well it has been a while since our last vegan field report from red velvet in las vegas, but i am happy to report that our operative is back in sin city and has even more delicious food to share with us.

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in the mood for a huge, hearty, warm, melty, fake-meaty vegan sandwich for under $10? look no further than chango coffee house in echo park. the hipster cofee shop/art gallery is located at echo park avenue and delta street, a spot that locals have dubbed “chicken corner,” and has recently added two unbelievably tasty vegan sandwiches to their menu. i had the chance to try both over the weekend, steak & cheese as well as chicken pesto, and each one brought a kind of sandwich satisfaction that isn’t available anywhere else in town.

vegan steak and cheese sandwich. $7.50

the vegan steak and cheese sandwich is basically a vegan version of your typical “philly cheesesteak,” with thick soy steak strips and dairy-free mozzarella, along with sauteed onions and mushrooms. chango toasted the sandwich when i ordered it, so the bread was warm and crispy and the soy cheese was perfectly melty. for the steak chango uses gardein, and for the cheese they use teese from chicago soy dairy…each being the best replacement out there for its animal-product counterpart. i can tell you, this steak and cheese sandwich was so amazing, even a meat-eater would fall in love with it. not since doomie’s or the vegan spot (both are closed down now) have i had such a great vegan sandwich.

vegan chicken pesto salad panini. $7.50

the vegan chicken pesto sandwich was equally impressive, with thick chunks of gardein protein, creamy cheese-less pesto sauce, fresh basil, crisp lettuce and juicy tomatoes. the pesto was really garlicky, just the way i like it, and the bread heated up to be perfectly toasty and crunchy. where else can you buy a big chunky chicken pesto sandwich that’s vegan in los angeles?!? …that’s right. nowhere.

the thing i love about chango’s new sandwiches, are they are unlike the normal “vegan” sandwich options you can get just about anywhere. rather than just some grilled vegetables and maybe tofu on a bread roll, chango take its vegan sandwiches to the next level with fake meats, soy cheeses, and incredible homemade pesto sauce. plus, they are really well prepared, perfectly assembled with just the right amount of ingredients, and toasted to absolute perfection. you aren’t gonna get any other sandwich this good for well under 10 dollars, i guarantee you.

the atmosphere is also great at chango, it reminds me of a hip seattle coffee shop with its bohemian customers, shelves full of books to peruse, and bright art adorning the wall. seriously, it’s the perfect place to sit back and relax with a cup of caffeine and a huge vegan sandwich. get your ass over to chango asap and see what this food is all about. the vegan items are listed right now on the “specials” chalkboard to the left of the counter, not on the main board.

chango coffee house
1559 Echo Park Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90026

it’s no secret that i’ve been eating at vegan-friendly restaurants all over los angeles for quite some time. however, throughout the last several years of living here as a vegan, for some reason i never bothered to check out fatty’s in eagle rock. the all vegetarian restaurant on colorado boulevard has high prices, gourmet menu items that i can’t pronounce, strange opening hours, and a pretty dairy-heavy menu. for so long i just assumed the place wasn’t for me. BOY WAS I WRONG. i finally had the chance to check out fatty’s a few weeks ago and it rocked my my vegan socks off.

my husband and i ended up at fatty’s on accident. we had an epic double-date dinner planned to attend shojin’s 1 year anniversary party with lex and kristin of vegan-la, which also coincided roughly with when they would be leaving los angeles to embark on backpacking trip around europe. turned out shojin was way too crowded to eat at (i’m talking line-out-the-door savage nightmare), so we headed out to fatty’s eagle rock for of the best vegan meals i’ve had in this town.

fudgey: a two layer chocolate bundt cake with chocolate ganache, toasted coconut and pecan frosting with a creamy center. $8

just because it was so fucking scrumptious, lemme start by telling you about the fudgey. this was the dessert that lex and kristin ordered and were kind enough to share with us (had this been my cake, nobody else at the table woulda got even a bite of it!), and we all agreed it was delicious. the thing was big enough to feed a boatload of people and it came with layer after layer of sugary goodness. chocolate, coconut, and pecan creaminess made this one of the best sweet things i’ve ever encountered. dense and decadent, this cake could fool ANYONE who is addicted to eggs and milk. nothing about it tasted vegan. fudgey is the perfect name for this ridiculously fudgey dish.

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UPDATE!!! PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT UPDATE ABOUT DEE’S DONUTS BEFORE EATING THEM.

yawn! i usually don’t post on saturday morning, but as of today, there are finally vegan donuts in los angeles and that is so worth writing about at this dreadful hour! intelligentsia in silver lake has started selling dee’s nuts donuts and i can’t get enough.

dee's nuts vegan donut with chocolate frosting and purple sprinkles. yum.

it’s about fucking time vegan donuts made their way to los angeles. i mean, jeez, we have a gazzilion vegan restaurants, vegan cupcakes, vegan cookies, and (my fave) vegan twinkies, but no vegan donuts. …UNTIL NOW.

today, it seems that dee’s nuts donuts, a vegan donut brand has shot up overnight and started offering a line of baked goods at the very popular intelligentsia coffee shop in silver lake. dee’s nuts is a one-woman, animal-free donut company (she doesn’t advertise her goods as vegan, because the v word makes flesh-eaters recoil in horror) who has has been getting quite the buzz in the vegan community and causing a stir among herbivores on twitter.

dee’s nuts treats have been available for private order through her website for quite awhile. but today for the first time, they made their debut on the los angeles restaurant scene. since silver lake seems to have the most vegan restaurants per capita, it seems fitting that vegan donuts would first show up at a trendy sunset junction coffee shop.

intelligentsia is known for its superior coffee, tea, and pastries. how awesome is it that thanks to dee’s nuts, vegans from all of la county have a huge reason to visit there now.

vegan donuts at intelligentsia. $2.50 each.

glazed and chocolate-coconut are both delicious.

dee’s nuts creates a line of super fresh donuts, baked right in our own downtown los angeles, that taste authentic and sinful just like the real thing. plump, porous, juicy cake deep fried and covered in thick and creamy frosting make for absolute decadence. and at only $2.50 a pop, they are very reasonably priced, and give you an excuse to buy several.

because they aren’t advertised as vegan, i know that SO MANY omnivores will order these donuts and think they are “real.” muahahahahhahahahahahaha.

la vegans, get over to intelligentsia and buy some donuts. right now they only have one dozen per day. i got my silly ass there at 6am on a saturday and heard that other people had been calling about them as well. considering there are no other vegan donuts in town, i’d act fast and buy ’em whenever the fuck you can.

i was so stoked when i heard about these vegan donuts, that i couldn’t even wait for them to become available in stores. lucky for me, deanna of dee’s nuts invited me to her kitchen yesterday and gave me a quick tour, as well as a piping-hot donut fresh off the press. you can order your own batch through her website, and i highly recommend doing so, even if its just to be able to taste a donut moments after its been made. check out this cell phone picture i snapped of the vegan donut maker:

this is where vegan donuts come from.

i know, i know. i am very lucky.

dee’s nuts donuts also made a smaller debut today at fix coffee in echo park. fix has already been offering cookies baked by dee’s nuts, and as of today they will be selling donuts too. if you can stomach it, i would recommend getting to fix and trying the cookies out as well. there is a freshly-baked chocolate chip cookie that is melty and out of this world, along with a thick spongy sugar cookie slathered in creamy frosting. these treats are also not advertised as vegan, and they are tasty enough to fool anybody.

vegan sugar cookie. $2.50 and vegan chocolate chip cookie. $2.25

i will keep you posted as these baked goods and donuts become available in more locations. now that i’ve had vegan donuts in la, i definitely don’t want them to go away.

oh yeah, and dee’s nuts! lol.

wayward cafe is a modest cash-only co-op—a small house that’s been converted into an entirely vegan restaurant, located in a residential area of seattle’s university district. more importantly, it’s where i had the best breakfast of my entire life.

tempeh scramble: fried tempeh wedges, scrambled spicy seasoned tofu and steamed broccoli on a bed of spinach. served with a side of tahini sauce and toast. $7.50

breakfast burrito: scrambled seasoned tofu, tvp chorizo and spinach wrapped inside a grilled flour tortilla. topped with cilantro sour cream. served with a side of salsa fresca and home fries. $6.75

while there are a few things that kind of irritate me about this restaurant, the food is so wonderful it makes them all irrelevant. if i lived in seattle, i would eat at this place several days per week. i’m talking food so good, it rivals pure luck…if wayward cafe had tap beer, i’d surely move to washington.

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