• Seemingly, barely a day goes by that the Tony Yanow empire doesn’t further the cause of craft beer and vegan food in LA.

    Just two weeks ago we were celebrating the opening of spanking new Golden Road brewery in Atwater Village, and not long before that we were chowing down on a vegan burger at the opening night of Echo Park’s Mohawk Bend. Of course, we’ve raved many times about the neighborhood bar Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank with its energetic crowd, great beer selection and plentiful vegan food options.

    Frankly, we’d been looking for an excuse to visit all three businesses sequentially: A “Tony crawl”, if you will, for a while, and the final nail was placed in the coffin when we heard that Tony’s Darts Away had not only opened its patio up but was also serving LA’s ONLY vegan brunch with beer on tap.

    So last Saturday we set out to eat and drink as much of Tony’s offerings as we could. To begin, we opened up Tony’s Darts Away, ordering both vegan breakfast options, as well as a couple of glasses of Golden Road Hefeweizen to wash down the food…

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  • October 28th, 2011quarrygirlLA restaurants, mohawk bend

    stoked! now mohawk bend, the massive beer bar and vegan-friendly restaurant in echo park, is now open at noon on saturdays & sundays for lunch. if you’ve been to mohawk, you probably know that it can get crazy busy at night (think 1-3 hour wait times!), but we checked the bar out last weekend at noonish and it had a much more chilled out and relaxed vibe. plus, a new vegan lunch option: bangers and mash!

    vegan sausage & mash, cabbage and potato, barney flats stout gravy, mustards. $14

    lemme preface this by saying, i love vegan bangers and mash. i have eaten it all around london, but i’ve never had a version of it here in LA…

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  • August 11th, 2011quarrygirlLA restaurants, mohawk bend

    since mohawk bend opened up in echo park about a week and a half ago, we’ve spent several evenings there. whether it has been quick drinks and a snack at the bar, or a full on meal in the gorgeous ramona room, each visit to the restaurant has been very enjoyable.

    mohawk is still riding high on the hype surrounding its much anticipated opening, so by 7pm there can often be an hour and a half wait for a table! my advice is to arrive early at around 5pm, and they should have no problem seating you. here are some pictures of the food we’ve been digging at mohawk over the past week…

    herbed flatbread with spicy white beans. $6

    the herbed flatbread is remarkable. i tried this on my first visit to mohawk at their press event, and have ordered it a couple times since. the bread is made in house and served with your choice of spreads—most of which are vegan. you can get bread and 1 spread for 6 bucks, or 3 spreads for $12. my favorite is the spicy white bean spread, it’s chunky and packed with tangy lemon flavor.

    vegan fun guy: roast mushrooms, shallots, herbs, vegan cheese, truffle salt. $14

    mohawk also has a large selection of vegan-friendly thin crust pizzas made with californian 00 flour and organic tomato sauce…

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  • August 5th, 2011quarrygirlLA restaurants, mohawk bend

    not sure if you guys are aware, but today is international beer day!

    i don’t give a damn about religious holidays or federal holidays…but i can definitely get behind an unofficial beer holiday. let’s celebrate! today we’re drinking at newly opened mohawk bend, the latest and greatest watering hole in LA…

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  • August 1st, 2011quarrygirlLA restaurants, mohawk bend

    UPDATE 8/12: the s’mores mohawk are now vegan! they make the graham crackers in house w/o honey. eat it up.

    UPDATE 8/2: turns out the graham crackers that come with the s’mores contain honey, but mohawk is seeking a vegan alternative. GRRRRRR.

    today is the day we’ve all been waiting for: mohawk bend in echo park is opening this evening! since the restaurant/bar announced that they’d have over 70 craft beers on tap and a 60% vegan menu, we’ve been tracking their progress with eager anticipation.

    72 craft beers to choose from.

    a couple weeks ago, we attended a press event to scope out the mohawk’s epic restored restaurant space and to whet our appetite for their local and seasonal cuisine…and a few days after that, we got the chance to sample even more vegan items from the menu. we’ve been waiting to share our second meal with you until mohawk announced an opening date, and fortunately they’ve decided to open tonight! here’s a look at some of the great dishes you can expect to find at echo park’s new vegan hot spot:

    tony’s favorite casserole: polenta, leeks, broccoli, vegan cheese

    i can see why this casserole is tony’s favorite—filled up with creamy polenta, roasted vegetables, and two types of vegan cheese, it’s served piping hot and is absolutely delicious.

    the vegan burger at mohawk is one of the best in town…

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  • July 19th, 2011quarrygirlLA restaurants, mohawk bend

    Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you’re probably aware of the hoopla about the new Echo Park pub and restaurant: Mohawk Bend. Just like Sunset Boulevard, the street upon which it sits, Mohawk Bend has gone through many twists and turns as it wound its way through the acquisition, planning, construction and then opening processes – something that the City of LA makes as arduous as possible for small businesses.  The good news is: Mohawk is now scheduled to open next week, and as far as we’re concerned it will be the best place to eat and drink in Los Angeles.

    So, what IS Mohawk Bend, and why has it garnered such intense interest? For one, the back-story is intriguing. Owner Tony Yanow (yes, that Tony) took a century-old theater which has been derelict for almost 30 years, and transformed it into one of the most astounding eating and drinking spaces in all of LA, if not the West Coast. It’s got 72 taps of craft beer (including two cask systems), an incredible food menu of locally-sourced ingredients (yeah, 60% of the food menu, and almost all beers are vegan: how about that?), with several distinct dining/drinking areas each of which has subtly different vibes. As Tony put it: “We wanted to create not just a place in Echo Park, but THE place in Echo Park”. There’s not a soul who would argue that he didn’t do just exactly that.

    We were lucky to be invited to the pre-opening press/blogger event and from the moment we walked into the front patio area we felt comfortable, welcome and at ease. That’s the way Tony wants it to be, and he’s magically captured the neighborhood pub feel of Tony’s Darts Away while scaling it up massively and successfully into a veritable theme park of craft beer and gourmet food.

    From its inception, the menu at Mohawk was designed to be extremely vegan-friendly. It’s a collaboration between two chefs—one of whom is a vegan herself, so as you can imagine, we’re well looked after. They’ve taken care of every last detail, down to separate fryers, utensils, and cooking preparation areas. The restaurant has succeeded in creating classic pub fare that everyone loves, with a vegan twist that’s extremely impressive.

    Chickpea Beer Nuts

    Upon arrival, we immediately started munching on bar snacks—almonds, pistachios, and absolutely amazing chickpea “beer nuts”. Although Mohawk had several appetizing cocktails on offer, we stuck to beer. A couple of Bootleggers Old World Hefes and a sampling of the appetizer selections really hit the spot.

    Bootleggers Old World Hefe with a plate of housebaked bread and dipping sauces.

    The bread and dipping sauces were ridiculously good! I’m telling you, freshly baked bread really does make a huge difference.

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  • June 16th, 2011quarrygirlLA restaurants, mohawk bend

    photo by kat nguyen

    aw shucks! recently we blogged that the much anticipated mohawk bend would be opening its doors on june 28th. unfortunately, the gastropub has been delayed until further notice. lemme tell you, i got a personal tour of the mohawk space over the weekend and it is INSANE. i think it’s gonna be the best place to eat and drink in town, especially for vegans! there are like 8 million beer taps, two cask pumps, a dedicated vegan fryer, and a gigantic dedicated vegan pizza oven! gaaaaaah, i have never been so excited about a place opening before! here’s the official/unofficial word from team mohawk:

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  • June 1st, 2011quarrygirlLA restaurants, mohawk bend

    UPDATE 6/16/11: the mohawk opening has been delayed.

    we have been waiting for this moment for AGES! mohawk bend (a vegan-friendly pizza and craft beer heaven brought to us by the folks behind tony’s darts away) is almost ready to open!

    check out the official press release after the jump (i edited all the meaty parts out of it—muahaha!), and also have a look at drink eat travel’s pre-opening coverage. I HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS EXCITED ABOUT THE OPENING OF A RESTAURANT! weeee!

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  • August 18th, 2010mr meanerLA restaurants, mohawk bend

    I don’t think we’ve ever asked our readers to jump to a cause before. Usually we’re content with taking pictures of food, but some recent events have spurred us into action to ask for your help to support a potential new highly vegan-friendly and environmentally-friendly business that’s a few months away from opening. Read on to see what all the fuss is about.

    You’ve heard us rave about Burbank’s excellent Tony’s Darts Away, the awesome restaurant where over half the food menu is vegan and there’s 38 local beers on tap. About the only criticism we’ve heard is that Burbank is a little far away for some LA residents, and the facility is way too small to cope with the demand at peak times. Tony Yanow, the affable owner of Tony’s Darts Away (interestingly, no relation to the “Tony” in the establishment’s name) is working hard to address those concerns and is in the planning process to convert a disused 1930s theater in Echo Park to a new venue modeled on his original location, but with much more space to accommodate hungry and thirsty vegans (as well as our omnivorous friends).

    Initially labeled as “Tony’s East”, the new name is Mohawk Brasserie, and it’ll be on the corner of Sunset and Mohawk right next to Elf (one of LA’s top vegetarian restaurants) and coincidentally across the street from the new LA PETA headquarters (under construction).

    The Old Ramona Theatre on Sunset, soon to be Mohawk Brasserie!

    photo credit: echoparknow.com

    However, all is not set in stone as there has been some limited local opposition to this establishment with local residents (likely a loud minority of people) attempting to stop the construction and progress for what seem to be nefarious and irrelevant reasons: proximity to a school, smells from the kitchen and parking concerns. There’s even a local “blog” where somebody has been spreading untruths about the planned restaurant to scaremonger the local residents.

    What’s at stake here? Well, Tony has gone all-out to make sure that Mohawk Brasserie will be a foodie and beer heaven. We sat down with him recently (over a vegan dog and a couple of nice pints of beer, of course!) and he gave us a sneak peek of his plans. On the food side, they include a major expansion of Tony’s Darts Away menu, including the perfect combination of brick oven pizza alongside many more vegan and healthy options. Heck, Tony has even divided the kitchen into two parts: vegan and non-vegan so there’s no chance of getting real cheese on your pizza! Oh, and talking of pizza, Tony is having custom dough and sauce recipes created and will be offering not one but two vegan cheeses: Daiya and the new Teese.

    For us beer-types, Tony is dedicating a large area of the bar for keg storage, so that beer can settle and be aged after it’s delivered from the brewery, resulting in a more consistent and tasty pour. Oh, and all beer will be from California, there will be no bottles on the premises and where possible all the food ingredients will be sourced locally to, as Tony puts it, “Create the smallest possible environmental footprint”.

    It’s details like a divided kitchen and extra keg storage that set Tony apart from many other proprietors: He cares about the quality of his product, the integrity of his customers food and the environmental impact of the decisions he makes.

    Tonight, Tony is appearing in person at the Echo Park Improvement Association Neighborhood Issues Committee meeting being held at 7pm at Williams Hall at Barlow Hospital. He’ll be answering questions from the Committee as well as local residents and explaining his plans for the restaurant and the lengths he’s going to in order to be not just a good neighbor, but to actively improve the area around where Mohawk Brasserie will be.

    If you live around the area, and would like to see this special place open up do go along to the meeting and show your support for Tony and his plans.

    Frankly, we can’t wait until early next year when Mohawk Brasserie will hopefully open for business.

    For more information on this situation and interviews with Tony himself, check out Echo Park Now and The Eastsider LA.

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