finding vegan food can be hard sometimes, but imagine being a vegan musician on tour. shuffling around from city to city, being away from home, and dealing with the pressures of performing—all while trying to find 3 animal-free meals per day in uncharted territory. sounds challenging, eh? well that’s what alex estrada is up to right now, as his band silver snakes embarks on a 10 day tour from california to nevada, to washington and oregon and back again. for educational purposes, alex has agreed to document his vegan tour experience via text to me, and i’m gonna post it all here on the blog. the tour culminates here in LA with a CD release party on october 23rd, so i expect to see you all there after reading what’s gone into the silver snakes’ stomachs for ten days straight. if you aren’t familiar with silver snakes yet, check out their site, listen to them on spotify, and read up on them at peta2.

their tour kicked off today in sacramento, and the band stopped off at a chipotle in lebec, CA for lunch, followed by some sugar plum vegan in sacramento for dinner. here are the photos, along with alex’s direct words via SMS.

chipotle veggie bowl with extra beans, all the salsas, and extra corn tortillas

California classic. Lebec, CA – chipotle veggie bowl. Extra beans, all the salsas, corn tortilla on the side. I have no idea where we are… I think we are by bakersfield.

I found a place in Sacramento I want to try. I hope we make it in time! Dude I heard this place has a jackfruit/walnut tuna melt and animal style fries.. pray4me ;)…

Read the rest of this entry »

we will miss you, garden blend!

this is sad news indeed! after a trial run period that lasted about 8 months, we’ve heard that chipotle has decided to pull the plug on gardein and stop offering the vegan garden blend option at most of its LA locations.

Read the rest of this entry »

SAD UPDATE HERE. original post below.

we raved about chipotle’s brand new garden blend protein (made with gardein) when it first came to los angeles, and now we are happy to report that it’s finally available in several more locations! here’s a list of chipotles where you can enjoy the delicious vegan “chicken”:

UPDATED 6/30/10 new locations to carry gardein:
Santa Monica 1218 3rd Street
Hollywood 1460 Vine Street

Beverly Hills 244 South Beverly Drive
Burbank 135 E. Palm Ave Space A2
Culver City 9512 Culver Blvd
El Segundo 307 No. Sepulveda Blvd. Suite B
Encino 16350-A Ventura Blvdage
Hawthorne 5330 Rosecrans Ave
Hermosa Beach 1439 Pacific Coast Highway
Los Angeles 121 N. La Cienega Blvd #114
Los Angeles 110 S. Fairfax Suite A-12
Los Angeles 1077 Broxton Ave
Marina Del Ray 4718 Admiralty Way
Northridge 9205 Reseda Blvd
Pasadena 246 South Lake Ave
Roseville 781 Pleasant Grove Blvd.
Santa Barbara 723 State Street
Studio City 12175 Ventura Blvd
Torrance 24631 Crenshaw Blvd Unit A
Westlake Village 5754 Lindero Canyon Rd
Woodland Hills 5430 Topanga Canyon Blvd.

image from the humane society's facebook page

look, they even put the word “VEGAN” on the menu! man, i love chipotle! go eat some gardein blend today!

special thanks to the humane society for sending me this info.

Well, well, well… time for another field report from my home town. An excellent vegan-friendly chain restaurant, chipotle, debuted in London this week, and of course we had an operative there on opening day to cover it. One thing I’ve been accustomed to in years of SoCal Mexican food is that there are high standards here. If I put my Brit hat on for a second, I can understand why dadatamonkey would feel as he does. I would. It’s worse than that… he’s dead, Jim…

It’s a burrito Jim, but not as we know it.

Well I popped along to the opening day of the new Chipotle “mexican” restaurant in London on Monday, after hearing, and reading (especially here) how good their food was. So was it good, bad, or just damn ugly? Read on. It’s kinda all three….

Lookin' good.

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE 6/9/10: garden blend is available in even more locations! see the list here.

it’s here, it’s FINALLY HERE!!!!! chipotle’s vegan garden blend burrito made with gardein is available in 2 los angeles locations as of TODAY.

we went out and got chipotle’s new vegan chicken burrito the minute we had a chance, and—-holy shit! it MORE THAN LIVES UP TO ALL THE HYPE! this thing is phenomenal!

Read the rest of this entry »

hey vegans, i know i have been updating you on the situation with the gardein meat or “garden blend” at chipotle in regards to which grill it’s cooked on, and most of our info has been coming from phone calls and conversations with the nyc staff. well finally, someone who works at chipotle has taken the time to send an official written response that will hopefully clear up any confusion. here ya go:

Read the rest of this entry »

since we wrote our open letter to chipotle, it appears as if they heard our plea and begun cooking the vegan gardein meat (aka garden blend) separately from all the real meat!

i was first tipped off by a commenter, and then called the west chelsea location myself…and it appears that it’s true!!!!

on the phone, chipotle said the garden blend is vegan. when i asked if the gardein is cooked separately than the meat, they replied, “of course it is! otherwise it wouldn’t be vegan!” they also said they made the decision to cook the gardein in a separate pan LAST WEEK after several people complained. ahem.

so if you are lucky enough to live in NYC (i’m jealous), head on over to the west chelsea chipotle on 8th avenue between 17th and 18th street for a VEGAN GARDEIN BURRITO.

oh and since we got chipotle’s attention with the last letter, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to ask for one more thing….

dear chipotle,
PLEASE bring vegan garden burrito to ALL YOUR LOCATIONS!!!! and if that’s not possible, and you can only bring it to one more storefront, please bring it to los angeles.
i love you!
quarrygirl

there are a few chipotles in chelsea, and i have read some inaccurate info online about which location has the garden blend. so here is a map just to make sure you go to the right one:

[googleMap name=”chipotle west chelsea” description=”where you lucky bastards can find vegan burritos” width=”570″]149 8th Ave New York, NY 10011[/googleMap]