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a vegan strip mall. even LA doesn’t have it THIS good.
14August 9th, 2009more restaurants (not LA), portlanddid you know: not only does portland oregon have a billion rad vegan eateries, vegan options at almost every restaurant, and loads of vegan-friendly pubs—the city also has its very own vegan strip mall. sounds too good to be true, right?
from left to right: sweetpea baking company, herbivore clothing, food fight grocery, and scapegoat tattoo
southeast stark street in portland boasts the neat row of vegan businesses pictured above which from left to right include sweetpea baking company, herbivore clothing, food fight grocery and scapegoat tattoo. on our recent visit to portland, we hit up each one of these places (other than the tattoo parlor) and filled up on some hardcore veganocity for the journey home.
sweetpea baking company was our first stop. the 100% vegan bakery was (i believe) the first of its kind on the west coast, and the staff was super friendly and helpful. having already eaten lunch, and gearing up for our return to LA, we grabbed a dinner to eat on the go at the airport. it’s a good thing we did too, because our flight ended up being delayed!
we started with a pepperoni calzone, which came with thick spicy slices of seitan in a doughy pastry shell. meant to be enjoyed warm, this calzone was still delicious unheated.
we also shared a seitan sandwich, which was the perfect grab-n-go treat. fresh bread, creamy dressing, and fat chunks of savory wheat meat. perfection! next time i visit portland, i will definitely grab some actual baked treats from sweetpea. but i can tell you, if you don’t have a chance to try their cookies or muffins, the sandwiches and calzones are awesome as well.
next we hit up herbivore, an ultra rad vegan clothing company that sells a wide array of shirts, hoodies, and stickers. we bought some rags that would help us promote veganism everywhere, as well as a shirt to support bj and alex. the staff was polite, the clothes were great, and i felt extra good about spending money at this place.
lastly we hit up food fight, which is basically a small completely vegan convenience store. they had loads of vegan meats, vegan cheeses, canned goods, as well as steamed tofurky sausages. we bought some bacon cheezly, which turned out to be exceptional, and were on our way.
so let’s just say the vegan strip mall in portland is all around awesome. you can eat a fresh cupcake, buy a new vegan hoodie, stock up on faux meat, and get some vegan ink…without traveling more than 300 feet. i can’t wait to return.
Tags: calzone, cheezly, clothing, food fight, herbivore, oregon, portland, sandwich, sweetpea baking
9 responses to “a vegan strip mall. even LA doesn’t have it THIS good.” 
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FIRST!!!! hahaha 🙂 🙂 🙂
i have to go to portland. this is incredible!!!
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i’ve never been to portland, but i’m pretty sure i should just move there.
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msmerymac August 17th, 2009 at 10:48
Food Fight sounds like what Locali should be, am I right?! I grabbed some Cheezly at the 3 story Whole Foods in Kensington the other day. It made it back to LA just fine (and was still only L2.00 a package!), and is now sitting in my fridge waiting for me to try it. They didn’t have the bacon kind! I got mature cheddar and the extra-melting mozzarella. I also got a tub of soft/spreadable Sheese, because I’ve only seen the hard kind in the US, and it was about L2.30, which is way cheaper than the $8 or so I usually see the hard Sheese for. I think I got mexican style. So it looks like I’ll be in vegan cheese overload this week. I’m concerned about them having a soy-ish aftertaste, like tofutti cream cheese, but we shall see. When you make stuff with it, tofutti cream cheese is just fine, I just don’t LOVE it plain.
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You forgot about the RED & BLACK Cafe around the corner… it completes the strip mall experience!!!
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