i recently spent some time in fort myers, fl, visiting my parents. fort myers has pretty limited vegan options and i’d been to them all over the years. i was checkin’ around on my happycow app i found out about cool hand luc’s, a new ice cream shop/cafe that serves (GASP) vegan ice cream! i HAD to have it!

i strolled on up to the ice cream case and one thing i noticed right off the bat – anything that HAS dairy is marked as having dairy. anything that is vegan is just labeled with the flavor. lovesssitttt. i got peanut butter, naturally. lemme tell you this: it was fucking delicious. super creamy and peanut-buttery. i’m even going to go so far as to say it’s better than local LA heroes, scoops. cool hand luc’s, why are you so far away from me?!

my mom was hungry and decide to get the “burn after eating” – a pita stuffed with buffalo tempeh and vegan ranch.

Read the rest of this entry »

hey, everyone! time for another field report. this one comes to us from jessica of Bein’ Green Savin’ Green (check out her awesome blog), and she’s lettin’ us in on some vegan options in delray beach, florida. here we go!

On my visit to Delray Beach, Florida to see my grandma, we struggled to find enough vegan-friendly restaurants and thus ended up frequenting a café called The Green Gourmet. The cute café was nestled in an upscale strip mall and seemed a little out of place next to heavily meat laden Italian restaurants. The primary focus of Green Gourmet is to offer fresh, healthy and delicious organic food. My grandma and I inquired which of the menu options were vegan and the man, who appeared to be the manager, answered that many of their dishes were vegan or could easily be made vegan. We opted to sit outside and enjoy the Florida sunshine. I was a bit surprised that the outside tables were covered in a fancy white tablecloth, but I guess this was reflective of the expensive menu items.

I decided to order a half order of the Organic Veggie Lasagna ($6) along with the Mashed Cauliflower side. My grandma wanted something simpler and chose the Veggie Burger.

The Organic Veggie Lasagna was very good. I had no idea it was possible to make such a delicious dish with just vegetables! Nevertheless, the vegetables were layered in a way that made me not even notice the dish lacked noodles. The vegetables were very well cooked and seasoned and the tomato sauce was sweet enough to contrast the savory spices. Each vegetable was soft but had a slight crispiness to it.

Organic Veggie Lasagna

Read the rest of this entry »

hey everyone! time for another field report by JL goes vegan. this one comes to us all the way from orlando, florida where she visited ethos vegan kitchen. ch-ch-check it:

A few months ago I sent out a tweet, requesting recommendations for a vegan restaurant in Orlando, Florida. The resounding recommendation was Ethos Vegan Kitchen.

It was me—the lone vegan—one vegetarian and three omnivores. Two of the omnivores, my parents, had never dined at a vegan restaurant and, err, were a bit suspicious. I, however, was delighted and couldn’t wait!

Read the rest of this entry »

field report time! kris from veganscraps sent us another guest post, and this time she checked out chef brooke’s natural cafe in fort myer’s, florida. brittany has  covered chef brooke’s on this blog in the past, and this review is definitely making me wanna go there even more. from what i hear, florida’s vegan options aren’t as numerous as they are here in los angeles…so it’s great to know when good quality food is available.

Tempeh Reuben: Fresh Marinated Tempeh Served on Health Bread with a Reuben Sauce, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Sprouts, and Cucumbers. Served with Potato Salad and Coleslaw. $8.99

Normally when someone mentions Florida you begin to think of palm trees, the beach and the warm weather (which are all accurate descriptions)… but when I think of going to FL (specifically Fort Myers), one thing comes to mind “Chef Brooke’s Natural Cafe“. This Cafe is my favorite healthy cafe on the planet! The owner and chef, Brooke is extremely talented at cooking food as well as presenting it beautifully! Chef Brooke’s Natural Cafe offers a HUGE menu (not 100% vegan, but most items are or can be made vegan) with smoothies, baked goods, daily specials, raw and gluten free food, burritos, veggie burgers, hummus platters, soups, and a small grocery area to pick up little extras!

Read the rest of this entry »

hey everyone! time for a vegan field report. this one comes to us from all the way across the country in west palm beach, florida. check out chicavegan’s review of darbster!

Last week, I went to South Florida to visit my family there before the Holidays and for my little sister’s 18th birthday. I had already dined at Sublime before, and Miami is a little too far for me, so I decided to go up to West Palm Beach to try “Darbster” for the first time, a dog-friendly restaurant, tucked away from the busy Dixie Hwy. My older brother and younger sister came along; neither of them are vegan, and were quite curious and intrigued.

Read the rest of this entry »

chef brooke’s natural cafe seems to be a rarity in fort myers, where you’re more likely to find chain restaurants and fried gator tail than super fresh organic food. my mom and i wandered in one week day for lunch to sample some of chef brooke’s healthy offerings – and i must say i was pleasantly surprised to see the place with quite a few patrons. we skimmed the menu and while not a lot of the items are marked “vegan,” there are several vegan options.

house beans and brown rice burrito. $8.99

Read the rest of this entry »

after a nice relaxing day on sanibel island, my folks and i stopped at pizza fusion in fort myers for some grub. my adorable mom was really excited to take me there, telling me during several conversations over the last few months there was a new pizza place with vegan pizza.

i’ve been to pizza fusion here in LA, so i was interested to see how the fort myers location compared.

Read the rest of this entry »

happy weekend, folks! it’s time for another vegan field report by brittany from the sick of lettuce blog. this time she takes on our FAVORITE cult ever (read more about them here) with her review of loving hut’s cape coral location. we are huge fans of the food at loving hut here in LA, so let’s see how the florida restaurant stacks up.

as i’ve said before, the city my parents live in is pretty thin on vegan options. so imagine my surprise when i found out there was a 100% vegan restaurant in cape coral, fl! cape coral neighbors fort myers and loving hut is just a hop, skip, and a toll bridge away.

i’ve never been to the loving hut here in LA but i have heard good things. it’s not one of those crappy vegan thai places! so one day my mom and i drove over the bridge to check it out.

fried wonton: shiitake mushroom, cabbage, carrots. $2.75

Read the rest of this entry »

hey everyone, time for another vegan field report all the way from fort lauderdale, florida! this one is by brittany (from sick of lettuce), and covers the gourmet vegan restaurant sublime. we ate one of our favorite meals EVER at sublime, so it’s always nice to get a second opinion. here ya go:

i recently took a jaunt down to southwest florida to visit my folks and eat. a lot. unfortunately, the city they live in doesn’t have many restaurants with vegan options (more on those at later dates). FORTUNATELY, my mom is awesome and was willing to drive me 2 hours through the everglades for a day trip to miami, followed up by dinner at SUBLIME in fort lauderdale.

since we had a two hour drive back home, we got there promptly at 5:30 and opened the place up. i wasn’t sure what to expect when i got there. it is a LOT bigger than i thought it’d be – way bigger than any of the vegan restaurants here in LA. very upscale and while the dress code is casual, i felt like kind of a bum in my cutoffs. whoops.

after ordering my mom and i were quickly presented with some pesto polenta.

this was absolutely delicious. super strong basil/pesto flavor and a great polenta texture. these lasted about 15 seconds before they were completely devoured.

maryland style cakes with whole grain mustard sauce $11

Read the rest of this entry »

on my recent trip to florida, i ate at a ton of cool veg restaurants, but none of them compared to the vegan perfection i would find at SUBLIME. actually, nowhere i’ve ever been compares to sublime, a high-class vegan eatery in ft. lauderdale, florida that boasts numerous celebrity patrons, including paul mccartney. i can safely say it is there that i ate the best meal i’ve ever had, and the owner wasn’t lying when she stopped by our table and assured us, “there’s nowhere like sublime in the entire united states.”

i could tell the moment i walked into the entirely vegan restaurant and saw the fancy interior complete with waterfalls, the neatly dressed staff and enormous bar that i was somewhere special. i would have to treat myself to a full on slap-up meal consisting of an aperitif, an appetizer, two entrees (to be shared by me & my husband), and dessert. so that’s just what i did.

(i apologize in advance for the dark photos in this post. sublime is a classy joint with dim lights, not ideal for taking pix that are up to snuff. you will have to believe me when i say these snapshots don’t do the food justice.)

before we even ordered, our fabulous waiter showed up at our table with a small plate of complimentary pesto polenta. i knew we were off to a good start. it, of course, was delicious.

pesto polenta, on the house!

for my pre-meal cocktail, i ordered a mojito—this is florida, after all, and drinking anything else would be a crime. it was cool and refreshing. sweet and minty. ahh.

minty-licious mojito $8

now, let’s get TASTY. sublime offers a pretty big appetizer menu and all of it sounds good, but one dish in particular caught my attention: sublime sliders.

sublime sliders: cheddar, seitan steak, onion, romaine, gherkin, special sauce. $12

i see people chomping on these mini burgers in bars all the time—a common happy hour food, most weekends i find myself 3 stools away from a plate of sliders and an endless stream of bud light. being super into vegan burgers, i’ve daydreamed from time to time about creating my own cruelty-free slider recipe. unfortunately, it all falls apart when i think about forming and baking miniature buns, or getting the itsy-bitsy patties just right. luckily for me, sublime took care of all that for me. i finally know what it’s like to eat a slider…fucking awesome. if there was a vegan heaven, god would serve sublime’s sliders nightly hourly.

after devouring my shameless, hamburger-emulating appetizer, i knew sublime was ready to bring it—i had to order some entrees that would be difficult to veganize; stuff normally reserved for omnivores. after those sliders, i had a feeling sublime would be up for the challenge.

what better way to start than with a quiche? upon googling a quiche recipe, the first result i found called for 4 eggs, 1 cup of half & half, 1/2 cup of real mayonnaise, and 8 ounces of cheddar cheese. yep, it could skate by as vegetarian, but the quiche contains all the vegan’s worst enemies. how could any fine restaurant possibly create one that i could actually eat? i dunno. but sublime sure as fuck did.

tuscan quiche: tofu, “mozzarella”, roasted shallots, wood-fired artichokes, braised spinach, roasted red bliss potatoes, seasonal vegetables. $16

this quiche was off the chain: delicious, soft, melty and moist. each bite was an explosion of creamy flavor. the order also came complete with sinful oily leafy greens and perfectly grilled potatoes. i’ve never had such a perfect replication of cheese, milk and eggs all in one. this tasted REAL, sans the cruelty and dead shit. give me any omnivore, and i guarantee they would believe they were eating the bloody puss-filled dairy products they are used to. i mean this all in a good way. there is NO reason not to be vegan.

next up, the even bigger test…PIZZA. other than tomato joe’s, nobody has made a vegan pizza that i’m totally impressed with. i knew that if sublime was on point, they’d be able to pull a out a decent vegan pizza. of course, they did.

margherita classico: tomato, fresh basil, soy mozzarella. $12

sublime’s vegan pizza is unique, because it doesn’t contain the crappy over-used follow your heart cheese that runs rampant here in los angeles. being a vegan cheese fanatic, i can swear that sublime’s cheese substitute tastes just like TEESE…a tasty brand that doesn’t get nearly enough attention. beyond taste, the sublime pizza’s cheese had an ever-so-slight pinkish tinge to it, another teese characteristic. of course, it was delectable. it’s so refreshing to eat vegan pizza in a restaurant, free of follow your heart’s impudent and never-melting fake cheese. this stuff was gooey and stringy, melty-licious and unruly…almost just like real cheese. a definite winner. cooked more like a fancy italian restaurant pizza, this isn’t your huge take-out, tv dinner pie. instead, sublime serves their dusty pizza on a thinner crust, with decorative garnishes and fresh light ingredients. the presentation, exquisite taste and top-notch fake cheese make this pizza an A+++++++++++++.

after eating away and sipping cocktails into oblivion, my husband and i agreed that this was, without a doubt, the best dinner ever. sublime was truly the most special, wonderful, magical place that we’d ever eaten. there is absolutely no way we could pass up on dessert. it just wouldn’t be right, to us, and ESPECIALLY to you!

being a choc-o-holic, i chose the chocolate nirvana cake with ice cream on the side. never before has being a vegan felt so decadent and delicious.

chocolate nirvana: milk chocolate, kahlua butter creme, dark chocolate ganache. $11

this cake was better than any crappy vegetarian cake i’ve ever eaten. i think whoever made it possesses secret powers. seriously, it was soooo luscious. the frosting was rich and creamy, the cake itself was moist, and it came with a huge piece of chocolate candy that was sumptuous. it totally had me scraping the plate and licking the fork. even my husband, mr. “i don’t like sweet stuff” was all over it. best dessert ever. wow.

my experience proves that only one word can describe sublime: perfect. this place is amazing, and the only thing i hate about it is that it’s located so far away from me. it’s absolutely superb—i recommend if you visit florida, or any of the surrounding states for that matter, you do whatever it takes to have dinner at sublime. it will be worth your while. i’m looking into booking another trip to florida ASAP just to eat there again.

best food. killer atmosphere. huge selection. what more do we vegans require? plus, the rock star on my banner eats there. go there. it will be so fucking tasty!