As Sister Margaret said to Maria in The Sound of Music: “When one door closes, another opens”. The door above has, thankfully opened and what lays behind it is very special indeed. Exactly a year ago today, I first heard about a new brewery opening in Eagle Rock yet couldn’t find out anything at all to corroborate the rumor. To be honest, on that day I was more focused on heading over to Doomie’s “all you can eat” swan-song event at Southgate, where one of our favorite chefs took over an art studio and cooked his entire stock of food following the closure of his space at Roberto’s Club in Chinatown.

Now, though I’m very pleased that I can drown my sorrows of Doomie’s demise at the brand, spanking new Eagle Rock Brewery. Often rumored, sometimes previewed and certainly heavily anticipated, Eagle Rock Brewery has been teasing me since November as I’ve enjoyed their brews in most of the bars I frequent. I’ve had the XPA or Mild in Verdugo Bar, Blue Palms, The York, BoHo and (of course) Pure Luck and every time I’ve very much appreciated the taste and quality of the brew.

The brewery is located in an Eagle Rock industrial park, at the intersection of Delay Drive and Roswell Street (sounds like a cold-war era space alien conspiracy thing, right?) and has no exterior signage, so be very careful to note down the exact street number of the building, or you’ll be lost forever.

Finally, after two years of construction and LA County Dept. of Building Safety bullshit, Eagle Rock Brewery opened the doors of their tap room this past Friday. Now, a tap room is a special place. It’s not a typical bar per-se, and there’s rarely food (although Eagle Rock Brewery thoughtfully puts out pretzel bowls for the customers), but you do get to enjoy the brewery’s beers served by, and often in the presence, of the brewers themselves in the shadow of the brewery.

I’m used to gritty tap-rooms with oafish brewers (the large, white guy type with a long beard) who begrudgingly serve a dribble of lukewarm beer in the bottom of a tasting glass, yet I’m pleased to say that Eagle Rock Brewery was quite the opposite. The tap room has a proper bar with stools, shiny stainless steel taps and comfortable tables for you to sit at with your friends.

When we were there, a very nice lady served our beers and was overjoyed to be telling us about the brewery’s new products, as well as give tasting notes.

Talking of tasting, we were lucky enough to sample all three of the brewery’s current taps:

Revolution XPA: (a TLA for eXtra Pale Ale) This refreshing beer has a good balance of tangy palate with a delightfully hoppy finish. Although it’s absolutely tasty, I can’t help thinking there’s an IPA (India Pale Ale) in there waiting to get out, and I think this brew – above all their others – has the most promise for some very interesting variations (double hopped, anybody?!).

Solidarity Black Mild: The archetypal English mild: A session beer (meaning one can drink a lot of it without falling over) – low in alcohol and very malty. My late grandfather used to drink pints of this ad-infinitum back in the 60s and 70s. Malty ain’t my thing particularly, but this is actually quite drinkable. I could see several of these disappearing rather quickly in a typical afternoon session!

Manifesto Eagle Rock Wit: Now you’re talking. This beer tastes like something you’d find in a Bavarian Beerkellar (and I mean Bavaria, Germany not Bavaria, Kansas). It’s a white beer, very wheaty at the base and somewhat cloudy. There’s a citrus edge throughout followed by a smooth, flowery ending – probably because of the coriander and rose petals (yeah, they add rose petals – what a great idea!).

In case you’re missing the vibe here (it took me a while), Eagle Rock Brewery has a neo-Soviet cold war angle: Revolution, Solidarity, Manifesto and “Beer for the People”, along with the eagle and wheat logo. This written and visual imagery takes me right back to Vladivostok in the early 60s, and drinking on a street named Roswell is the icing on the cake.

You can take a tour of the brewery during opening hours and there’s a Beer Education Series, where they explore and teach the fine art of brewing. In the next workshop, the brewers will explain about malts and how they affect the taste of one’s beer. You don’t have to be a brewer to appreciate these classes, but you have to be a beer lover for sure.

Wherever you run into Eagle Rock Brewery – be it in your local bar or a visit to the tap room, you’ll enjoy what you find. The beers are up there with the best, and there’s a dedicated and friendly team to bring it all together. Eagle Rock Brewery: We have HIGH expectations of your future, and I’m sure there will be many supporters of your business. Keep the beer flowing.

Fiiiiinally, the beers are not clarified with animal-based finings (so are completely vegan). The fact that Ben Ling’s Pure Luck serves it is good enough for me.

Eagle Rock Brewery
3056 Roswell Street
Los Angeles, Ca 90065
Tap Room Hours Open To Public:
Friday + Saturday 4-10pm
Sunday 12-6pm

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Yesterday we brought you a list of the 5 best vegan restaurants in Los Angeles. But if a 100% vegan eatery isn’t on the cards for whatever reason, LA has a superb selection of vegan-friendly vegetarian restaurants, some of which rival or exceed the offerings available at vegan-only establishments. From a 60s-era hippie health-food store to a moderne hipster hangout, LA has it all. Check out our top five vegan-friendly vegetarian restaurants and please let us know in the comments if you think any don’t deserve the list, or you have a favorite that should be on it.

Follow Your Heart

Psychedelia. Woodstock. Topanga Canyon. Flower Power. Tie Dye. We have many things to thank the late 60s for, and Follow Your Heart is one of them. This amazing vegetarian oasis, established in 1970 in Canoga Park, has LA’s premier (= only) vegetarian grocery store with a TON of vegan products (some of which can’t be purchased anywhere else). Not only that, it has a cosy restaurant and patio where some of LA’s finest vegan food is waiting for you.

Vegan Reuben at Follow Your Heart

Don’t miss the Reuben Sandwich (make sure you ask for extra 1,000 island dressing), as a human being has to try this out at least once in their life! There are many, many dishes with home made fake meats, and vegan entrees such as breakfast burritos, benedicts etc. Follow Your Heart does a SUPER job with the restaurant food and you pretty much can’t go wrong. If you’re averse to honey (hopefully you are, bees are cool), the buns have honey in them, so be sure to order your delicious burger on VEGAN bread.

Fatty’s & Co

Fatty’s is an interesting place. So overtly pretentious, yet with honest down-to-earth food items you can’t get anywhere else it’s a somewhat strange place to dine. If you walk in when the place is empty, the greeter will give you a hard time because you didn’t make a reservation, but when you’re seated in this pristine restaurant with cavernous ceilings you will be served some truly special food.

Vegan Chartreuse at Fatty's & Co

After wading through a pretty dairy-heavy menu, there are some vegan wonders which await. Half the appetizers are vegan and run the gamut from bread and oil (very special, bread and oil, I might add) through blackened tempeh to more obscure things like “far east rolls” including non-meat chicken. This is a place with powerful entrees as well — get the vegan paella, ravioli, sloppy joe or chartruese for a throughly different and high quality experience. There are also some rare deserts, including a cotton candy that’s only available if a certain person is in the restaurant (Mrs. Dingle, I kid you not). Eat here when you really want to impress a date or experience vegan fine dining to the fullest.

Flore Cafe

Like a phoenix from the ashes, Flore Cafe rose from the amazing Vegan Spot, my favorite ever vegan restaurant. Despite a rocky existence (after the abrupt closing of Vegan Spot I firmly expected this place to be shuttered when I next visit), Flore Cafe has some great vegan food that’s served fast and of very high quality. Almost totally vegan except for a few egg and dairy items, Flore Cafe is unlikely to disappoint. Plus, they really raise the bar with their excellent “all you can eat deals”—from their regular Sunday $10 brunch, to their special event buffets—they give us several reasons to watch them closely.

Tofu Scramble at Flore Cafe

The tofu scramble (if you’re really lucky you’ll be eating that at one of the botomless Sunday brunches) is some of the best in town, along with the breakfast burritos, burgers and salads with seitan. Also, their fake tuna a.k.a. “tu-no” is awesome — especially when served on the tu-no melt. Like its sister restaurant Flore (located just 1/2 mile away), Flore Cafe offers organic meat-free menu with fresh ingredients and attention to detail, yet the restaurant is rarely crowded. Not the best place to dine in, but great for a quick snack or take-out feast.

Cinnamon

Californian-style Mexican food can be well prepared with vegetarian or vegan ingredients, and Cinnamon has perfected the art. Situated in a nondescript single-frontage store in Highland Park, Cinnamon has a warm, family atmosphere in common with all the best Mexican restaurants. Most times, the owner will be there to personally advise on her menu creations as well as supervise the kitchen. With a huge menu of high quality food items, you basically can’t go wrong.

Chorizo and Tofu Tacos at Cinnamon Vegetarian

Although a vegetarian restaurant, pretty much anything can be veganized or is already vegan. Burritos, tacos, quesadillas, all the regular Californian-style Mexican food is well represented as well more authentic stuff such as tamales, mole and empanadas. You got your mock meats, spicy black beans, fresh and crunchy vegetables and the typical sauces — all optionally vegan. Cinnamon proves that great Mexican food can be made vegan.You can eat here with a clear conscience because you KNOW the rice has no chicken broth and the refried beans no lard. Check it out…. you really won’t be sorry.

Paru’s Indian Vegetarian Restaurant

While our friends at Cinnamon excel at vegetarian Mexican-style food, Paru’s knocks the ball out of the park with vegetarian Indian food. Since the 1970s, Parus has been quietly plugging away, serving some of the best Indian food this side of Brick Lane. With a strict policy on preparing vegan food separately in the kitchen, they are to be trusted with our veganocity. The place is a little foreboding upon arrival. It seems like you’re entering a bail bond office or brothel in a sketchy part of town (they buzz you in), but once past the reinforced door you’re in a private patio that leads to an intimate restaurant.

Punjab Glory at Paru's Indian Vegetarian Restaurant

All but a couple of the menu items are either vegan or can be prepared vegan, and the best bet is to get a few side orders with some rice and bread. It’ll cost you a lot less than the signature dishes, and is a great way to experience the variety of food Paru’s has to offer. Get the dosa (puffy bread that looks like a deflating balloon), bonda (fried potato balls) and one of the lentil dishes. Paru’s is a welcome break from our fake-meat-tofu world as they make everything by hand from vegetables and legumes. That’s a rare thing these days.

Honorable mentions: Bulan Thai, The Spot, Nite Moon Cafe

Tomorrow, we’ll be presenting the Top Five LA vegan-friendly omnivorous restaurants. Stay tuned!

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fatty’s & co in eagle rock is a very special place. the small eatery focuses on fine gourmet-style meat-free cuisine with good wine, and an upscale atmosphere. you wouldn’t think eagle rock is the kind of place where you’d find a fancy vegetarian restaurant, but it is. granted, the menu at fatty’s is a little heavy on the dairy side, but the vegan dishes they do serve are nothing short of excellent.

recently i dined at fatty’s and ordered the first vegan entree listed on the menu, the chartreuse. the description boasted that it was the “original dish of the Carthusian monks,” so i just had to give it a try.

chartreuse: The original dish of the Carthusian monks using layers of braised spinach, carrots, beets and celery root, served here with herb crusted tofu fillets a la dijonnaise and mushroom velouté. $15

the dish reminded me of an even more delicious version of a red beet tartare, complete with braised spinach, beets and carrots sitting on a pond of tasty gravy. it was all topped off with two huge slices of crusted tofu, that tasted eerily close to battered and fried fish…but in a good way, not a gross way. although the dish was moderately-sized, it was extremely filling—there was so much flavor and richness packed into each bite. i assure you, monks never ate this well.

with each entree ordered, you receive your choice of vegan soup or salad. i went with the salad, which turned out to be much more interesting than i expected. this was no green salad, mind you, but a clump of pureed jimaca mixed with other vegetables in a light sauce and garnished with blueberries and pine nuts. it was cool, crisp, and oh so refreshing.

you end up paying a bit more at fatty’s, but the beautiful presentation and high-quality ingredients make up for it. it’s not often that vegans get to partake in a true fine dining experience, so i suggest you check this place out as soon as you can. just be sure to make reservations. fatty’s is packed during peak hours!

fatty’s & co
1627 Colorado Blvd.
Eagle Rock, CA 90041
323.254.8804

Wednesday – Saturday 6pm – 10pm
Sunday 5pm – 9pm
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays

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it’s no secret that i’ve been eating at vegan-friendly restaurants all over los angeles for quite some time. however, throughout the last several years of living here as a vegan, for some reason i never bothered to check out fatty’s in eagle rock. the all vegetarian restaurant on colorado boulevard has high prices, gourmet menu items that i can’t pronounce, strange opening hours, and a pretty dairy-heavy menu. for so long i just assumed the place wasn’t for me. BOY WAS I WRONG. i finally had the chance to check out fatty’s a few weeks ago and it rocked my my vegan socks off.

my husband and i ended up at fatty’s on accident. we had an epic double-date dinner planned to attend shojin’s 1 year anniversary party with lex and kristin of vegan-la, which also coincided roughly with when they would be leaving los angeles to embark on backpacking trip around europe. turned out shojin was way too crowded to eat at (i’m talking line-out-the-door savage nightmare), so we headed out to fatty’s eagle rock for of the best vegan meals i’ve had in this town.

fudgey: a two layer chocolate bundt cake with chocolate ganache, toasted coconut and pecan frosting with a creamy center. $8

just because it was so fucking scrumptious, lemme start by telling you about the fudgey. this was the dessert that lex and kristin ordered and were kind enough to share with us (had this been my cake, nobody else at the table woulda got even a bite of it!), and we all agreed it was delicious. the thing was big enough to feed a boatload of people and it came with layer after layer of sugary goodness. chocolate, coconut, and pecan creaminess made this one of the best sweet things i’ve ever encountered. dense and decadent, this cake could fool ANYONE who is addicted to eggs and milk. nothing about it tasted vegan. fudgey is the perfect name for this ridiculously fudgey dish.

Read the rest of this entry »

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born and raised right here in socal, i can say mexican food is one of my all-time favorite cuisines. it’s tough being a vegan, because so many mexican joints use lard in their beans and chicken-meat-juice in their rice. it’s really tough to know what’s safe to eat, and what has been rubbed around with animal parts…plus in many of these restaurants, the staff aren’t knowledgeable about vegetarianism, let alone veganism! that’s why i was so thrilled over the weekend to try out taco spot in eagle rock for the first time. i found that they serve up huge portions of cheap(ish) and delicious authentic-style mex…with several clearly marked veganizable items on the menu.

taco spot’s menu has so many vegetarian options, all of which can be made vegan by omitting the cheese and/or sour cream. and i’m not just talking rice and beans here, they also have fun protein choices like grilled tofu and soyrizo. for some grubby mexican food on the east side, i think i’ve met my perfect match.

we hit up taco spot over the weekend and were super impressed with the quality of the food, the authenticity, and the value. good shit all around. starting with the tofu tacos.

tofu tacos (no cheese!): 3 soft tacos with marinated tofu, cilantro, onion and guacamole. served with rice and beans. $6.95

the tofu tacos are entirely vegetarian, but they normally come with cheese (as do almost all the meat-free items on taco spot’s menu). it’s ok though, because when you leave off the cheese, these suckers are completely vegan. and i can tell you, they are so good, i don’t see why anyone would want to order these with dairy. the tofu was so succulent, and the cilantro and onions were ridiculously fresh. the guacamole was rich and creamy as well…not to mention the fluffy vegetable-filled rice and lard-free beans. so damn awesome. and taco spot doesn’t slack off on the tofu, either. they piled it on, and it was grilled perfectly…all high-quality delicious.

my husband ordered the vegetarian burrito and added tofu. that was also spectacular.

vegetarian burrito (no cheese, plus tofu): black or refried beans, rice, guacamole, and lettuce. $8.75

my one gripe about this burrito, although it tasted damn good, was that to add tofu was an additional 2 bucks. the burrito started off at $6.95, but once we got rid of the cheese and added a bit of protein, it came in at just under nine dollars. i’m convinced that through some menu modification/order fuckery, we could get this same burrito at taco spot for under $7. does that make any sense? i think i ordered the wrong thing and the extra tofu charge was high, especially considering i left off the cheese. there has to be a way around that. ANYWAYS, the burrito was downright excellent. it tasted like scrappy gutbomb mexican food in a really good way, and it was all guaranteed vegan. i could totally eat at taco spot every day.

i bet right now you are just thinking about how awesome the vegan entrees are at taco spot, and i haven’t even mentioned the best part! taco spot has a full-on slap-up salsa bar with everything from little radishes to carrots and chillies, to spicy pico de gallo and salsa negra. this bar has got it all and it’s FREE…and you can get as much as you want. dude, i would pay 4 bucks a head just to eat this salsa.

epic salsa bar. i love you.

as you can guess, we took advantage of the salsa bar at least 3 times. total spicy, vegetable gluttony. a decent salsa bar will always bring a restaurant up to the next level, and this shit was crazy good.

fresh vegetables and awesome sauces from taco spot's salsa bar.

so all you vegans and vegetarians out there, who like hanging out on the east side and are jealous because you’ve been watching your omni-hipster friends shoving carne asada burritos into their faces like there’s no tomorrow, have no fear! go eat at the taco spot! they have a billion vegetarian and vegan options, plus that greasy/homemade mexican food taste, so you won’t feel like you’re missing out.

i suggest you start off the day with some beers in highland park at the york, then grab some spicy mex for dinner. with awesome options that won’t break the bank, and located in a some-what sketchy part of town, taco spot is enough to make us vegans feel like normal people. we deserve guilty mex meals as well, dammit!

taco spot. do it.

taco spot
2006 colorado blvd.
eagle rock, ca 90041
323-256-7001

open 7 days a week
11am-9pm

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