Roasted cauliflower pita with tomato, scallion, tahina, and jalapeno oil (Jai Williams/DCist)
This weekend’s VegFest is heaven on Earth for meatless and flexitarian devotees. Here are a few strategies to make the most of your pilgrimage to this mecca of vegan savories and sweets.
If you’re a VegFest virgin, bring at least one friend, even a carnivore. They won’t find any animal products for sale and they won’t miss them. Having a buddy (or four) will allow each of you to stand in different lines and try a broad array of dishes.
If your whole squad turns down your invitation, connect with like-minded people on the Facebook event page, the DC Area Vegans Facebook group, the Washington DC Area Vegan Meetup Group, DC, MD, and Northern VA Vegetarian Meetup Group, or other such tribes.
Get there early for the coveted swag bags, free to the first 1,000 attendees and loaded with samples, coupons, and other cruelty-free thingamajigs. (If you want to roll in late, you can also have one for a $50 donation to Compassion Over Killing, the festival’s charity beneficiary, if you reserve it by 9 a.m. Friday.)
With so much comfort in one place, it’s natural to gravitate towards NuVegan Cafe (formerly Woodlands Vegan Bistro), Busboys & Poets, Amsterdam Falafelshop, Sticky Fingers, and other reliable old friends. Accessing them all at once is a blissful thought, but the occasion demands hard choices, focusing on some of the best veggie food from inside and outside D.C. Here is our short list of sublime savories and sweets you must try.
Photo courtesy of Vegan Treats
Vegan Treats: Be warned—this Pennsylvania bakery will quickly amass an hours-long line. Even if you’re not much into desserts, this is a don’t-miss imperative. You must bring a friend so you can trade places in the seemingly endless queue. Do not abandon ship. Persevere with purpose. When you conquer the line and reach the goods, buy everything you might possibly want and then buy more. To recommend individual treats is impossible, both because the full menu isn’t known in advance and because it’s all good. We know there will be peanut butter bombs and they are explosively exciting. It’s a good bet the chick’n and waffles doughnut will make an appearance. Wear stretchy pants and plan to bring a lot home. You won’t notice there’s no dairy. You will only notice the stellar quality.
3 Twisted Vegans: This burger is a total sensory experience that thrills unto itself as a vegan food and challenges all preconception with its impossibly masterful replica of a beef hamburger. Hardliners seeking rigid distinctions between vegan and meat products will be flummoxed by this burger. The OG preparation combines the flavor and texture of conventional meat with the classic burger toppings and a special sauce in a manner reminiscent of what you might find at Shake Shake or Five Guys. Last but not least, do not miss the flawless peanut butter Oreo milkshake. If you miss them at the fest, 3 Twisted Vegans operates an Eats Place pop-up cafe Saturdays through December.
Shouk: Fast food can be elegant. One bite of Shouk’s cauliflower pita sandwich sends an unmistakable signal this is no ordinary Middle Eastern street food. It’s the tahina, which is familiar enough to be recognized as tahina but hits the palate with a discernibly different accent. This is because it’s imported from Israel and doesn’t retail stateside. This thoughtful sourcing exemplifies Shouk’s attention to detail. Every sauce is house-made from scratch. Every spice is researched and selected with rigorous precision. It all adds up to a memorable composition at this new Mt. Vernon Triangle cafe. Shouk will also serve polenta fries and cashew labne, the latter accompanied by an atypically chewy and densely delightful pita bread.
HipCity Veg: Chances are, you’ve gotten your food to go if you’ve dined at the microscopic Chinatown outpost of this Philadelphia-based enterprise. Fried food inevitably loses some appeal in transit. Take advantage of the opportunity to dine en plein air, where the Crispy HipCity Ranch chick’n sandwich isn’t suffocated in a box. Bring a carnivore and dare them to taste the difference between the HipCity version and a conventional fried chicken patty. There’s nary a nugget of vegan evidence.
When you’ve gotten your fill of food, don’t head home to collapse into a food coma. Hear some sage speakers and make the rounds to collect samples. Bring home some personal care products and maybe a chocolate bar for, ahem, palate care.
DC VegFest takes place on September 24 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Yards Park lot at First and N Streets SE. Admission is free.
