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locali grand opening = tons of vegan shit
9February 27th, 2009LA restaurants, localiUPDATE!!! PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT UPDATE ABOUT DEE’S DONUTS BEFORE EATING THEM.
locali conscious convenience has been a favorite of ours over here at quarrygirl.com, ever since they opened in january. i’ve been hitting them up weekly for their soy feta, lunch specials, and vegan frozen goods for over a month. it wasn’t until tonight though, that they had their “grand opening” shindig, serving up tons of free vegan-friendly samples and welcoming the community to find out what a kick-ass place locali is.
locali grand opening!
tons of our favorite local faces were there, handing out awesome food for the community to sample. the total rundown and more pictures after the jump….
there were so many vendors setting up shop when i hit up locali this evening, and most of them were vegan-friendly if not entirely vegan. even as i was leaving, more and more people were starting to serve food. i’m just sad i could only be there for a short time—i’m sure there’s tons of awesomeness i didn’t get to sample.
the first vendor to catch my eye was the resident taste of life dude. the same guy who makes my mac at the restaurant and spoons out my tofu at the hollywood farmers market was here at locali, generously serving samples of raw kale, faux chicken salad, and vegan macaroni and cheese. i think i took about 4 samples of the mac and 2 of the kale. the kale was especially awesome because it tasted nothing like the kale served up at the taste of life storefront. this stuff was cold and covered in a tart, maybe even lemony dressing…not like the soul food greasy greens i know and love. the taste of life packaged meals deliver a whole new set of flavors—i’m pretty stoked they are being offered at locali.
a taste of life serving it up at the locali grand opening
another familiar vendor that just about every vegan in los angeles loves is m cafe…and they were also offering up free shit at the locali celebration. vegan wraps and tempeh meatballs were the two dishes that kept disappearing. the cool thing about the m cafe table was that someone was always there to replenish the eaten goods. they kept this shit stocked like it was their profession. the plate never got empty.
m cafe samples at locali
local baker deanna of dee’s vegan bakery was also on hand, shoveling out samples of her cookies and cinnamon rolls. the vegan sweets went down quite well, even among people who had no clue that they were vegan!
if you have ever been to locali, you may recognize the delicious mexican food manufacturer, la guera tamalera. the self-proclaimed “white girl tamale maker” crafts homemade, organic tamales…including several flavors that are vegan. this evening she was on hand with sweet and savory vegan samples in tow, all of which were un-fucking-believable.
spinach and mushroom tamale: organic local shiitake and organic yellow masa. VEGAN.
i ate way too much of the spinach and mushroom flavor. la guera also offers sweet tamales as well. check out this sasquatch yam tamale i had a few weeks ago from locali at lunch. they have got all kinds of tamales to meet your needs: sweet ones, salty ones, dessert tamales, fruit tamales, and vegetable tamales!
la guera sasquash tamale: organic baked yams and butternut squash in the masa with an organic sweet red bean filling.
but it wasn’t just meals and dessert being served up at locali tonight…there was also a fair share of snacks. my favorite new discovery was a brand of falafel chips. yeah, these suckahs were off the hook.
not only were the chips tasty, flavorful and hearty…but the dude handing them out was a total riot. i mean, who wouldn’t want falafel chips from this guy? i shall return to locali on a regular basis to support this brand.
lastly, there was a bunch of wine being handed out tonight. the line for that was so fucking long, i didn’t even get to try it! good job for all those who did, though. free alcohol is very hard to come by.
wha?! free alcohol?! yumz!
although i only stayed for about an hour, to me, the locali grand-opening was a huge success. several la vendors gathered and offered their vegan-friendly products to a very receptive crowd of hungry locals. i tried some new stuff, and can’t wait to go back to locali and buy all the new shit i sampled tonight.
they are offering all this and more 7 days a week. vegans: go eat it!
locali conscious convenience
5285 franklin avenue
los angeles, ca 90028
323-466-1360
Tags: dee's bakery, falafel, hollywood, kale
8 responses to “locali grand opening = tons of vegan shit” 
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ha! i was totally talking to @judita last night about how i wanted to try making vegan tamales. love that i’m soooo original. ha ha.
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How is it that I missed this event? I didn’t even hear about it! Glad you got to go and enjoyed the festivities.
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Yay! My boyfriend and I are the ones sitting by the window (grubbin on some of that yummy vegan mac n cheese). We love this place and the owners are good friends.
Anybody who hasn’t been there needs to go asap! Thanks for documenting Locali’s special day 🙂
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omgomgomgomg i can’t believe i missed this but i’m so happy to be heading back to LA now that this is there!!
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They may be vegan friendly but the gluten-free sandwiches leave a lot to be desired.
I ordered the Hungry Hungry Hippy, which cost me $8.50 plus an additional $.75 for the gf bread ( he told me it would be $.50). I wouldn’t pay $5 for the same thing. It was the size of a regular half-sandwich (due to the smaller size of the gf bread, I was told) but costs more than a whole, even though it has less toppings. There was no alternative to the small loaf bread – even a large corn torilla or kale would have made a nice wrap, but they don’t offer it. The bread completely broke apart in my hands the second I touched it. The rice bread at Trader Joes would have fared better. In a word, lame.
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A Taste of Life - Awesome vegan soul food in Los Angeles | Sick of Lettuce March 28th, 2009 at 09:42
[…] sat there for a while. I’d had a few (very) small samples of some of their menu items at the Locali grand opening (reported on by Quarrygirl), but I needed more. MORE, I TELL […]
tizzle February 27th, 2009 at 23:16