a couple days ago, i got an email from a vegan who lives in eagle rock telling me i had to check out corner pizzeria. he said they’d just started carrying daiya cheese and vegan sausage, and that the pizza was amazing. sure enough i headed out to corner over the weekend, and was delighted as i approached the building and saw a sign advertising vegan pizza.

but there was a catch…

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hey everyone, quarrygirl here. this is very exciting news. not only is there now a place to get vegan pizza delivered in north hollywood…but it’s cheap, authentic, take-out pizza as well. not fancy, specialty pizza like you find at most places in LA with vegan offerings. anyways, the following post is by field reporter brittany (of sick of lettuce). we’ve gone ahead and set her up with her very own qg username (check out the top of the post to see who it was written by), so after this i am gonna stop introducing her entries. enjoy!

large pizza with vegan cheese, garlic, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and mushrooms. $13.69

a couple days ago i got an email from QG alerting me to lenzini’s pizza in north hollywood, and the fact that they recently started offering vegan pizza. WHAAAT? i was a bit skeptical that a random pizza place in noho was offering vegan pizza, so i double-checked ahead of time and found that 1) they use daiya cheese and 2) the dough is vegan as well. SCORE! i, of course, immediately sprang in to action (by immediately i mean a day later) and walked down to lenzini’s for lunch with some of my co-workers.

after a short stroll we arrived at lenzini’s and started picking out toppings. no faux meats on the topping menu, but there are a ton of yummy vegetable offerings. we decided to go with garlic, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and mushrooms on half – we had a mushroom hater in the group.

this pizza was delicious! the crust was light and airy, the sauce was great, there was tons of melty daiya, and the toppings were generous & fresh. we ended up getting a large and it cost $13.69 – i was expecting it to be more but they have a lot of specials posted. i was honestly a little confused by all the signage they have going on inside the shop and i don’t know which special we ended up getting, but i’m not complaining because i’m used to paying at LEAST $20 for a large vegan pizza, usually more.

we chose to dine in because we were hungry and didn’t want to walk back to our office and delay our eating time any longer, but lenzini’s is probably more of a take-out place. there are a few tables, though, if you are impatient like we were.

our pizza disappeared faster than it arrived (which was pretty quickly) and everyone left feeling pretty satisfied. even the omni in our group enjoyed the vegan cheese! i am a little afraid of how dangerously close this place is to my office, though, and have the feeling that there will be EVEN MORE pizza consumption in my future.

lenzini’s pizza
5044 Lankershim Blvd
North Hollywood CA 91601
Phone order :818-506-0200 Fax:818-506-7997

Sunday-Thursday 11am – 10:30pm
Friday and Saturday 11am – midnight

when i tried the new tofurky frozen pizza at natural products expo west a few months ago, it was seriously love at first bite. covered in stretchy daiya cheese and plump pepperoni bits, it was the best frozen pizza i’d ever tasted.

imagine my excitement then, when i got a letter from tofurky advertising their new pizza line, along with a coupon to get one for free. the only problem is, i couldn’t find a store in LA selling the pizzas yet. i had no choice but to hop on a plane and head up to the cutting edge food fight grocery in portland, oregon.

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UPDATE: it appears that zpizza is not selling vegan pizza at every store, even though that’s how they advertised it on twitter. PLEASE CALL YOUR LOCAL STORE TO CHECK.

as of friday evening, both the weho and chatsworth locations were clueless about the promotion. however, santa clarita is totally legit. let’s hope they get this ironed out soon. we want slices!

original post:

hey everyone, another weekend full of awesome vegan events is comin’ atcha!

vegan ice cream at worldfest

i’m gonna go a little bit out of order and say the one thing you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO check out this weekend is worldfest which takes place on sunday may 16th from 10:30am to 7pm at woodley park. there is gonna be music, vegan food galore, bands, beer, and celebrity speakers. it costs $7 to get in for adults, $5 for seniors, and kids under 12 are free. for more info check out the worldfest website, and be sure to read my review from last year.

the food alone is seriously worth the admission price. vegan ice cream, corndogs, funnel cakes, and lots of new products you haven’t had before. see ya there…

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the daiya revolution is in full swing, and the latest restaurant to hop on board is hugo’s. both the upscale eatery and the taco stand of the same name have adopted the revolutionary vegan cheese, and the result is some damn delicious food.

i hit up the taco stand yesterday and tried a whole slew of vegan offerings, all with daiya cheese, and they did not disappoint!

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hey everyone, time for another vegan field report from norfolk, virginia! this one (just like the last one) was written by steve….so i’ll let him take it away:

Okay, you REALLY have to bear with me on this one. In Norfolk, VA one of the most interesting vegan restaurants is actually a place called “San Antonio Sam’s“. It’s a no-apologies Texas Grill, with pictures of cowboys on horses rounding up cattle on its website, as well as all sorts of awfully un-vegan food offerings on its menu.

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i have made about a million recipes to date with daiya cheese, and so far this is my favorite.

vegan cheesy potatoes made with daiya

this was adapted from a recipe my mom used to make all the time when i was a kid, and the daiya made it taste just as good as i remember. i really never thought i’d get to eat these potatoes again, so i am beyond thrilled.

recipe after the jump…

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whew! natural products west 2010 has finally come and gone, and boy was it awesome. the world’s largest natural and organic products tradeshow took place over the weekend in anaheim, and of course we were there checking out all the new animal-free products.

there was a lot of cool vegan shit there this year…so sit back, relax, and get ready for an epic photo-filled post of food porn. here we go! (i am posting stuff in the actual order we tried it, so be sure to scroll through the whole post—i don’t want you to miss anything!)

of course the first booth we had to check out was daiya. the revolutionary vegan cheese made a huge debut at 2009’s expo west, and i remember reading about it on jennshaggy’s blog and turning green with envy. now just one year later, it has completely changed the world of vegan food…

this time around, daiya’s big news at the expo was the introduction of their snazzy retail packaging which will be available in whole foods by the end of the month! did you hear that?! you are gonna be able to buy daiya everywhere…it’s official. no more paying by weight and weird deli containers full of vegan cheese…this is legit!

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vegans, there has never been a better day than this to head over to weho and try out chili addiction. the brand new restaurant opened up last week and when i dropped by last night, they not only had their standard vegan chili offerings, but were also testing out soy hot dogs, vegan sausages, and daiya cheese.

Hom-onious Chorizo: First you take some Soy Chorizo, then you add some Hominy, cook it with Johnny's secret blend of spices and...Presto..a perfectly harmonized, savory, and full textured 100% VEGAN CHILI!

i started with an order of what i came for, the vegan “hom-onious chorizo chili”. i read about it on chili addiction’s website and immediately knew i had to get it. i am a huge fan of hominy, so the thought of adding it to soy meat and chili addiction’s secret spices sounded absolutely delicious.

hominy and soyrizo chili with daiya cheese

the result was a hearty and full-bodied homemade chili mix that was incredibly flavorful and incredibly filling. they even gave me a side of daiya cheddar which complimented it perfectly. this is the second time i’ve eaten the vegan chili from chili addiction, and i must say i am smitten. it’s so much better than the stuff you find sold in a can, or than anything i could make at home. hominy mixed in with soy chorizo really is as good as it sounds.

vegan field roast sausage with soyrizo hominy chili and daiya cheese

i also got a vegan chili cheese sausage to go, which was super awesome. it came with a field roast sausage (my favorite kind) smothered in the same incredible hominy soyrizo chili and topped with daiya cheddar.

they should still have the sausages, cheese, and dogs in stock today…so get over there and order some. i’m pretty sure this is the first time in my life i’ve ever had a vegan chili cheese dog, and it was sooooo good. let’s go buy these today and encourage chili addiction to offer these options regularly.

and if they run out of sausages or cheese before you get there, there are plenty more drool-worthy items on the menu. they usually have two vegan chilis in stock (one soy and one non-soy), which you can add to all kinds of delicious things. you can have chili mac, chili fries, chili sweet potato fries, or chili potato chip nachos. not to mention their homemade sauerkraut which i tasted and LOVED.

and everything at chili addiction is high quality and made completely from scratch—from the chili itself right down to the condiments and potato chips.

so head on over to chili addiction today and try out some of their new vegan items. vegan chili cheese fries sound like a lunch plan to me….

Chili Addiction
408 N. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 203-1793
lunch 12pm-3pm
dinner 5:30pm-9pm

just a few days ago, we were lamenting that there’s not enough vegan-friendly eat-in pizzerias, where one can relax with a bottle of red wine and a tasty pizza in a comfy dimly-lit environment. well, pizza fusion hollywood has come to the rescue.

pizza fusion hollywood has been open for a while, but up until yesterday the only vegan cheese they offered was follow your heart. after being spoiled by the countless places to get daiya in LA, i vowed to never eat FYH again…and even wrote an open letter to pizza fusion hollywood begging them to carry daiya. earlier this week, they sent me an email saying they would finally be introducing daiya to their menu (in addition to FYH), and inviting me over for a pizza tasting. of course my reply was, hell yes!

i hit up pizza fusion hollywood along with brittany from sick of lettuce, to try out their daiya-covered pizzas, and i must say the whole experience was pretty wonderful. when i arrived i was floored by how inviting and cozy the restaurant was. i’d been to pizza fusion in santa monica before, but the hollywood location is much more my style. it’s smaller and more intimate, but with a pretty big bar, and cute tables looking out on sunset blvd. our server was extremely friendly and brought us a drink list with all the vegan options clearly marked.

we ordered a glass of beer and wine and spent a while poring over the menu, deciding what we could veganize. ahhh, this is so the pizza experience i have been looking for! tap beer, wine, and all the time in the world to just hang out and chill.

we started out with the flatbread and dip trio appetizer, which is not vegan by default, but can be made animal-free by omitting the artichoke spread and olive tapenade.

flatbread and dip veganized: served with marinara and olive oil.

they brought it out with extra marinara sauce and olive oil for dipping, and the whole thing was downright delicious. the portion was huge, but we had no problem polishing off every last triangle. the bread was moist and covered in delicate seasonings, and the sauce was rich and flavorful.

very vegan: crimini mushrooms, roasted garlic, tomato sauce, and daiya cheese.

the first pizza we tried was the only one that is vegan by default: the very vegan. it came with mushrooms, garlic, tomato sauce and daiya cheese. i’ve had this pizza before with follow your heart, and i must say this was a huge improvement! they didn’t put too much cheese on the pizza, but rather just the right amount, so it wasn’t overly gooey. mushrooms and garlic are pretty much my two favorite pizza toppings anyway, so this was right up my street.

vegan bbq chicken pizza: bbq sauce, roasted red onion, fresh garlic, basil, daiya cheese.

the next pizza we tried was the bbq chicken pizza, with daiya and vegan chicken strips. this thing was awesome, and the faux chicken was soft and chewy. it was pretty light and healthy tasting too, again pizza fusion didn’t overload the thing with cheese and soy meat. sweet and tangy with a kick of garlic, this pizza was perfect.

farmer's market vegan: roasted artichoke hearts, red onion, zucchini, roasted portobello, tomato sauce, and daiya.

the last pizza we sampled was a vegan version of the farmer’s market, a pie loaded with roasted vegetables. pizza fusion did not skimp on the toppings one bit; there were huge chunks of everything from portobello mushrooms to zucchini to artichokes. while we chose the white crust option for the first two pizzas, we got this one with multigrain crust. i’m not gonna lie, i like the white crust better, but the multigrain one was pretty good as well.

just when i thought i was gonna explode, they brought out some brownies and ice cream for us to try as well. the brownie was vegan and gluten free, and while i’m used to more decadent desserts, it was definitely great for a GF item. i’d had a pizza fusion brownie before at the santa monica location, and this one was much better and softer on the inside. the real star of the dessert plate though, was the vegan strawberry ice cream. completely rich and insanely delicious.

overall, our experience at pizza fusion hollywood was lovely and i can’t wait to return. the food was good, the vibe was chill, the staff was nice, and the beer was on tap. plus the place is really easy to get to, close to my house, and validates parking for up to an hour. for convenience and atmosphere, pizza fusion hollywood has everywhere else in town beat.

so check this place out when you have a chance. get some vegan pizza and take your pick of either daiya or follow your heart. isn’t it great to have all these options?

pizza fusion hollywood
7950 W. Sunset Blvd.
Suite 104
Los Angeles, CA 90046
Phone: 323-375-3390

Sun–Thur 11am – 10pm
Fri–Saturday 11am – 11pm

PS: the pizza fusion in santa monica also carries both daiya and follow your heart. yay!

just a quick post to let you know that cruzer pizza los feliz, LA’s only vegan pizzeria, now has some new and delicious additions to their menu.

starting today, cruzer is offering daiya cheese-filled bread sticks and philly cheesesteak sandwiches with match meats in addition to their vegan pizzas and salads!

having tried the daiya bread sticks today, i can say they are nothing short of revolutionary. much thinner and richer than a calzone, these long bread tubes are coated in garlic and oil then filled with insanely stretchy vegan mozzarella. dipped in marinara sauce, they are absolutely perfect and remind me of my dairy-eating days more than anything….minus the cruelty. seriously, you must try them!

the philly cheesesteak sandwiches are equally rave-worthy, with the kickass combo of match meats, daiya cheese, sauteed vegetables, and vegenaise. the bread is soft and fluffy, the meat is salty, the cheese is melty, and the vegetables are cooked to perfection! i of course, ordered my sandwich w/o bell peppers, and it was the best vegan cheesesteak sandwich i’ve ever had. i liked mine spicy, so cruzer was happy to throw in some jalapenos as well.

so if you haven’t been to cruzer, i dunno what you are waiting for. let’s see…

1.) they are the only vegan pizzeria in LA
2.) they offer daiya, field roast, and gardein
3.) they are the only establishment in the western US to carry match meats
4.) they have vegan cheese-filled bread sticks
5.) they serve the best philly cheesesteak sammies ever
6.) they have a QUARRYGIRL PIZZA

you have no excuse not to go.

cruzer pizza
4449 Prospect Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 666-0600
open at 4pm daily

UPDATE 1/10/10: i just heard that the culver city m cafe is running this pizza special on wednesday nights after 5pm! yay!

as if there aren’t enough places to get delicious vegan pizza in los angeles, you can now add m cafe de chaya on melrose to the list! on saturdays only, after 5pm (that means right now), the restaurant is offering a pizza night special for just $10.50.

thin crust individually prepared pizza toped with a slow cooked rustic marinara, daiya cheese, and fresh basil. $10.50 (add a baby green salad for $1.50)

i hit up m cafe on melrose this evening to try the special out on its very first night…and wow, i was very impressed. first off, the pizza is huge. m cafe is usually pretty expensive, but at under 11 bucks this pie is more than enough to feed 2 people. secondly, the crust is incredible. it’s ultra thin and crispy, and baked on the premises. it reminds me of gourmet pizza that one would find at a super classy joint. thirdly, all the ingredients are top notch and full of flavor. from the generous sprinklings of fresh basil to the hearty rustic marinara, the pizza is all so divine. oh, and lastly the whole thing is covered in daiya, the best vegan cheese around.

i think it’s safe to say, m cafe really hit a home run with this vegan pizza. while our options are plentiful in LA, i can’t think of another restaurant where you can get such a high-quality artisan pie at such a low price. it truly is amazing.

m cafe is open until 10pm tonight, so i suggest you get over there and eat some pizza like NOW. if you can’t make it this evening, be sure to hit them up next saturday. i really want to make sure this special stays around, because it’s so fucking good.

m cafe melrose
7119 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 525-0588

BTW, as far as i know this pizza is only at the melrose location. only on saturdays. only after 5pm. correct me if you hear differently!

i really can’t possibly give cruzer pizza enough love on this blog, ever. the small los feliz pizzeria went from actually offering the dreaded veal on their menu less than a year ago, to being the first place in the western U.S. to serve daiya, and now just months later to being california’s only 100% vegan pizzeria! can you believe it? as vegan.com put it so well, cruzer went from veal to vegan in no time! it’s like a fairy tale.

while cruzer pizza has already transformed into an entirely animal-free establishment, they are still improving their vegan menu. rumor is that very soon they will start offering various fake meats and cheeses for us to choose from, as well as novelty/gluttony dishes like potato skins, mozzarella sticks and cheesesteak sandwiches. in the meantime though, cruzer has been teasing the vegan community via twitter with specials like calzone samples and free “sassy caesar salads” with a pizza purchase! (if you don’t follow cruzer on twitter, you are crazy and missing out).

vegan calzone with daiya cheese, tomatoes, and basil

already a menu item, the vegan calzones at cruzer are delicious. i’ve tried the margherita flavor as well as gardein bbq chicken, and they are both insane.

cruzer uses daiya cheese and a wonderfully crispy dough, so the whole thing blossoms into this beautiful combo of crunchy and melty.

the sassy caesar salad is not a menu item yet, but i highly suggest that if you see cruzer tweet about it, you go over and get one as soon as you can. created by michelle sass (a vegan of over 20 years and the food consultant responsible for cruzer’s leap to all animal-free, and for hooking them up with daiya in the first place), this salad is covered in rich and creamy homemade dressing and topped with oven baked croutons. seriously, so good. i am hoping cruzer starts selling this dressing by the gallon, because it’s the best vegan caeser i’ve ever had….even ousting my beloved pure luck. i also think the croutons are key in making this salad a win; imagine fluffy cubed bread doused in oil and covered in herbs, then baked to perfection. yeah, cruzer should start selling these in bulk as well. michelle sass makes an ingenious sassy salad indeed.

so the lesson you should have learned from this post is to follow cruzer on twitter, and to get your ass over there as soon as they launch their new menu. i have a feeling it will be epic. and let’s hope michelle sass keeps spreading the vegan word around LA, because she seriously helped turn cruzer into something beyond my wildest dreams.

cruzer pizza los feliz
4449 Prospect Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 666-0600

You can tell a classy lady just by looking at her, and the same is true of Manhattan’s Candle 79. Ensconced on a wide, tree-lined street in the affluent Upper East Side and surrounded by some of the world’s finest restaurants (and most expensive real estate), Candle 79 has incredibly sexy curb appeal and, like that classy lady, proves that beauty is not only skin deep but the real treasure is what lies within.

On our recent visit, we were treated to some of the finest cuisine we’d ever experienced, in an atmosphere that rivals only Sublime in Fort Lauderdale (the East Coast’s only other vegan fine dining establishment). Probably because we reserved for 6pm and arrived a little early, we lucked out with a great table (actually, a large booth beside the cocktail bar).

Our very attentive server ran over over the menu with us, explaining that the restaurant is entirely vegan, and if the menu said “cheese” or “ice cream” the ingredients were, in fact, vegan. Clearly, this explanation was somewhat reassuring! He then took our drink order, which was a reasonably priced bottle of organic Côtes du Rhône that arrived with a couple of small and complimentary appetizers of sliced zucchini, with a spicy vegetable-infused cream cheese combination atop. They were each gone in one scrumptious bite, and set a realistic expectation for the meal that was to come.

It took us forever to decide what to order as everything on the menu looked astounding. In the end, we mixed up the flavors by going for a Mexican-style appetizer followed by American and Italian-style entrees.

The appetizer was “Angel’s Nachos”, an incredible creation that tasted better than I remember vegetarian nachos being. Here in LA, we have a similar dish from Real Food Daily, which not only costs a few bucks more, but uses chips FROM A BAG (yes, the kind you’d get in a grocery store). Not at Candle 79, as these were freshly fried (one could taste the warm oil), and crunchy. Combined with the the vegetables and seitan created an amazing mouth texture, especially when mixed up with the layers of Daiya cheese, fresh guacamole, salsa and tofu sour cream. These are far and away the best vegan nachos we’d ever eaten, and are worth a trip to Candle 79 alone. Even if you have to walk all the way there from Downtown.

Angel's Nachos: corn chips, cheddar and mozzarella, tomatoes, refried pinto beans, chili-grilled seitan, guacamole, salsa, tofu sour cream, romaine lettuce. $16

Next up were the two entrees. We opted for the black-pepper grilled seitan, in honor of New York’s legendary prowess as the steak capital of the world. Oh, and this was amazing. I’d never had anything grilled with a balsamic base before, and this turned me on to a whole new avenue of taste. The texture of the seitan was very “grill-like”, with burned edges and a soft, succulent interior – rather like the descriptions I found online of high-end fillet steak.

Black Pepper & Balsamic Grilled Seitan: sautéed haricots verts, leeks, almonds, cornmeal crusted onion rings, celeriac purée. $23

This, combined with green beans, and a celery mashed potato-style base, all drizzled with a tasty and tangy sauce was an incredible mash-up (no pun intended!) of taste. I would be remiss not to mention the onion rings, which were perfectly crunchy and had a cornmeal batter, making them rather interesting, and a perfect compliment to the tasty seitan.

So, after paying vegan homage to NYC’s steak-house history we decided to move things up a notch and go for something Italian-style, as Italian food is usually better here than in Italy itself (go ahead, argue in the comments). Our Italian-style entree was a mixture of succulent vegetables (mainly wild mushrooms) and porcini crusted tofu sauteed up a treat in a smooth and slightly sweet red wine sauce with a layered cheese and root vegetable gratin, all on a bed of spinach, soaked in the red wine sauce.

Porcini Crusted Tofu: sauteed spinach, root vegetable gratin, wild mushrooms, red wine sauce. $22

Again, an amazing intersection of taste and textures with perfectly cooked ingredients coming together in just the right way. The layered cheese thing was out of this world – I wish I knew exactly what it is as I’d be most interested in trying to create it myself. Not that I could, but it’s nice to pretend.

Finally, for desert, we continued the Italian theme with a warm cannoli, filled with vanilla cream and topped with chocolate chip ice cream. The server also bought us some complimentary home-made ice cream (see later for why we got it for free), which went down extremely well with the cannoli. I think one of the successes of a vegan desert is that it should not taste “vegan”, and none of this stuff did. The vanilla filling was like a heavy-cream and powdered sugar filling in a non-vegan cannoli, and the ice cream tasted just like, well, very nice ice cream you’d buy in an up-market ice cream parlor. The desert was amazing, and we were very full upon leaving the restaurant.

Cannoli: vanilla cream filling, vanilla chocolate chip ice cream, chocolate drizzle. $12

On this visit, the service was excellent, but being early the place was only starting to fill up as we left. We tried to visit Candle 79 a year or so before, waited 30 minutes for our table (even after our allotted reservation time was up), got the shittiest table in the place and finally walked out after another 20 minutes as nobody came to serve us. Also, even on this trip, we did find the staff a little snooty – I don’t think they appreciated my bright yellow bobble-hat I wore upon arriving out of the 20 degree cold. When we ordered dessert, the server asked if it was our first trip to Candle 79, and we recounted (politely) our experience the first time around. He apologized, and kindly gave us some free ice cream “for your inconvenience last time”. See told you they were a little snooty, but this gesture was much appreciated.

Homemade Ice Cream & Sorbet Sampler: chef's daily selection. $9

Also, our server neglected to tell us they had any specials, and I listened to several other customers getting a run-down of some amazing-sounding specials. Not that I’m really upset as I liked what we ordered, but it would have been nice to have the same choices as the other guests. Maybe he was just too much in shock about my bobble hat…?

So, to sum up, if you’re lucky and you get a nice table and a good server you will have one of the finest vegan dining experiences possible. Yeah it’s was pricey (our bill came to just shy of $150 with tip), but, like a classy lady, Candle 79 really is worth every penny.

Candle 79
154 East 79th Street
New York, NY 10021
(212) 537-7179

if you haven’t been to cinnamon vegetarian in highland park yet, you are really dropping the vegan ball. not only do they now carry daiya cheese, but they make some of the best and cheapest meatless mexican food in LA.

2 vegan chorizo sopes. $4.75

take for example their sopes appetizer which comes with 2 circles of fried corn masa topped with homemade vegan chorizo, refried beans, lettuce, tomato, onion and guacamole…all for under 5 bucks. this thing eats like a meal and is absolutely delicious.

just a gentle reminder that there is a place called highland park, and there is some really wonderful vegan mexican food there.

cinnamon vegetarian
5511 North Figueroa St.
Highland Park, CA 90042
please note this place is closed on tuesday, wtf!
• Monday, Wednesday & Thursday | 10:00 AM to 8:30 PM
• Tuesday | Closed
• Friday & Saturday | 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM
• Sunday | 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM