I’m so grateful to all you Kind Lifers who gave me such great restaurant recommendations while I was shooting Vamps in Detroit.
I tried to get to as many veg or veg-friendly restaurants as I could while I was there, but I worked so many hours, night and day, that there weren’t a lot of opportunities to go out to eat.
Although I didn't have time to make it to all the places I wanted to go, the recommendations made me drool! Here are the places I loved, and the places I wanted to go but couldn’t make it to.
My favorite eating out experience was at Goodwell’s Natural Food Market, next to Avalon Bakery. It was really yummy and so cute. I loved it!
I also liked a sushi restaurant I went to while there. I can't remember the name, but maybe some of you Detroit Kind Lifers will recognize it from my description! If so, let me know in the comments below! They had a decent iceburg lettuce salad with carrot ginger dressing and a good burdock sushi roll. Everything probably had sugar in it, but it was a nice treat. The fried tofu roll was great too. The only problem is that the sauce has a little dairy in it – they should make it with veganaise! Everyone harrass them to do this, and maybe they will. For now, you just order it without the sauce. They also made one of my favorite rolls for me: asparagus tempura with avocado in a roll.
I had a great brunch with Kind Lifer Lisa at What Crepe, that I blogged about here. On another occasion, I went to the Inn Season Café for brunch. The French toast was really nice, the vegan omelet was yum, and the cinnamon buns were huge! Just like Cinnabon.
This is my husband Christopher at the Inn Season Cafe. I was super pregnant in the first trimester, so food was hard for me...any kind! I hated it, and I wanted to cry. So that's also why I didn't get to eat at all the places I wanted to try.
I really wanted to make it to Amicci’s Pizza, but I just ran out of time. If you’re in Detroit, it sounds amazing! Om Café also sounded good to me, but I never made it there. Mind Body & Spirits is an organic restaurant in Rochester that was also high on my list. I really wanted to check it out, but didn’t get the chance.
Here are some other restaurants that I didn’t get to, but that sound great:
I know I was in Detroit like a hundred years ago now - I think I left in September! But I had a great time there, and wanted to share. What are some great vegan or vegetarian restaurants in your town?
Wow that looks good. They'd never have something like this where I live.
Also those watermelon slices aren't big enough for me, that's my 2nd favorite fruit next to pineapple. I have eaten an entire grape watermelon before (last Summer) so those little squares seem teeny to me.
Love hearing great things about DETROIT!! With all the bad press its nice hearing the good things exspecially lately. Seva by the way is a good restraunt I have been there a few times and I know people who love it.
Near to Inn Season now is a raw vegan cafe called "The Cacao Tree Cafe" It's beyond yummmmy
HAD to add another vegan/vegetarian restaurant that just opened in Btown, Indiana where I live...The Owlery. It is seriously fantastic. I had fried tofu "fish and chips" the other night, and I almost died! It was that good.
I live in the Detoit area as well and have a few suggestions for vegans out there. We all know about Amici's and Inn Season. But here are a couple more. Cacaco a raw vegan restaurant. The Emory has a really good black bean burger and Pronto's in Royal has vegan and veg options. I went to the Om Cafe on Monday and it was really good; had their sietan tacos and seitan bbq sliders with sauteed onions; YUMMY!!! I have to say that NYC had the best options I have seen so far. My goal is to have more vegan restaurants for us to eat at, because honestly the food is amazing. If anyone is going to NYC and needs suggestions I will let you know where to go; AMAZING food!!!!
Hey Everyone! I actually work at Avalon International Breads. (www.avalonbreads.net) We appreciate the shout-out and I feel super lucky because I have access to both Avalon and Goodwell's on a daily basis. The Avalon scallion dill bread is my favorite.. combined with a bowl of Goodwell's vegetarian chili.
Great post! I am from Detroit but live in NYC now and appreciate the wonderful shout out to such a great town that just gets a lot of unfortaunte bad press. Thanks Alicia!
During my first days back in LA from Detroit, I ran to M Cafe for breakfast. They have a delicious vegan benedict that I had been dreaming of for a while.
For years, I have to admit I missed eggs benedict a tad. One day I was in M Cafe, and I saw that they had salmon benedict. So I asked, "Hey do you guys think you can make a vegan one?" And out it came! Then I continued to harass them to put it on the menu, and yay, they did! It's so good. If you haven't had the vegan benedict there, you must run to M Cafe.
I also had my old favorite, the sweet potato salad with wasabi. I don't even like wasabi, but in this salad, it's so mild and delicious. They serve it with green beans and some pickles - sounds weird, but it's great. I tried a new item too - yummy warm biscuits (I think they were from Babycakes). If you haven't been to M Cafe for breakfast yet, run for the vegan benedict! That's what I do once a week.
What's your favorite restaurant in your hometown?
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When I was in Detroit filming Vamps I met a bunch of Kind Lifers - Elizabeth was one of the Kind Lifers that I met. She was so nice and super cool!
Check out the video that she made to audition for her own show on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
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I heard about the charity Urban Farming from my Vamps co-star Richard Lewis’ wife and wanted to share! Urban Farming is based in Detroit, but they work in communities throughout America, planting food in unused land for neighborhoods to enjoy. Urban Farming encourages donations to food banks, and they also work with schools, where they teach about green farming and "green-collar" jobs. FYI – A green collar job is a job that pays decent wages and has benefits that can support a family. It also has to be part of a real career path, with upward mobility, and it needs to reduce waste and pollution and benefit the environment.
If you'd like to find out more about Urban Farming and get involved as a volunteer, you can register here.
Do you live near an urban farm or similar organization?
I just wanted to highlight some great sounding charities in Detroit....I had a lot of fun shooting Vamps there and quite enjoyed the city. It feels real, and the architecture is stimulating and interesting. I met many groovy people on really neat paths. Here are some of the organizations that I found out about while in Detroit:
Forgotten Harvest relieves hunger in Detroit by rescuing surplus prepared and perishable foods and donating it to emergency food providers....sounds amazing!!!!! I love the non-wasting philosophy together with feeding people in need! Yay! You can donate to Forgotten Harvest here and find out about volunteer opportunities here.
Goodwill Industries of greater Detroit trains underprivileged people to gain job skills and helps to place them not just in jobs but careers. Their whole philosophy is to help people to gain the skills they need to secure lifelong employment. After placing people in jobs, Goodwill Industries continues to follow up with them, and helps with services like transportation and childcare. You can donate to Goodwill Industries here.
S.A.Y. Detroit (Super All Year Project) was founded by author Mitch Albom and provides health and human services, including food, shelter, and medical care to the homeless population in Detroit. Among its projects are building a daycare for the children of homeless women, and building a medical clinic for the homeless population. You can find out more about S.A.Y. Detroit here and you can donate here.
What's your favorite local charity?
While in Detroit, I explored some nice local Michigan companies who are making good quality treats. They are more dessert in my brain - I wouldn't have these as a meal, as I try to be superhero as often as possible. But in a pinch these are great go-to snacks! Check it out:
A company called Pure NRG Raw makes some pretty decent vegan bars. Now, I'm not a believer in bars all the time...but when I'm at work for 15 hours a day and need a snack....these are fun! I enjoyed the cherry pecan, brownie bar, and carob peanut butter flavors the most!
Another bar I liked is the Raw Way Lean Green Crunch - it's darn good and made with spirulina, nuts, raisins, and agave.
I also had a local almond butter that Kind Lifer Wendy brought to me....seriously insanely delicious!!!! Krysten Ritter (pictured above) loves it and so does the whole hair and makeup trailer. I like it so much, although it has sucanat (non-refined sugar cane) in it...so not superhero....but soooooo good.
Local organic grocer Plum Market (locations in Ann Arbor, Bloomfield, and West Bloomfield) has the best cookies I've had since being in Detroit! The peanut butter cookie is insane! The oatmeal cookies and trail mix cookies are amazing too! Holy moly! The fig bar is nice also, but wow those cookies are the best! They are in the little fresh bakery part of the store. They say vegan on a little sign. Not superhero...I repeat not superhero! But an occasional treat for a superhero doesn't hurt.
Avalon Bakery is another cute place that happens to supply Plum Market. I got two loaves of bread there, one cherry-walnut and another scallion-dill. Both were delicious with this olive tapenade we got there too.
Next door was a place called Goodwell's Natural Foods Market, one of my favorite places so far. We walked there, which took about thirty minutes, and the people hanging out there were so neat. They were older people who were groovy and relaxed, just sitting outside enjoying their snacks. One older man had long dreds. It just had good vibes! In the store we had a great, fresh salad, which I was really needing. We also had some rice dream ice cream bars. It was just an all-around great place!
I like that all of these companies are Michigan-based. What are your favorite local snacks?
I had a little impromptu meet and greet with Kind Lifers in the Detroit area while I was there filming Vamps. It was so nice to sit and chat with everyone. I love getting feedback about the site and learning about everyone's journey of how they got there. Kind Lifer Sheena brought naughty and yummie vegan cupcakes from Cupcake Station in Ann Arbor...the ones with the coffee flavored icing were insane.
A huge thank you to Angela, Jodi, Elizabeth, Michelle, Andree, Janet, Wendy, Sheena, Lisa and her husband Tony, Cheryl, and Diana for coming out. You were all so sweet and I really enjoyed learning a little about each of you. I look forward to seeing you on the site and I do hope you all start a Detroit area Vegan Potluck!!!
Feeding my Vamps costar Krysten Ritter is so fun! here is what she sent me from set the other day!
"I loooove this seaweed dish thing...and I loved the cranberry quinoa dish. It tasted like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!!!! Literally was shoveling it into my face. hahahaha"
Recently, she came over to my trailer and she asked, "What's this?" sounding kind of concerned. And I said, "It must be seitan." She said, "It tastes a lot like chicken...almost too much like chicken!" I explained to her what seitan was and then later in the day, she said she loved it.
I love feeding her!
Recently our hair designer on Vamps, John, brought in some treats from nearby Pinwheel Bakery...so mad at him for that!!! Anywho, they were all vegan, which was so sweet of him! The brownie and the ginger cookie were my favorites, and the peanut butter cookie was really good too.
If you live in the Detroit area and would like to sample these, you can go to Pinwheel Bakery in Ferndale:
Pinwheel Bakery
220 W. Nine Mile Road
Ferndale, Michigan 48220
phone: 248.398.8018
fax: 248.398.8016
Hours
Tuesday - Wednesday: 8 am - 6 pm
Thursday - Saturday: 8 am - 8 pm
Closed Sunday and Monday
Not everything from Pinwheel is vegan, so just be careful. And since their vegan items are new, they haven’t added them to the online menu yet. But they feature five different varieties of vegan cookies per day: oatmeal raisin, oatmeal chocolate chip, oatmeal ginger date pecan, peanut butter, and ginger molasses. They also make vegan brownies, as well as lemon sugar and cocoa spice cookies. Just make sure that you specify that you want the vegan versions!
Thank you John! And thank you Pinwheel!
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