Monk Shoes, Champs Consolidates & Doughnut Wisdom

• Monk shoes have been popping up (and buckling down) all over the place, and Bourgeois Boheme has them with brogue details in black and brown. Snazzy. Yes, snazzy.

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• Earlier this month, the Vegetarian Food Festival took NYC by storm. In addition to scarfing down a Faux Gras sandwich and emceeing a doughnut-eating-contest, I took some photos of gentlemen with personal style who were on line (for 3 hours) or wandering around the area. Also threw in a picture of Chef Ayinde Howell cheering after serving up his famous mac-n-yease, and some fun costumes from Foodswings.

• Although it’s a bummer whenever a veg establishment closes it doors (as what happened to Williamsburg’s Boneshakers), it’s cool that they were able to consolidate with their other location, Champs, and now in addition to being a bakery, Champs offers an edited version of the Boneshakers menu including a yummy weekend brunch. I swung by on saturday and scarfed down a Tofu-Benedict on sourdough with vegan hollandaise sauce and a side of greens and mac-n-jeeze. I love my neighborhood!

• Dunwell Doughnuts, the Brooklyn start-up featured a really interesting article on food activism today:

We believe that a vegan doughnut could be a tremendous ambassador for vegan food.  Also because we stepped into this believing that we wouldn’t simply be making a good doughnut “considering it’s vegan,” but an AMAZING doughnut, heck, perhaps even the best doughnut you could find, vegan or non-vegan alike.  Opening a shop would allow us to share this treat with people AND create a place for that much needed community.


Dun-Well Doughnuts. Well Done.

There’s something special about vegan dudes who wear waistcoats, suspenders and bow-ties. There’s something even more charming about well-dressed gents who also make delicious delicacies that are so amazing they don’t even need to add silly animal products to their recipes. Move over cup-cake lovers – Christopher and Dan, of Dun-Well Doughnuts are two, fine,  New York City gentlemen, and they are taking your favorite childhood memories of airy, doughy, flaky, sweet and tender, holey pastries, and adding a respectable, artisan edge to them.

They also have a confection to make. They strive to source local and organic ingredients, and plan to eventually include gluten-free options. Bravo!

Do some sit-ups and be there for the official launch party:

Wednesday, February, 2nd, 7PM – 9PM
Mooshoes, 78 Orchard Street, NYC
Lula’s Sweet Apothecary, will be giving free samples of a very special, made-for-doughnuts, ice cream flavor, and the vegan bar, Pine Box Rock Shop will be slinging drinks.

photo by Ryan Pfluger

You can send questions, concerns, and stalker-ish, obsessive, excited feedback to Dunwelldoughnuts@gmail.com

Bi-Coastal Brunching

It’s almost weekend brunch time! I was in San Francisco recently, visiting my sister and working on a Thanksgiving campaign for Farm Sanctuary featuring Ginnifer Goodwin (I’ll be posting the photos by Ryan Pfluger, and the videos by Yours Truly very soon!) and I got to stop by Herbivore for brunch not once, but twice. How come nobody told me they had doughnuts?! These cake doughnuts can blow Dunkin’ D’s out of the water (and who wants to support them anyway, now that we’ve seen how they treat egg-laying chickens).

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These were my delectable brunches of Blueberry Glazed & Chocolate Glazed Doughnuts, and Spinach-Mushroom Scrambled Tofu with House Potatoes. Yum!

Back in New York, I swung by Sacred Chow, who also does an amazing brunch, with everything from biscuits n’ gravy to waffles and thick, yummy french toast drenched in blueberry sauce.

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Where are your favorite places to brunch? We’d love to hear to where you make your weekend pilgrimage, or what you make at home. Leave us a comment and tell us!