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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it’s almost time for another summer vegan patio session at verdugo bar! sunday august 7th, seabirds is trucking it up all the way from orange county with guest chef stephen hauptfuhr to serve up a full menu of cooked and raw goodness, paired with craft beers by the verdugo.

Beer Battered Avocado Taco - Topped w/shredded cabbage, red onion and creamy tequila-jalapeno sauce. $2

the menu is gonna be pretty epic. so far it will include jackfruit tacos, beer-battered avocado tacos, mac and “cheese” with roasted figs and mushrooms, alfredo zucchini pasta, greek hummus wrap with sweet potato fries, and a walnut fudge brownie with ice cream. proceeds will benefit benji the dog, so don’t miss it!!

facebook invite and full info after the jump…

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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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there’s a huge rivalry between the san francisco giants and philadelphia phillies, and i’m not referring to something as trivial as baseball. nope, i’m talking about which home stadium has the best vegan beer and food options. cititzens bank park in philly topped peta’s most vegetarian-friendly stadium list for years, only to be beat in 2011 by san francisco’s AT&T park. kevin of vegan brew brought us a vegan major league baseball report from philly in may, and he went to a giants game a couple nights ago just to do a firsthand comparison. let’s see how san fran measured up…

garlic fries. $7.25 and beer. $9.75

Here are the vegan options at Giants Stadium…

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oooooooh, this is gonna be epic. we’ve already blogged about love like beer’s upcoming vegan dinner this thursday in san diego, and the menu they released today is making us really wish we didn’t have to work on friday. the taps and food all look amazing.

check it out for yourself…

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well, i’ve got some bad news and some good news. the bad news is, stone’s vegan pairing dinner is already SOLD OUT! wow, that was quick. good job, vegans! hopefully the interest will convince stone to hold another one asap. the good news is, there’s gonna be another vegan beer dinner in san diego that very week hosted by the folks at LOVELIKEBEER!

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good god, somebody pinch me because this cannot be real. stone, one one of our favorite breweries on earth, is hosting their first ENTIRELY VEGAN BEER PAIRING DINNER next month at their world class restaurant in escondido.

we’ve already raved about stone world bistro and gardens a couple times on this blog. in fact we love the restaurant at their brewery so much, it’s where we spent our five year wedding anniversary. when i heard stone would be holding an entirely vegan dinner with four courses and beer for just $49, i couldn’t believe it.

here’s how stone describes the evening…

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who doesn’t love vegan cupcakes? who doesn’t love craft beer? well this saturday april 16th you can get a taste of both when we host this month’s vegan drinks celebration with c’est la v bakeshop at the surly goat in west hollywood. (please be sure to rsvp if you’d like to attend!)

midnight chocolate peanut butter cup

kim garr, the mastermind behind LA’s popular c’est la ve bakeshop, was recently a contestant on the food network’s cupcake wars. on saturday night, she’ll be selling the goodies she made on the show, plus all the flavors she would have made had she advanced to further rounds. it’s gonna be a vegan cupcake extravaganza! check out the flavors kim will have on hand for you to try (in addition to the midnight chocolate peanut butter cup pictured above).

click on each cupcake picture for a much more detailed description…

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When springtime hits LA, I find I want to be outside as much as possible. It’s perfect timing, then, that the vegan-friendly, inaugural colLAboration mobile craft beer garden event would be held today, one of the year’s first truly spring-like days. Warm sun, cool breezes off the Pacific and even cooler beers on tap combined to make the the event truly spectacular for all those who attended.

colLAboration is, er, a collaboration of four of LA’s top beer bar owners: Ryan Sweeney of Verdugo Bar and Surly Goat (which happens to be our local hangout), Brian Lenzo of Blue Palms Brewhouse, Clay Harding of 38° Ale House and Tony Yanow of Tony’s Darts Away and soon-to-be-open Mohawk Bend. Collectively, they bring decades of experience not only of beer, but how to create an atmosphere in which to enjoy it.

If you’ve ever been to any of the above establishments, you’ll know that these guys care about their beer and their bars, sparing no effort to make sure you have the best time possible. They’re also hands-on. I still think that watching Brian Lenzo tap a cask with such grace and expertise is something that should be required watching for all beer lovers!

So, appreciating all of their bars as much as we do, we were beside ourselves with anticipation to see what they could achieve together. And we were not disappointed…

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UPDATE: this event has sold out! yay beer!

i can’t believe it has been almost a year since the opening of tony’s darts away in burbank. in just a short amount of time the pub has become an integral part of the LA craft beer scene, and it remains the best place ever to drink and eat vegan food at the same time.

recently tony’s has teamed up with the other leading beer bars in los angeles to form colLAboration, an organization that plans to throw pop up beer garden parties all over town. their inaugural event will take place this weekend to celebrate tony’s first birthday, and it’s gonna be vegan-friendly!

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UPDATE: bangers and smashed has just confirmed that they will be selling VEGAN SAUSAGES as well as vegan mashed potatoes at the event! yes! the sausage plate comes with 2 sausages and 2 scoops of potatoes for ten bucks, or you can get 2 scoops of potatoes for $5! so stoked that this event is so vegan-friendly! cheers!

vegans like to celebrate st. patrick’s day by getting drunk, gorging on potatoes festive “irish” foods, and participating in a bunch of needless pinching just as much as other americans…right? right! that’s why surly goat in west hollywood is the place to be this thursday.

the folks at the goat are teaming up with our favorite gourmet potato mashing company, bangers and smashed to bring us a st. patrick’s day party shindig that will please vegans and omnivores alike.

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we are self-proclaimed vegan pizza addicts, and our favorite place to get it at the moment is pizza guru in santa barbara. we love pizza guru so much, in fact, that in january we made the 90 mile drive up the coast just to eat dinner there and celebrate vegan pizza day. thankfully, we found a great table in the corner, made ourselves comfy, and spent a few hours leisurely dining.

veganized garlic bread sticks

considering it was a holiday and all, we decided to go all out. garlic bread, pizza, calzones, and of course, lots of alcohol. we stared with a huge plate of daiya covered bread (pictured above) and a pitcher of firestone union jack (pictured below). the bread was nothing short of phenomenal—moist, spongy, and packed with garlic flavor. just be sure to specify that you want it made vegan, because by default it comes with dairy cheese.

firestone walker on draught never disappoints, and it was perfect for soaking up all the greasy bread. i love that this place does beer by the pitcher…it’s not something i get to enjoy with vegan pizza very often.

next up, THE PIZZA:

medium pizza with daiya cheese, basil, roasted red potatoes, mushroom blend, and vegan garlic cream sauce

good god, this was the most fantastic pizza i’ve ever tasted.

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tony’s darts away is one of my favorite places to grab a weekday lunch. not only do they have a massive selection of craft beer on tap, but they’ve got great vegan sausages and a monday through friday lunch deal that comes with chips and salad. what more do i require?

lunch special: vegan sausage with 2 small toppings, 2 large toppings, homemade chips and a salad. $8.75

since we last blogged about tony’s, they’ve been tweaking their menu and have added even more vegan toppings including jalapenos, fresh salsa, and avocado lime puree (pictured above)…

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if you live in los angeles, you’ve probably heard of the counter, a super popular burger joint with several locations and loads of quality beer on tap.

lucky for us herbivore folks, the veggie burger patty at the counter is vegan…and even though the buns are not, you can opt for your burger in a bowl atop a salad. normally, we wouldn’t be thrilled by this option, but the killer draught list inspired us to check the counter out.

we hit up the brand new wilshire location over the weekend and were pleasantly surprised…

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pizza fusion hollywood is continuously looking out for their vegan customers. from carrying 2 types of dairy-free cheese (daiya and follow your heart), to offering cruelty-free specials on both superbowl and valentine’s day…they always seem to have us covered.

in addition to their incredible pizza menu, i recently found out they have VEGAN BEER FLOATS and a new selection of vegan-friendly wraps. of course, i had to get over there and try this stuff out.

vegan wrap: romaine, arugula, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, soy cheese, tahini & fresh lemon. served with side arugula salad. $8.99

first up, the “vegan wrap,” which (naturally) comes vegan by default…

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