Since we’ve been talking a lot about animal parts these last weeks, we thought it probably was appropriate to spend some time on the other side of the barbed wire fence—with you non-animal-part-eating people. As luck would have it, Mellow Mushroom owner John Adamson called this week to tell us that the Charlottesville location of the hoagie and pizza franchise is now offering soy cheese.
 Identified flying object: Mellow Mushroom owner John Adamson has landed on the vegan-friendly bandwagon by offering pizza made with soy cheese. |
“A lot of people who are lactose intolerant or wanted a vegan option have called up and asked for it, and we’ve been trying to figure out how to do it. We’ve been testing different soy cheese products, and we’ve found one that works with our ovens,” says Adamson.
The 6-and-a-half-year-old local Mellow already offers a ton of vegetarian options (even the meat-eater in us salivates over the tempeh hoagie with teriyaki and balsamic vinaigrette and feta cheese), so this is just one more step in the vegan-friendly direction. Restaurantarama can’t vouch necessarily for the full-fledged vegan-ness of the new soy stuff at the ‘shroom, as apparently there are all kinds of crazy complications involving animal protein additives such as casein that we don’t fully understand. But you vegans can probably figure it out, and in any case, Mellow’s latest move shows us that the restaurateurs ’round here are increasingly hearing you alternative eaters loud and clear. And that’s good news!
As for other options, the list of vegan- and vegetarian-friendly restaurants seems to be growing. There’s a local vegan blog called Eat Air that likes to keep tabs on this sort of thing, and for vegan-friendly establishments they list the high-on-veggies-and-low-on-dairy ethnic offerings of Chinese at Ming Dynasty and Café 88, Indian at Milan and Maharaja and Ethiopian at Mesob. In addition, The Flat actually lists vegan fare on the menu, and Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar has a very vegan-accommodating menu, as well as vegan-knowledgeable staff. Sticks Kebob Shop has lots of veggies and dairy-free humus and falafel, and Splendora’s has dairy-free sorbet. And there’s always cheese-free veggie pizza at Christian’s or the Buddha pizza made with “no cheese, tofu instead” at Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie. But since pizza without cheese is, like, not pizza, we prefer to call those open-faced, veggie pancakes.
The Box watch
Speaking of John Adamson, one of his partners in The Box (coming to the old Atomic Burrito space) also called with an update: Chas Webster says the place will be an “Asian-American noodle bar and grill” and will serve “affordable” sushi. Look for a soft opening this weekend.
Pupusa-palooza
Last week in our profile of new Central American-themed dining spot Cazon Tropical Restaurant and Pupuseria in the Woodbrook Shopping Center, we quoted the manager, Honduran native and longtime Charlottesville resident Carlos Palma, as saying it’s the first pupusa place in town. Maybe what Palma meant to say is that it’s the first authentic pupusa place in town, or that at Cazon, it’s real Pupusa with a capital P or something like that. Whatever the reasons, many of you wrote in to remind us that a while back there was another pupusa-serving place on Route 29N —the short-lived Pupusa Crazy (which became the short-lived Caribbean Malecon and now houses the second coming of Baja Bean)—and that Mexican restaurant Aqui es Mexico currently serves pupusas. We thank our diligent readers for clearing up the confusion. That many of you feel so passionate about the state of pupusas around here probably means good business for Cazon!
Spilling beans
When one door closes, another one opens, right? Two bits of news on the coffee front seem to confirm that sentiment. First, coffee house Shenandoah Coffee, which was located next to the Antiquers Mall on 29N in Ruckersville and served local Shenandoah Joe’s coffee, recently closed shop about a year after it opened. But no bad news here—it seems that owner Ryan Miller had so much fun running a coffee house at that location that he’s ready to jump into the land of full-service. He plans to reopen by the end of the month as Coach’s Grill, a family-friendly spot with burgers, sandwiches, salads, local sports memorabilia and six flat-paneled TVs.
Second, a new coffee place called Just Java has opened its doors near Lake Monticello and also serves up Shenandoah Joe’s brew. So that’s sort of like two new doors.
Got some restaurant scoop? Send tips to restaurantarama@c-ville.com or call 817-2749, Ext. 48.