(October is VeganMoFo and I’m blogging about why more vegans should move to Atlanta, Georgia – a diamond in the dirty south. See the first post for the manifesta.)
I am not in the habit of waking up early. I enjoy morning’s peace, but lately I’ve been going to bed past midnight and getting up as late as possible – usually between 9 & 10, slackers! Travel & meal delivery work (which includes early farmer’s market trips) are just about the only compelling reasons I have to drag myself out of bed before nine.
Reason 2: Dough Bakery
Except, of course, for Dough Bakery – the pop-up vegan bakeshop at the corner of Hurt Street and Dekalb Ave. Vegan owners Laura & Kevin own the building and bake everything from scratch, but they’re still holding out for the begrudging blessings from state & local licensors that will allow them to open for realsies. Til that glorious day, you’ll need to like them on facebook, follow them on twitter, and sign up for their e-mail list so you’ll be among the first to know when they announce their quietly-famous Stealth Sunday brunches. The notice usually goes out just before the weekend.
Because they have a limited stock and always, always, always sell-out, plan to arrive sooner than later. It’s usually mostly sweets with some savory food, and while everything is delicious and in short supply, the savory stuff goes first. Today, for instance, they stocked just eleven of these ooey-gooey sausage, egg & cheeze-filled handpies. Only six were there wen I showed up at almost 8:30!
That’s locally-Gutenfleischers-made sausage at the bottom, Dough’s own proprietary “egg” blend in the middle, and everybody’s favorite Daiya on top, all tucked inside an extraordinary savory crust.
Just beautiful.
Today Dough had bread loaves, banana & pumpkin whoopie pies, a great big peach coffee cake, sticky buns with walnuts, cinnamon rolls with lotsa icing, snickerdoodle cookies, and maybe a couple of other things too. I have never been disappointed with anything from Dough Bakery and like most great cooks, they just keep getting better with experience. So buy as much as your budget will allow and know that you’re helping a great new independent vegan-owned-and-operated business get off the ground. Their prices are really reasonable, too – almost every week I try everything on the menu for a total of around $20. This week my tab was sixteen and I used Square to pay.
Pumpkin whoopie pie.
walnut sticky bun
peach coffee cake
cinnamon roll
another inside view
There’s no reason not to take MARTA to Dough – like Brick Store featured yesterday, it’s right next to MARTA. Brick Store sits atop the Decatur station, while Dough is across the street from the Inman Park/Reynoldstown station.
BONUS: a picture of my cat Rarry, who had a bee in her bonnet this morning! Runnin’ around, actin’ a fool – I think she’s really into the basking in the sun with a cool breeze combo. (Did I mention that we have gorgeous weather here?) Oh, and scratching the hell out of the little couch. There’s always that.
Farewell, wherever ye fare! – but seriously, move to Atlanta. Another reason up tomorrow!
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Happy October, friends! This month I’ve joined eight hundred bloggers from around the world to post as often as possible about the glory that is the vegan life. VeganMoFo, the vegan month of food writing – a delicious answer to NaNoWriMo – is here again!
A bit of history, before we get down & dirty: VeganMoFo is actually REALLY SPECIAL to Crack the Plates because – hold onto your hats – it launched my entire blogging project! In the fall of 2009 I had just moved into a new house in Richmond, Indiana and was toying with the idea of starting a blog as a nice distraction during my final year of Master’s thesis writing. My sweetie Nate & I were really into 1977 Rankin & Bass production of The Hobbit at the time, so he made a tech blog called chiptheglasses.com & I set up cracktheplates, threats lifted from one of the dwarves’ songs. My first ambitious post was about trying out Angel Food’s marshmallow kit, and my very first commenter was the ever-supportive Kittee of Papa Tofu fame!
And ah, how far we’ve come. Since that first post in October 2009, I’ve nabbed my Master’s degree, moved from the midwest to the deep south (my home), adopted another abandoned tortoiseshell cat, and so much more. Food-wise, I’ve launched two small businesses, Kandai Cakery and Crack the Plates meal delivery, been featured on my favorite Vegansaurus.com a handful of times, taken two major vegan road trips (San Francisco in 2010 and New York in 2011), and made so many new, inspirational – if often far-off – friends. VeganMoFo: for these reasons and many others, you’ll forever be dear.
But enough about me! Let’s get to the food!
I’m theme-blogging this MoFo about the great city of ATLANTA, Georgia. As I wrote to the MoFo wizards in my proposal, I wasn’t planning on doing a theme this year til I took the VegNews survey and came to the question about vegan-friendliest cities. Not a SINGLE Southern-US city was featured on the “Favorite veg-friendly city” list! Aghast, I wrote in some of Atlanta’s treasures: our vegan meat company (Gutenfleischers), our organic vegan bakery & fair-trade cafe (Dulce Vegan), our weekly organic vegan meal delivery service (you know, my project), our two meet-ups (Vegan Drinks and the Atlanta Vegan Lunch Group), more than a handful of vegan restaurants and LOTS of vegetarian ones. (Even our food trucks cater to vegans, even though we don’t yet have an entirely vegan food truck.) Finally, we’re home to one of the most beloved and well-stocked online vegan shops in the country, Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe!
These great examples and others are always on my mind, which is why I consider Atlanta a great place to be vegan. But with vegan meccas like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and Brookyln taking all the great press, Atlanta’s not just an afterthought – it’s given no thought. As a local, I want to do my part to take the wind out of the stereotype that the south is un-veg-friendly by featuring the deliciousness of Atlanta for an entire month. Not only will I highlight some of the folks listed above, but I’ll really dig into Atlanta and share the lesser-known treasures. For instance, we have SO MANY of Ethiopian restaurants around here, but which ones use a vegan nitter kibbeh, if any? (Hint: I know!) VeganMoFo seems to be the perfect platform for reaching the broader vegan community, who I’m counting on to help vegucate the rest of the world.
So yeah. That’s the deal – y’all. Atlanta’s awesome and you should know why. Come sit a spell.
Photo from Brick Store’s gallery at the website
This unassuming little spot in Decatur is not only the best place to hang out and drink beer in Atlanta, is the second best beer bar in the WORLD according to Beer Advocate magazine. It also holds the lifetime championship title of being the only place to serve beer that I actually enjoyed. (If you know me, you know I am not. a. beer. drinker. Close friends reading are, up to this point, totally baffled by my writing about a pub. Hang in there.)
Beer Advocate – and I! – give Brick Store an A+ rating for several reasons. Their awe-inspiring selection certainly helps – the beer menu is about ten pages long (small print). It’s updated frequently, too – the one I read today was dated yesterday. Check out the draught menu here and the bottle menu here.
my vegan sweetie, checkin' out his options.
The interior is cozy and all of the servers work together to make sure your glass is never more than half empty, your food comes out rapidly, and the check is taken away when you’re ready. Because I’m really unsophisticated, I felt like I’d walked into the Leaky Cauldron when I stepped inside the Brick Store, but it might just remind my more worldy friends of their European vacations.
view of the main hall from the entrance
view from the second floor
Vegan dining options are scant, but the one we had was solid – just a hummus sandwich piled with fresh vegetables and dressed with a house-made spicy vinegar. And those fries – oh my!
$8.50 and big enough for two people.
My favorite part of our first visit was the service. While everyone we encountered was friendly & smart, we were mostly cared for by the staff’s only vegetarian, Will:
thanks for taking such great care of us.
I know, it looks as though he’s barely old enough to drink beer, let alone serve it, but there you are. Who cares, anyway – Will was outstanding! Cheerily greeting us outside, he led us in with a full tour, urging us to check out the cavernous second level where the Belgian bar and aging room find their home. When we finally settled on a first-floor booth, he generously advised us of all the menus vegan options, checking with the kitchen when necessary. We talked favorite vegan blogs and the best places to get vegan sweets in the A. He also waited on bringing out our complimentary tasters while we checked Barnivore.com to make sure they were vegan-friendly. Yup!
my three tasters and nate's St. Bernadus
I wasn’t up-front about not liking beer, but when he heard me admit it, he couldn’t resist the challenge and brought down three tastes from the Belgian bar. To my great shock, I enjoyed every one! The Boon Kriek was nice and gently vinegary, but smooth, not punchy, like an older, gentler ferment instead of a young buck. The Scaldis Peche Mel, creamy and only gently peachy – overall, I called it “inoffensive”. The Bacchus was like Boon Kriek +1, and was called the most vinegary beer currently on tap. Apparently that’s a flavor I can get behind.
Nate’s St. Bernardus? Well, he loved it – and he got a major kick out of the twisted face I made when I tried it. I’ll stick with/sulk over my vinegar beers, thankyouverymuch.
Only forty bucks? Perhaps it will soon be mine!
The pub is also full of art from Atlanta-based folks, like R. Land, featured here. You may know him as the Loss Cat guy! I think this riff on his iconic “Pray for Atl” hands is awwwwwesome.
If you’re planning on heading to the Brick Store soon, be sure to check out the menus online and use Barnivore if you’re unsure about a beer’s vegan-friendliness. It has been my exclusive experience that high-gravity true craft beers from Germany and Belgium are vegan (this blogger has a great explanation), but it’s always worth a double-check.
Oh, and be sure you take MARTA, cuz like our city’s unofficial public transit tagline goes, MARTA is Smarta! Mostly because the Brick Store sits atop the Decatur station. Honk honk!!!
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