two cars. The rest of you will have to find street parking. From the outside it looks like a charming shanty. A place where, inside, highly ethical people talk about single-use plastics, grids, and how to live off of them.

But that patio is something special. Real secret-garden stuff, with high, seclusionary wooden fences making a sort of alfresco hippie getaway, a trellis of ivy and lights and umbrellas forming a canopy above diners. Succulents are everywhere because flowers need water, and this place doesn’t dabble in the waste of precious resources. I could live here. Or set up a mud bath in the corner and stay for a couple days. At most places, that would scare people off, but here I imagine people would join me.

The Contender: Peace Pies

We’re here for their “Bliss Burger.” Peace Pies is raw vegan food. That means uncooked. The burger arrives looking like a salad between crackers. It looks beautiful, vibrant, popping with the colors of highly nutritional, organic vegetables and seeds. For that same reason, it also looks awful. Instead of a bun, there are two thin, flat , grayish crackers made of flax seeds and sunflower seeds. Sprouts stick out this way and that, and in the middle is a patty made of sun-dried tomatoes and walnuts.

I don’t want to bite this thing. I have flashbacks of the post-hippie ’80s, when neighborhood moms thought they could cook meatless and they were terribly wrong. They’d force us to eat a cuisine best suited for finches and waifish dogs.

The “Bliss Burger” instantaneously proves me wrong. It is delicious. The patty tastes of traditional meat spices, and it holds together, topped with a slice of yellow cashew cheese. The flax-sunflower bun actually works perfectly with the ingredients, and holds together as well. There’s a delicious side of cashew ranch. Being uncooked and having birdseed instead of a big, glorious bun, it’s a pretty far stretch from what most people think of as “a burger.”

But it is a veggie burger nonetheless. And, even as still-devout carnivores, we find it to be one of the best we’ve tasted on our citywide search for the best. If I lived in the area, I would camp on their patio and read Whole Earth or talk to strangers about Ken Kesey, and what he’s doing now. They’d respond, “Ken’s dead.” And I’d say, “but is he, really?”

Peace Pies, 133 Daphne Street, Leucadia; 4230 Voltaire Street, Ocean Beach

The Contender: Peace Pies

The Contender: Peace Pies

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No city charter states “we need more fast food.” City planners try their hardest to zone them out. There are many reasons, including environmental impact of cars and trash. But the main reason for anti-fast foodism is tied to their deep-fried, sugar-filled, salt-spackled food and its inflationary effect on our human bodies. They’re a bigger villain in modern American than gluten or man-buns.

But what if fast food were different? What if it was ecologically conscious, served more plant-based foods, and generally tilted society in a progressive direction instead of a diabetic direction? Slow-food purists will tell you that food shouldn’t be rushed. That’s great for purists. But life is no casual stroll. Can’t we have the best of both worlds? Healthier food produced with somewhere near the expediency of McDonald’s? Why throw the baby (fast food) out with the bathwater (fattening, cheap, bad food)?

That’s the idea behind San Diego’s Plant Power, and they’re not alone. They serve plant-based fast food. All of their materials (utensils, etc.) are made from recycled material or plant material. The owners even dream of having a drive-thru that looks like a domed garden, with a canopy of plants and greenery that help offset the greenhouse emissions from cars.

The need for fast food and drive-thrus is still real. More than 160,000 fast food joints feed over 50 million Americans every day, with sales of over $110 billion. That’s because it doesn’t matter how educated we become about commodity food problems (hormones, antibiotics, CAFOs, etc.), we’re still busy. We still have demanding jobs, kids, spouses, friends, social media notifications, and lives. Minutes have never been more gold.

Now it’s happening. Healthy fast food is the future. The movement actually started in San Diego with Evolution Fast Food in Hillcrest—the first vegan drive-thru restaurant in the world. And now it’s in full swing across the country with concepts like Amy’s Drive-Thru, Salad and Go, Grown Miami, Eatsa, Dig Inn, The Kitchen, and Freshii.

Evolution’s owner Mitch Wallis is one of the partners behind Plant Power along with Zach Vouga, an ethical vegan who worked at Evolution. They wanted to streamline Evolution’s branding, experience, and make the menu more approachable. They didn’t want meat eaters to feel like outsiders or somehow shamed in their house of leaf cuisine. The result was Plant Power, which opened its first location in Ocean Beach in 2016. It has the feel of an In N Out, but it’s all plant-based food. Now they’ve taken over a failed Burger King location in Encinitas, providing the community with vegan “fast food.”

Vouga is quick to point out that Plant Power isn’t necessarily “healthy.” It’s simply plant-based. But, as multiple studies have shown, the health of Americans could use a much bigger supply of plant-based foods for their well-being. I talked to Vouga about Plant Power’s new drive-thru, and the future of the company.

Why vegan food?

I’m a longtime vegan. I was in college in Chicago, and finishing up there when I made the switch. I got a job at Evolution Fast Food where I met my business partner, Mitch, the founder of Evolution. Mitch and I started planning for the future. We wanted something more accessible, friendly and inclusive, not just a vegan restaurant. We didn’t want it to feel like a vegan restaurant when they walked in. We wanted something that could be replicated, scalable, clean and easy.

Plant Power doesn’t seem overtly vegan. Why?

We wanted to rid ourselves of that stigma. Some people would come into a vegan restaurant and feel almost like they were in enemy territory. We realized that was a problem. A majority of our customers are not vegan. Maybe they’re just there for Meatless Monday, or they’re a flexitarian, or just exploring new things. There are so many heavily-charged emotions with veganism. I never wanted to be a “meat is murder!”, in-your-face vegan. We wanted to change the conversation about vegan food. It’s just another type of cuisine. It’s not cultish. And that’s the great thing about Plant Power. A few of our customers don’t even realize we’re vegan until the second or third time they eat there.

What ingredients are most integral to vegan cuisine?

Anytime you’re trying to make a vegan meat, it’s primarily a mix of vital wheat gluten or soy protein. Those are two very versatile ingredients. They can absorb any flavor and become a chameleon-type ingredient.

Do you use tons of nuts? Cashew cheese and things?

No. Most of our stuff is free of nuts, because we know people have allergies. Many of our burgers can be made with a gluten-free bun, too. I’ve always hated gluten-free bread. So I’m the best person to try it. After trying so many types, we finally found a bakery out of L.A. called Rising Hearts. Since I don’t like gluten-free bread, I knew it was a winner when I actually liked it.

Is drive-thru the business model going forward?

Absolutely. As Americans, with how busy we are, we desperately need healthier, more eco-friendly options on the go.

What’s eco-friendly about Plant Power?

We work with Hubbell and Hubbell Architects. They’re known for being one of the best environmentally friendly firms. Our tables are made of bamboo. We use recycled aluminum. Our compostables—plastic straws or forks or whatever—are made from renewable, plant-based sources. Our forks are made from potato starch. Our containers are made from sugar cane. We don’t even have recycling because most of our stuff isn’t recyclable.

That’s more expensive, right?

It does cost a lot more. I’m hoping as we expand, the price will come down. But if we were going to do this, I needed to do it right. We needed to bite the bullet. To top it all off, there are no subsidies on these vegan products. If I wanted to do a beef and dairy burger, I’d be able to buy a lot cheaper, subsidized food. But we’re getting by. It’s all about volume and demand, and I’m hopeful.

All right. I’m an omnivore. What am I ordering?

The buffalo chicken sandwich. It has that wow factor. It’s “chicken”—wheat protein, soy protein, quinoa—breaded in house batter, dipped in buffalo sauce, with a whole wheat bun and homemade ranch dressing. It’s amazing how easy it is to omit the eggs and milk in something like ranch. Sometimes people think that veganizing food is a huge mountain to climb, but the answer is right there in front of you.

Why do vegan restaurants always try to “imitate” meat?

One, we’re a bridge restaurant. We have tons of super healthy offerings, but we’re not at our core a healthy restaurant. We want to create an experience that’s accessible and redefines vegan food. Plus, nostalgia plays a part. I didn’t become a vegan because I hated the taste of meat. I still love the meat experience and I funnel all of that energy into what we create at Plant Power.

Where to next?

We’re not wanting to do three, four, or five restaurants. We’re looking at hundreds. All over the nation, the globe, and pursuing avenues to do that over the next ten to 15 years.

Plant Power has two locations: in Ocean Beach (2204 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.) and Encinitas (411 Santa Fe Dr.). plantpowerfastfood.com

The Vegan Fast Food Revolution

Dizzle Management

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Health food sucks.

When Americans hear “health food,” we think of a sad, hollow-cheeked waif model nibbling a solitary rice cake—which is essentially bubble wrap made of grain, properly eaten with a grim frown and/or suicide note. Or we think of salad, a responsible lunch option whose main crime is not being a juicy cheeseburger. Or we groan about the never-ending list of “super” foods lining our neighborhood hippie grocery—which are expensive enough to make us feel cheap and confusing enough to make us feel brain injured.

Our vegetarian friends annoy us. Our vegan friends are lucky that they’re not in our trunk, gagged with a floppy brick of seitan. Health food culture has long been one of deprivation we’re scolded into, not celebration we volunteer for. It’s Well, I guess I’ll eat this because some guy with nice hair and teeth on Dr. Oz told me I should, as opposed to Hell yes ancient grains!

“PUT THE FRIES IN THE SHAKE!” is our battle cry.

“WRAP THE BACON AROUND THE BACON!” reads our cardboard sign on the Jumbotron.

Ours is not a culture based on virtue porn. It’s driven by food porn. A high-def close-up of braised kale on Instagram does not stoke the tongue libido quite like an aerial shot of a fried chicken thigh. Bacon is our Betty Paige. Pastry cases are our red light district. We eat an apple because it keeps the doctor away, not because it arouses us.

Why?

We all know how heavy, creamy, buttered-and-oiled, deep-fried foods are going to make us feel. Like we’ve pissed off gravity, and it’s revenging. Like our very souls have narcolepsy. We feel stuffed, bloated, greasy and guilty. (Or you’re immune to any of that, in which case congratulations you’re a robot.)

Unfortunately, as Americans we don’t have many warm, fuzzy taste memories of healthy food. Sprouted lentils do not have an entry in our Mental Rolodex of Yes. It’s filled with cheeseburgers and fries. Especially generations X and Y, who grew up eating at restaurants (or the front seat of the minivan) more often than home. Those generations had the twin-income family structure, meaning both parents came home physically and psychologically drained. Cooking dinner (which means also cleaning dishes) sounded much less appealing than microwaving a ready-to-eat “meal” (in a ready-to-trash plastic serving box) while wearing boxer shorts.

Health food also doesn’t get the branding boost. There aren’t any multi-national corporations using video, graphics and music to make carrots look Beyonce-sexy. Coke, though? You bet. That bubbly liquid candy has basically gotten the Steven Spielberg treatment. We’ve been trained through media and lights and colors and sounds that Coke is the most desirable drink on the planet next to beer. No matter how miserable and Dilbert-ian your life, you’re one cold, refreshing Coke away from a joy only known by the freshly sexed or heavily medicated.

Even if you grew up in one of those families where cooking was a thing—most of them were frying chicken, putting cheese on pasta, grilling steaks, building tacos, molding burger patties, sour creaming and buttering the crap out of everything just so their kids would eat it. Because we have to feed our kids. That’s part of the deal.

I just Googled “comfort food.” And whoa, look there, it’s an avocado spruced up with lemon juice and a touch of EVOO. No, it’s not. It’s a cast-iron pan overflowing with enough mac ‘n’ cheese to clog an o-ring, let alone one of your dainty arteries. Next photo is a burger. Then fried chicken. Meatballs. Doughnuts. Lasagna. A Reuben. Wait, there’s some chicken noodle soup—with white bread and butter.

It’s both a tragedy and counterintuitive that health food is not our idea of comfort. Because diabetes is not comforting. No one has ever described gout as “a Snuggy for your insides!” But our immediate pleasuregasm rules over long-game vivacity.

Blame it, too, on evolution. Our bodies evolved millions of years ago when food was scarce. You weren’t sure when you’d be able to bludgeon the next saber tooth tiger. Lots of our hairy ancestors starved to death. So our bodies programmed themselves to crave excess calories. When we eat foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt, the brain gives us a standing ovation in the form of an endorphin rush (which we also experience during a “runners high” or by doing cocaine). It’s a storage instinct. A rainy day instinct. On a cellular level, we are calorie hoarders. As this New York Times article points out, our willpower may not be strong enough to resist fatty, sugary, salty foods.

Blame our restaurants and chefs. Sure, California may be the home of the salad eater. But, stranded and hungry on any suburban street corner in SoCal, it’s still a tough endeavor to find a place with a good salad (not just iceberg with ranch) and/or food that doesn’t caulk your arteries full of lipid spackle. Out of 10 restaurants, I’d say 9 have burgers and fries and mayo-laden sammies. There is a whole nation of people—especially in SoCal—who have to go into Whole Foods if they want a healthy meal.

The point of all this is to say: A drastic change is coming. Over the next five years, you will see an explosion of high-quality, gourmet healthy food options. Not sad compromises. Health food is the new frontier of dining.

We’re already seeing small changes. Avocados (a delicious natural fat replacement) have TV ads. Steven Colbert stumped for pistachios. At restaurants, chains like Chipotle, Corner Bakery and Au Bon Pain are doing better, healthier work. But McDonalds ranks NO. 8 on Health Magazine’s Top 10 healthy fast food operations. Really? That’s like Marlboro ranking in the top ten for air quality.

At this year’s National Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show, healthier eating was one of the big topics. According to a National Restaurant Association (NRA) study last year, 71 percent of diners are now trying to eat healthier at restaurants.  Applebee’s, CPK and Chipotle have gluten-free menus. Infamous fat-maker Cheesecake Factory and TGI Fridays have low-calorie stuff now. It’s not just shame pressure from angry vegans, either. These companies know it’s good for the bottom line. Public health researchers Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found a 10.9 percent growth in customer traffic when restaurants added healthier menu items.

The number of health-centric concepts is growing. All dishes at Seasons 52 (a concept from Darden, the same people behind bread stick wonderland, Olive Garden) are at 475 calories or less (roughly 20 percent of daily recommended for men, 25 percent for women). True Food Kitchen was designed according to the anti-inflammatory diet of Dr. Andrew Weil, and they hired good chefs like San Diego’s Nathan Coulon. Berkeley has Mission: Heirloom, a Paleo-friendly joint. Lyfe Kitchen from Palo Alto started in 2011 and now has 13 locations, with a plan for 20 more next year. In San Diego, we have places like Tender Greens, Native Foods, Luna Grill, Plumeria, Evolution Fast Food and Curious Fork making a move for healthy dining.

The first restaurateur to do a streamlined, simple, healthy drive-thru with just a handful of excellent items—like an In-N-Out for the Whole Foods generation—will become bazillionaires. In my perfect world, half of the unhealthy fast food operations would be replaced by healthy options in the next 20 years.

The recent opening of vegetarian/vegan restaurant Café Gratitude is, I believe, a marquee moment for the future of healthy dining in San Diego. Healthy options aren’t a fad. Health isn’t a fern bar. It’s a wholesale shift as we look around and realize well crap we’re eating ourselves to death. The scale has been tipped in the direction of the deep fryer for far too long. Better and better chefs are creating healthier and healthier menu items.

And that is the key. It’s one thing to have a glorified line cook or self-trained home cook crank out a few veggie bowls. The key to revolutionizing our restaurant eating patterns is to have real, top-notch chefs and restaurants making healthy dishes that people crave. Only in that way will health food usurp deep-fried Oreos in the mental rolodex of pleasure.

To that end, I’ve asked a few of the better San Diego spots for their healthiest dishes. Healthy dishes that shouldn’t taste like steamed foodwater. You shouldn’t feel like Kate Moss staring at a tiny, inedible amount of calories needed to keep you alive but terribly un-pleasured. In the right hands, health food is good food.

Cheers.

P.S. I just ate a Twix bar.

MARKET, Chef Carl Schroeder

Golden tomato gazpacho and Maine lobster with watermelon, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, mint, Thai basil and a little curry oil.

Yellowfin tuna tartare with Dungeness crab with avocado, mango, pineapple, shiso-ginger vinaigrette, sesame-nori crackers.

Grapefruit and avocado salad with Ruby Red grapefruit, avocado, arugula, pistachios, Banyuls vinaigrette, Purple Haze goat cheese rolled in date sugar.

BRACERO, Chef Javier Plascencia

Verde Es Vida Salad with salt-cured cactus, watercress, zucchini, chayote pickles, purslane, Mexican oregano vinaigrette, avocado and 18-month aged Cotija cheese.

Baja Hiramasa Crudo with coconut aguachile, tomatillo, cured pineapple, avocado, chiltepin (wild chile pepper) and serranos.

JUNIPER & IVY, Chefs Richard Blais and Jon Sloan

Almond wood-grilled carrots with pickled apricot puree, peanuts and jalapeño chimichurri

Baja stone crab meat with mango, gazpacho, avocado and coconut

Charred sugar snap peas with espelette dressing, mint and cotija cheese

CATANIA, Chef Vince Schofield

Wood-roasted branzino with Milagro squash, Chino Farm peppers and Swiss chard, charred lemon, fennel, chile flake and EVOO

WHISKNLADLE, Chef Ryan Johnston

Scallops alla plancha with heirloom tomatoes, avocado mousse, red onion, compressed watermelon and spicy green bean salad

Summer salad with roasted Chino Farm corn, grapefruit, celery, hearts of palm, avocado, arugula and white balsamic vinaigrette

GALAXY TACO, Chefs Trey Foshee and Chrisine Rivera

Grilled avocado taco with bean puree, creamy corn salad and lime

BLUSH, Chef Daniel Barron

Skuna Bay Salmon tataki with sesame, ginger, soy and olive oil.

Cold green tea noodle with asparagus and roasted pepper in a ginger vinaigrette

Albacore and scallop ceviche with avocado, red onion, tomato and crisps

COUNTERPOINT, Chef Rose Peyron

Quinoa Salad with roasted summer vegetables, feta, pepitas, arugula and preserved lemon vinaigrette

Summer stone fruit salad with citrus-compressed peaches, pickled cherries, apricot vinaigrette, frisée, pistachios, goat cheese and rye croutons

Health Food Is Terrible

The post Health Food Is Terrible appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Two trends have dominated San Diego’s restaurant scene over the last few years, both equally notable: 1) Baja cuisine, and 2) healthy gourmet. Healthy gourmet is a concept far past its estimated arrival time. America is chubby, a little sick. Our foods—salted, buttered, sourced from farms and ranches that put all kinds of crap (hormones, pesticides) into their products—are a big part of the reason. That’s why concepts like True Food Kitchen and Tender Greens have seen such extraordinary growth. Joe Diner is wiser, more self-aware these days—especially in Southern California—and his sweatpants collection too robust.

Along those lines comes Café Gratitude, a 100% organic, plant-based (vegetarian and vegan), healthy, seasonal restaurant. It’s landing in Little Italy’s new Broadstone building (1980 Kettner Blvd.). The concept started in the Bay Area in 2004, but really took off in L.A. Many famous people eat at their two L.A. locations (Venice, Arts District) to maintain their famous minds, bodies and spirits. San Diego-based singer-songwriter—and organic farmer and health food junkie—Jason Mraz is one of the main investors, and a reason Gratitude chose San Diego for expansion.

The dishes are all named after life affirmations: “Open-Hearted” buckwheat-flax pancakes, the “Fortified” veggie bowl, the “Humble” curry bowl. It’s yoga for your mouth, basically.

New age jokes now cease. Exec chef Dreux Ellis’s menu is breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast has items like those pancakes, sprouted oatmeal  (with berries and cashew crème fraiche), tempeh scramble, gluten-free French toast, crepes, and assorted baked goods (a gluten-free cinnamon roll made with flax eggs). Plus Stumptown coffee, almond-milk lattes, smoothies, etc. Lunch starts their all-day menu, which has bruschetta (with basil-hemp seed pesto), coconut ceviche tostada (with cashew queso fresco), plus sandwiches, wraps, and entrees (noodle dishes, pasta, bowls, etc.). Finally, dinner is the all-day menu plus special dinner-only entrees like cold ramen noodle salad (gluten-free noodles, housemade kimchee, creamy almond-tamari dressing), ancient grain pizza (einkorn and kamut flatbread) and asparagus risotto (with brazil-nut parmesan).

There will be desserts. There will be a juice cleanse program. And organic beers and wines to pair with meals.

San Diego’s dining scene is perfectly primed for Gratitude’s brand of nom-nom-namaste (apologies). If execution is right, this should be an insanely successful venture for all hippies involved. And I still maintain: The first restaurant to take over a drive-thru and serve healthy gourmet items will become bazillionaires.

As for design, well we’ve got the first known photos in the universe below. It was designed by Café Gratitude CEO Lisa Bonbright and designer Wendy Haworth. The idea? Keep it as calm, clean and relaxing as possible, with art flourishes (handmade tiles by Fireclay, custom-colored cement tile from Clé, and a large custom macramé by Free Creatures). Please enjoy the First Look.

Café Gratitude opens the morning of Wednesday, July 29.

FIRST LOOK: Cafe Gratitude

The post FIRST LOOK: Cafe Gratitude appeared first on San Diego Magazine.