Four Events in Five Days

Who: VN Associate Publisher Colleen Holland
What: The Maggie Awards, a VegNews Vacation Reunion, a Restaurant Review, and a Film Screening
Where: Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Campbell, Calif.
When: April 29–May 3, 2011
Why: A week in the life of a magazine publisher!

The Scoop: Being the publisher of a vegan magazine definitely has its benefits. Although our pace never seems to slow down and the workload continues to grow (I thought this was supposed to get easier?), we have an opportunity to attend all kinds of events and constantly meet interesting and inspirational people. In the last week alone, I attended one of the largest magazine award shows in the country, lunched with one of our VegNews Vacations guests at LA's Veggie Grill,  hit up a brand-new veg restaurant in San Francisco, and attended a film screening of a documentary that has huge potential to change the way people think about food and their health.

Last Friday, VN publisher Joseph Connelly and I made our annual trek to Los Angeles for one of the big industry award shows, The Maggies. We dined with the creative directors of Mother Jones and Yoga Journal (both based in San Francisco), ate some pretty decent vegan food (it's the Westin, but the meal was quite good this year!), met lots of people in the magazine world, and took part in a very entertaining awards program. Thankfully, Mother Jones, Yoga Journal, and VegNews all took home Maggie awards (including one for Best Magazine eNewsletter), so the spirits were high at our table of 10. Congratulations to all of our fellow publishers and award winners.

Tim of Mother Jones, Charli of Yoga Journal, Joseph of VegNews, and me at the Maggie Awards

Last year, we launched VegNews Vacations and have now been to India twice with VegNews readers. The trips are nothing short of fantastic, and one of the benefits is that we have made a lot of new friends from around the country. We've had several reunions from both journeys, and we met up with the lovely Brenda from Redondo Beach (VegNews Great Adventure to India 2010) this past Saturday for lunch at the newest Veggie Grill location in Torrance. We reminisced about the trip, talked about her new Etsy store, and ate a delicious array of food: buffalo wings with barbecue sauce and ranch dressing, the Santa Fe Crispy Chick'n sandwich, Papa's Portobello burger, the (best-ever) All Hail Kale salad, the mac 'n' cheese, and sweet potato fries. Yes, it was a good lunch, and, yes, we were full for the next 24 hours.

VegNews Vacation reunion at Veggie Grill! Me, Brenda, and Joseph

When our appetites finally returned, we were back in San Francisco and ready to try out the city's newest vegetarian restaurant. The Source, owned by former New Yorkers (and brothers) Andrew and Mitchell Fox. The restaurant bills itself as a "multi-dimensional dining experience," and we were impressed. The space is modern, the food is innovative, and the menu has something for everyone. We loved the Mushroom Onion Swiss Burger (served with cashew cheese and wrapped in a house-made flat bread) and the Almond Joy smoothie (freshly made cashew milk whirled with raw chocolate, coconut, and almonds). All of the pizzas and breads are made in the restaurant's brick oven, and a variety of juices, elixirs, lattes, and shakes are on offer to wash it all down. We are excited to welcome The Source to the San Francisco veg dining scene.

Overstuffed mushroom onion burger with cashew cheese and French fries, I love you

And to cap off the four events in five days, I headed down to Campbell on Tuesday night with Joseph for the Northern California premier of the the new film, Forks Over Knives. Joseph was on the post-film discussion panel along with The Engine 2 Diet author Rip Esselstyn and San Francisco Vegetarian Society President Dixie Mahy, and we hadn't seen the documentary since its latest round of editing. Whole Foods sponsored the event, the 200+ seat theater was packed, and the audience was very moved by the film. In essence, the documentary examines the relationship between what America eats (excessive animal products) and how sick we are (diabetes, cancer, and heart disease), and has enormous potential for reaching the masses. In fact, I predict that it will be nominated for an Academy Award. Forks Over Knives opens in theaters this weekend in New York and Los Angeles, and rolls out across the country throughout the month. Tell everyone you know!

The line formed early for the Forks Over Knives screening in Campbell

Madeleine Bistro + Cruzer's VegNews Pizza

Who: VN Publisher Joseph Connelly and VN Associate Publisher Colleen Holland
What: Finals stops on the spring tourWhere: Tarzana, Hollywood, and Los Feliz, Calif.When: May 8, 2010Why: Three vegan restaurants in half-a-day: Why not?
The Scoop: One (half) day left in LA, two Maggie Awards last night... how should we celebrate? Three restaurant visits, of course!

We treated ourselves to brunch at Madeleine Bistro, our longtime fave Los Angeles restaurant. You must start with an order of beignets (the French can even make "doughnut" sound good). Check these out:

The Doughnuts, er, um, "Beignets," at Madeleine Bistro

For our main courses I had the apple-filled fruit crepes while Colleen ordered bananas foster waffles. Madeleine's food is so innovative, it can't be said often enough how much a vegan genius Chef Dave Anderson is.

Is it bananas foster? Waffles? It's magic!

Post-brunch it's onto Hollywood to check in on LifeFood Organic, a restaurant I first blogged about two months ago in my LA Whoa! Man post. Nestled between Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards, LifeFood serves up raw and living cuisine, mostly pre-packaged, for those on the go (or sitting in the car trying go—no, wait, that didn't sound right). Scrumptious salads, savory sandwiches, and delectable desserts make up the menu, all at reasonable prices. Give this place a try.

LifeFood Organic has it all

Final stop: Cruzer Pizza & Pasta, to taste-test the forthcoming VegNews Pizza. What's a VegNews Pizza? Glad you asked. How about perfect-o pesto topped with white Daiya cheese, artichoke hearts, way-too-much garlic, sliced tomatoes, and leaves of basil? Here's Colleen and our Cruzer connection, Michelle Sass, showing off the final protect:

We even managed to smuggle home a whole pie for the staff to try on Monday, when it tasted just as good. Read about it on Café VegNews. We'll let you know via Facebook and Twitter when our pizza actually hits the menu. And that closes the VegNews Spring 2010 tour. Thank you and good night.

Seed, Spork Sisters, and the 59th Annual Maggie Awards

Who: VN Publisher Joseph Connelly and VN Associate Publisher Colleen Holland
What: One fine day in LA
Where: Venice, West Hollywood, and Los Angeles, Calif.
When: May 7, 2010
Why: The trophies were waiting

The Scoop: Colleen and I have been on the road pretty much non-stop since early February—publishing duties keep us busy, y'know. Why not jam as much into this 48-hour SoCal trip as possible?

Thursday night was Forks Over Knives; today began with chopsticks at Venice's stylish Seed Restaurant. The baby of Love, Eric author Eric Lechasseur and his wife Sanae Suzuki, this quaint and cozy restaurant not far from Muscle Beach serves such a dazzling selection of fresh macrobiotic fare that one visit won't do it justice. We'll be back. Thanks, Eric!

Seed's Saisai Donburi Macro Bowl

Just around the corner from Seed is Eko Zone, a spacious, well-lit vegan shop run by the lovely threesome of Dana Riley, Bill, and the one who does the real work, the photogenic Kosmo. If you ever need to pick up a copy of VegNews, they sell it here!

Eko Zone's Dana, Bill, and the white-and-fluffy Kosmo

Since I had just seen Chef Tanya Petrovna at the Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down six days ago, we stopped at the Westwood location of her Native Foods to see if she was around. She wasn't, so we settled for a non-macro Boogie Bar.

Native Food's cookbook and Boogie Bar

A last-minute invite by the dynamic duo that is the Goldberg sisters, had us "rushing" from Venice to West Hollywood through legendary LA traffic. Heather and Jenny, the insanely adorable owners of Spork Foods have opened a fashionable loft studio where they teach cooking classes, film their VegNews TV segments, and actually spin vinyl! I was in heaven. Heather and Jenny are raising veganism to a new level, which is a good thing, don't you think?

The chic, hip Spork Foods loft

Heather and Jenny Goldberg

Next up was a pit stop at "Sunset Grill," aka the West Hollywood Veggie Grill on Sunset Boulevard (Colleen's first visit). We bumped into a young man cautiously eyeing the menu; sensing apprehension, VegNews offered to buy him his very first veggie burger (the Santa Fe Crispy Chickin', for those who appreciate detail). Wouldn't you know that our new friend, Tamon George, is actually a professional football player (defensive back) for the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders and was the number nine overall pick in the 2009 CFL draft? Later, his lovely Persia White-look-alike girlfriend Sarah Fontenot joined us. Of course, she's beautiful and a budding silver screen actress. If this story isn't sappy enough, the handsome couple met when they were five years old! Another order of Sweetheart Fries, please.

All the way from Saskatchewan: Tamon George and Sarah Fontenot

A quick change into evening wear and we were off to the big show: The 59th annual Maggie Awards, the "Oscars of the Magazine Industry." VegNews picked up two (including Best Lifestyle Magazine for the third year in a row), and had the pleasure of sitting with Madeleine Buckingham, publisher of fellow San Francisco magazine Mother Jones. Madeleine and MJ were the evening's big winners, taking home four Maggies, which translates into bragging rights for our table, as seen here:

Mother Jones' Claudia Smukler and Madeleine Buckingham with VegNews' Joe and Colleen

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And the Winner is …

Who: VN Publisher Joseph Connelly + VN Associate Publisher Colleen Holland
What: The Maggie Awards, an annual magazine awards banquet
Where: The Westin LAX in Los Angeles
When: May 2, 2008
Why: With two Maggie nominations this year, we had high hopes for bringing home the top prize!

The Scoop: About two months ago, Team VN learned it had secured two nominations in the 2008 Maggie Awards. The Maggies, affectionately referred to as “The Oscars” of the magazine publishing world, is no small feat. This year, VegNews was up for one of the major awards, Best Lifestyle Magazine, as well as for Joseph Connelly’s compelling profile on activist Gretchen Wyler (“The Actress and The Elephant”) from the September+October 2007 issue. Needless to say, we’ve been sitting on pins and needles ever since.

Finally, the big day arrived. We flew down to Los Angeles on our favorite new airline, Virgin America (great service, affordable fares, and cool cabins). In need of a quick bite to calm our nerves, we head over to the only spot nearby to secure a veggie meal, Subway (gotta love the plethora of veg options near airports). We enjoyed a pair of Veggie Delite sandwiches (cheese-free, with avocado, toasted bread, and vinaigrette, thank you very much). No complaints!

The pre-ceremony cocktail party commenced at 5:30pm, and we had a chance to mingle with publishers from all over the country. There were racks filled with the nominated publications, and it’s always fun to flip through magazines in a range of categories (sports, automotive, health, epicurean, etc.). At 7:00pm, the ballroom doors swung open, and a sit-down dinner was served. Despite requesting a vegan entrée every year, we always end up with same thing: a salad, cheese-filled ravioli topped with roasted vegetables (the veggies were great), dinner rolls, and a decidedly non-vegan dessert. Thank god for Subway.

At last, the ceremony began. A high-tech multimedia show featuring all of the nominees kicked off the program (think glossy mag covers buzzing all over the film screen set to cool tunes). We then wait anxiously for the biggie: Best Lifestyle Magazine. Up against Vegetarian Times, Alternative Medicine, Mothering, and The Advocate, this was our year. We won! Oh my god! It was fantastic. VN publisher Joseph Connelly gave a heartfelt speech to the audience of 600+, making sure to acknowledge our fellow nominees (who were all in attendance). Unfortunately, we didn’t take top honors for our second nomination, but we’re still absolutely elated. Our staff works hard to deliver the best vegetarian magazine on the planet, and it’s wonderful to be recognized. Yeah!