All you need is love (and vegan food)

Colleen, Kelly Crowley, and Justin Lucke on the rooftop terrace at Trellis in Menlo Park

Who: VN Associate Publisher Colleen Holland + VN Editorial Director Aurelia d'Andrea

What: The weekend wedding extravaganza in honor of Google chef (and fellow vegan) Justin Lucke and the lovely bride, Kelly Crowley

Where: Menlo Park, Woodside, and Palo Alto, Calif.

When: October 24–26, 2008

Why: Because who doesn't love love, especially when it comes with a side of vegan wedding cake?

The Scoop: Justin Lucke is a lucky guy, phonetically and otherwise: First, he gets to do something he's passionate about every day, which is to cook delicious veg food for gobs of people. At Google. How awesome is that? He also falls into the lucky camp for meeting his permanent date, Kelly Crowley, and planning a vegan wedding to seal the deal. And guess what? Two VN staffers are pretty darn lucky too, since we were invited to partake in the nuptial festivities over a long weekend.

The fun began on a warm Friday evening, when Colleen and Aurelia made the 45-minute trek from San Francisco to Menlo Park to rendezvous with the to-be-marrieds and their respective families at Trellis Restaurant. Converging on the upstairs open-air patio, we helped ourselves to cool classes of wine, garlicky bruschetta, and mushroom-topped toasts before mingling. As we sipped and nibbled, we got to know some interesting people, including a super-nice guy named Anthony Zahn who just happens to be a Paralympic Bronze-medal-winning cyclist. While Anthony regaled us with tales from Beijing, we settled into our table, and before we knew it, the main-course minute had arrived.

Okay, so while Trellis is not even close to being a veg restaurant, they do offer a pretty good variety of veg menu options, and this night, we tucked into tasty plates of penne pasta with portobello mushrooms and still-warm slices of house-baked bread that we dunked into flavorful pools of olive oil. For dessert, we savored a perfectly-ripe-strawberry-and-tangy-raspberry mélange that needed no embellishment to enhance its deliciousness. We left the soirée sated and happy at a not-too-late hour so we'd be fresh for the following day's fun.

On Saturday morning, we headed back down toward Menlo Park, but veered off in the direction of Woodside, which is, indeed, woodsy, and also very chi-chi (Oracle's Larry Ellison lives there, for one). We drove straight through town and up to Huddart Park, where veggie burgers and chips awaited, as did fruit smoothies created using a bicycle-powered blender. Really. We ate, and then ate a bit more, then we played. We played Frisbee. And Smashball. And some more Smashball. And then, before we knew it, it was time to head over to Palo Alto for the actual wedding part of the weekend-long event.

When we arrived at the '30s-era Mediterranean-style Lucie Stern Community Center, the wedding guests had all settled into their seats in the grassy, flower-filled garden. As we took our spots, a wind-and-string trio provided a musical backdrop, and the next thing we knew, Justin and Kelly were walking down the verdant aisle. The gorgeous couple exchanged their vows, and a few of us sitting close enough to hear their words might've cried a little bit out of happiness for the newly betrothed.

After the ceremony, we moved en masse to another courtyard where servers dressed in black whizzed by with platters of lemon-oil infused kale crostini, stuffed mushrooms, mini glasses of puréed butternut squash-and-persimmon soup, and larger glasses of wine and non-alcoholic elixirs. As the newly marrieds posed for photos, we noshed and laughed and worked up our appetites for the main courses. Emeryville-based Back To Earth organic catering created an elegant, heavenly-tasting spread that included phyllo-wrapped autumn root-vegetable roulade, roasted cauliflower, kabocha squash with quinoa, and the loveliest of green salads napped in vinaigrette. The cake was made by a couple of gifted members of the Crowley family, as is their tradition, and considering they'd never made a vegan wedding cake before, the results were divine. My new favorite flavor combo? Banana and chocolate, for sure.

Colleen Holland doing her best to resist the powers of vegan wedding cake

No party is complete without a trip to the dance floor, so, as is VegNews family tradition, Colleen and Aurelia joined Organic Athlete's Bradley Saul, his wife Charity Grace Kirk, new friend Anthony, and the bride and groom for a full-blown boogie sesh. Though it was hard to tear ourselves away from those classic disco tunes, we needed to get our beauty sleep, so after four or five turns, we bid our farewells and left the party sated and full of merriment for our newly married friends.

Put a Little Love in Your Hut

The Won Ton Noodle Soup at San Francisco's Loving Hut

Who: VN Publisher/Editor in Chief Joseph Connelly + VN Editorial Director Aurelia d'Andrea
What: A vegan restaurant opening
When: Saturday, October 11, 2008
Where: San Francisco's Chinatown
Why: Vegan food, silly!

The Scoop: If there's one thing San Francisco needs more of, it's vegan restaurants. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: bring on the dosas, burritos, tajines, tamales, gnocchi, fried noodles, bibimbap, dim sum, pho, sushi, injera, and your won ton noodle soup, and make mine animal-free! Well, ask, and ye shall receive, apparently, because the Supreme Master Ching Hai folks—the ones who've given us Golden Era, Golden Lotus, Vegetarian House, and other Chinese-Vietnamese veg places around the world, have now given us Loving Hut.  

Joseph and I agreed to meet in Chinatown at 11:00 am on this sunny autumn Saturday to celebrate the newest addition to the global chain of Loving Hut cafés. Finding the restaurant wasn't a problem; we merely gravitated toward the crowd that converged at the corner of Stockton and Vallejo streets, and we were met with a festive hoohah that included dancing dragons spitting out chunks of cabbage, fireworks, drums, and lots of oohs and aahs from the crowd.

After the commotion settled, the hungry throngs poured inside the immaculate, slightly sterile interior for a taste of whatever was on offer, which happened  to be an eclectic melange of Asian and good-ol' American. From noodle soups and mild curries to veggie burgers and French fries, there was a little something for everyone. I opted for a bowl of Bun Hue—a spicy noodle soup loaded with fake meat, while Joseph went for the Won Ton Noodle Soup. And the Gurus Curry. And the Spring Rolls. And the Raspberry-Chocolate Cake. Okay: We actually shared. However, the soup was so filling there was barely room for anything else. Somehow I made it happen, though.

While we slurped our noodles and chopsticked our way through the curry, we felt the eerie sensation of eyeballs boring into us. Looking out the glass window onto Vallejo Street, we recognized a familiar face staring back at us: HSUS' Erin Williams! Turns out Erin—who, among other things, is co-author of Why Animals Matter: The Case For Animal Protection—was out in the 'hood distributing Prop. 2 flyers, and since it was lunchtime, she and a couple of cohorts thought they'd stop in for a nibble. 

We later discovered—by their own admission—that for Erin, Karin, and Walker, this was to be their third Loving Hut meal in two days. Looks like Loving Hut is already a hit.

Walker, Karin, Erin, Joseph, and Aurelia at Loving Hut

Oakland Raiders

Who: VN Editorial Assistant Lisa Mickleborough + SF Vegan founders Barna Mink and Kathleen Bennett
What: A vegan-venue food crawl
Where: Souley Vegan + Layonna Vegetarian Health Food Market in Oakland, Calif.
When: June 21, 2008
Why: East Bay soul searchin'

The Scoop: San Francisco, a city abounding in vegan restaurants and vegetarian markets, has yet to produce a venue with real soul. Having tried them all—everything from raw to retro-inspired—I've been yearning for a spot that really knows how to barbecue tofu and season collard greens. You can imagine, then, my reaction when I learned that a vegan soul food joint was opening just around the corner from Layonna Vegetarian—a regional veg institution—across the bay in Oakland. Grabbing the first available Saturday I could, I rounded up my dearest friends, hopped the train to our sister city, and made a day out of these two dream-come-true destinations.

Rounding the corner on 13th, a vibrant read awning emblazoned with the words "Souley Vegan: Vegan Soul Food" beckoned, and we ducked into the bare but cozy vegan-owned café blaring scratchy blues, took a look around the place at other patrons' dishes and, no exaggeration, cursed out loud with joy. Grabbing bottles of very strong strawberry-ginger juice to wash it all down, we picked amazingly textured crispy tofu, smoky-savory collards, and creamy and rich mac 'n' cheese from their mouth-watering menu. With all the anticipation, I was amazed these home-cooked dishes managed to exceed my expectations.

Next up, after saying our good-byes and profuse thank-yous to the chef and owner Tamearra Dyson, we waddled over to Layonna's to gawk at the aisles of mock meat—with everything from codfish steak, giant prawns, yeast "jerks," and beef tendon to their widely consumed chicken chunks and drumsticks. As a first-time visitor I was overwhelmed, but I managed to pick a few interesting meatless meats to try. Stuffed and stunned, we explored the city for awhile before heading back to our homes to recover.