vegan/vegetarian (or veg-friendly) KC eateries????

Post by **chrizow** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:27 pm

anyone know the current status of vegetarian or vegan restaurants in KC? Bluebird used to be good, but i know they introduced meat and maybe even closed?

what about restaurants obviously friendly to vegetarians? (i.e. of course a vegetarian [but not vegan] can eat pizza, pasta, some asian, etc., but i am talking about places that specifically cater to veggie tastes).

Tosspot · Post by **Tosspot** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:51 pm

Does The Nutty Girl count?

Post by **chrizow** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:53 pm

i dont know. heheheh. that why i am asking.

Tosspot · Post by **Tosspot** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:03 pm

Well, they have various vegetatian offerings (and perhaps some vegan too, I think) on their menu. The one location I know about is on 39th just east of Starbucks and Chipotle. Though it seems like last night in another thread on this board I read they were leaving that location, maybe I'm wrong. Anyhoo, I think there's a thread devoted to them in this forum you might check out.

Back in high school I used to go there all the time for their smoothies, in fact that's all I've ever had from there, I've never tried their other items. At one time they had a location in the Crown Center Mall, but they closed that one.

Post by **chrizow** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:06 pm

is that restaurant still at Unity Temple on the Plaza? it used to be entirely vegetarian/organic.

basically, my thesis is that KC is awful for vegans/vegetarians.

Tosspot · Post by **Tosspot** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:08 pm

I don't know anything about a location at Unity Temple.

Are you a vegetarian?

Post by **dangerboy** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 8:58 am

The Nutty Girl has closed and is becoming a Local Harvest. I was by the Bluebird the other day and it looked like it was in business. I think it's good that they serve meat now, it's a good place vegetarians and omnivores eat together.

Post by **staubio** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 12:27 pm

Blue Bird is indeed still open. I just rode by the other night. Last time I was there, they had a good mixture of veggie/meat stuff. The meat options were still a more "conscious" option as most of it was free range stuff, etc.

Eden Alley is the place behind the Unity Temple and it is open.

As has been said, I know of a ton of places that have vegetarian friendly options and even menu sections for the purpose, but very few that specifically treat that crowd as their target market.

With the cowtown fascination toward beef, I'm not surprised. I scarcely eat red meat, though, and I am never dissatisfied with my options.

Post by **chrizow** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:05 pm

eden alley, that's right. it's great. bluebird is good too. i'll have to go back sometime.

i know that KC is a "cow town" when it comes to food, but there are other "cow towns" that are very veg-friendly- denver, etc. i dont expect there to be dozens of vegetarian or vegan restaurants, but i am surprised there aren't more.

i am a vegetarian. i am trying to go vegan, but it is pretty difficult, especially since i don't cook.

trailerkid · Post by **trailerkid** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:22 pm

chrizow wrote: i know that KC is a "cow town" when it comes to food, but there are other "cow towns" that are very veg-friendly- denver,

Post by **chrizow** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:31 pm

it's true.

m.toast · Post by **m.toast** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 11:41 am

Did Succotash close for the season? That's another good one...

Jerusalem Cafe/Bakery on Westport Road is very veggie-friendly too.

Post by **chrizow** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 3:00 pm

didnt Succotash close permanently? around the same time as garrett's? maybe i just made that up. i actually never got around to eating there.

most of the time i just eat veggie or vegan options at pizza places or asian places or mexican places. i just wish there were more places chiefly (if not entirely) dedicated to providing fresh, organic, vegetarian or vegan food to KC-ians. seems like an untapped market....

DanCa · Post by **DanCa** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 4:07 pm

Jerusalem Cafe is all that comes to mind for me. I had a great veggie lasagna and salad there not long ago. Vegetarian restaurants are hard to find in a Cowtown. (Ok, start the cowtown debate again)

trailerkid · Post by **trailerkid** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:35 pm

chrizow wrote:it's true.

I just laugh at the fact that you are attempting to compare KC's vegan/vegetarian dining scene to Denver. Is KC vs. San Fransisco next?

cdschofield · Post by **cdschofield** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 11:24 pm

I didn't know Succotash was closed but I do know she is moving to that little building that is pratically demolished at 18th & Oak. The owners are going to rebuild it and lease it to her.

In other news for the East Crossroads, a new gallery is renovating and moving into the building at 18th & Cherry and a new ad agency is buying a building on Cherry just south of there.

Post by **staubio** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 11:33 pm

cdschofield wrote:I didn't know Succotash was closed but I do know she is moving to that little building that is pratically demolished at 18th & Oak. The owners are going to rebuild it and lease it to her.

In other news for the East Crossroads, a new gallery is renovating and moving into the building at 18th & Cherry and a new ad agency is buying a building on Cherry just south of there.

Succotash is not closed. I had brunch there last weekend. They are indeed moving to the E Crossroads, though.

I know of a new gallery on Oak and a couple of small residential projects in the long-term, on Locust and Cherry. Looks like this is the next hot spot to come together.

trailerkid · Post by **trailerkid** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 3:27 am

There is a place called O'Naturals which looks like it'd be a great addition to KC and/or Lawrence for vegans as well as organic food junkies. It was founded by the people who started Stonyfield Farms(I'm not an organic nut, but that's the only yogurt I'll buy because it's soooo good). It is a fast casual concept which offers a menu filled with organic foods that is also very vegan and vegentarian-friendly. They said it is something of a McDonald's meets Starbucks meets Whole Foods, but I guess it's also a very socially responsible company. It was recently named one of Restaurant News magazine's hottest concepts for 2004.

Here's their site...they have it rigged up so you can look at a 360 degree view of one of their stores...
http://www.onaturals.com/onat.html

Post by **chrizow** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 12:07 pm

trailerkid wrote:There is a place called O'Naturals which looks like it'd be a great addition to KC and/or Lawrence for vegans as well as organic food junkies. It was founded by the people who started Stonyfield Farms(I'm not an organic nut, but that's the only yogurt I'll buy because it's soooo good). It is a fast casual concept which offers a menu filled with organic foods that is also very vegan and vegentarian-friendly. They said it is something of a McDonald's meets Starbucks meets Whole Foods, but I guess it's also a very socially responsible company. It was recently named one of Restaurant News magazine's hottest concepts for 2004.

Here's their site...they have it rigged up so you can look at a 360 degree view of one of their stores...
http://www.onaturals.com/onat.html

wow, that place looks friggin' AMAAAAZING.

looks like they only have 4 locations, and all in MA and ME.

they really need to expand aggressively, especially into markets like KC, STL, etc. that dont have a lot of established organic/vegan eateries. places like denver, mpls, chicago, etc have lots of such places.

in columbia we are blessed to have main squeeze (www.main-squeeze.com) which i am absolutely in love with, even though an entree + one of their smoothies will run me ten bucks, haha.

i sent an email to o'naturals telling them to consider the midwest. let's hope they do the right thing.

ComandanteCero · Post by **ComandanteCero** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:42 pm

Hmmm, so a good friend of mine is coming in this weekend, and i've been pimping KC as a very cool place with a happening restaurant/entertainment scene. He's a vegetarian, so has anyone found any other places other than Blue Bird and Eden Alley where great vegetarian/vegan food can be found? I'm thinking we'll hit one of those two, and probably Korma Sutra at one point (their vegetarian platters are as good as their meat ones), but i was hoping maybe there was something else that might have come up lately that i hadn't heard of.....