Roadtrip Restaurants?

[lutin]

Hi!

My friend and I are at the start of a roadtrip, and are wondering what neat
vegan places exist in Portland, Tacoma & Seattle. We're also open to neat
park suggestions & other neat-things-to-do suggestions.

Thank you!

Comments

[jmirko]

http://www.vegseattle.com/restaurants.shtml

[jameslentz]

Food Fight! Grocery, an all-vegan "grocery store" (convenience-store sized) is worth checking out in Portland. It's kind of a vegan landmark. Voodoo Doughnuts isn't 100% vegan, but they have some very tasty treats. Vege Thai has a lot of tasty meals; I recommend the pineapple curry especially. Milky Way, far out in the mall-area hell of suburban Clackamas, is the premier all-vegan bubble-tea/bagel-sandwich establishment in the region. Rumor has it the owner's family makes the delicious mock meats themselves in Taiwan.

Powell's Bookstore, reputedly the largest bookstore in the world (though rumors are China might have some that beat it), is a must-see. I like biking on the esplanade along the Willamette riverbank, too; it'd be cool to grab some vegan doughnuts and bike along the river until you find a nice grassy spot for a mini-picnic. Maybe with a new book of Rilke from Powell's to read. CityBikes Co-op rents bikes in town (as do other bike shops, I imagine). My wife an I could probably loan you a couple bikes, too: we've got two

[socialobscenity]

yep, those are good portland suggestions. also, when i was there, food fight had this list of all the vegan/veg. restarants in the area and it was awesomely helpful.

in seattle, there's might o doughnuts, of course, which are ridiculosly exciting, and pizza pi, on 'the ave', which is rad.

[jameslentz]

Oooh, I had some imported Mighty O doughnuts a while ago here in Portland, and they were quite tasty :)

[_unsure]

Portland

http://www.vegetarianusa.com/city/Portland.html

http://happycow.net/north_america/usa/oregon/portland/index.html

[jameslentz]

Nice resources! Some corrections, though: I don't think Herbivore Clothing has their storefront up and running yet; my wife, who interns with them, hasn't mentioned the grand opening, and I was there a weekend ago and it looked like they had a while to go before they'd have a retail shop ready. OTSU shut down their Portland location, unfortunately. Also, the statement on Happy Cow about Vege Thai having whey in their fake meats is wrong; maybe they're getting it confused with The Vegetarian House? There was a rumor a while ago about that.

Oh, and to the OP: you might want to breeze by Schumacher Furs downtown if you're here on Saturday. The weekly protests have turned into something a street party, and sometimes they have vegan food available. It's not exactly vegan outreach at its best, but it's a local drama that's gotten a lot of press lately.

[jameslentz]

Depending on what you're into, People's Food Co-op might be worth checking out. They're a small vegetarian/local grocery. The best part is that the newest addition to their space was artfully built with cob, a manually-mixed and -placed sort of adobe/concrete made from sand, mud, and straw.

If you like zines, you might check out the Independent Publishers' Resource Center and its library, home to "over 4,000 self-published and independently produced materials." The vegan and zine cultures in Portland have a lot of overlap. Microcosm Publishing's store is also here in Portland; the founder/owner, Joe, is vegan and seems like a cool guy, though I don't know him well personally.

I think that's all I'm up for recommending right now ;)

[jameslentz]

I was wrong. Veganopolis is an all-vegan (surprise!) restaurant downtown with a bit of a hipster flair. They have good sandwiches. Paradox is a seedy-ish restaurant with tasty, greasy options, mostly vegan, with an emphasis on local sources; I like their nachos. Their waitstaff can be a bit inattentive, though, because there's usually only one server and it gets busy.

[takebackyourown]

My favorite restaurant in Seattle is Araya's.