Favorite Vegan Spots in LOS ANGELES 🌞

Transcript

Chloe Fuller: Hey, my name is Chloe Fuller. I'm the Field Organizer in Los Angeles for The Humane League. Today I'm going to show you around Los Angeles, which is home to some of the best plant-based restaurants in the world. Here, the activist community is booming, and I cannot wait to show you what Los Angeles has to offer.

We're here at Sage today, which is one of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles, with three locations in Pasadena, Echo Park, and Culver City. They are locally sourced, organic, and all plant-based. They also work with local farmers who deliver pesticide-free and organic produce every day. This is one of my go-to spots for brunch, lunch, and dinner.

So we have the Bowl of Soul here. It is a must, and I highly recommend it. It's got roasted sweet potato, black beans, quinoa, grilled corn, sauteed kale, polenta cake, horseradish, and gluten-free mac and cheese balls. The chilaquiles have organic corn tortilla chips, tofu egg scramble, black beans, rice, kale, and house-made salsa.

They have in-house kombucha, which is phenomenal. I highly recommend it. Some of my other go-tos are the rainbow bowl, and Sage is actually known for their cauliflower waves. The cauliflower wings are tempura cauliflower and spicy buffalo.

For lunch, the miso rainbow bowl is an amazing choice. It's got organic brown rice topped with seaweed salad, tofu, fried eggplant, spicy pickled cabbage, cucumber, and crispy onions.

So we just wrapped up here at Sage. Now I'm going to go over to Eagle Rock to an all-vegan market called Organix.

We just had an amazing brunch at Sage, but now I want to pick up some groceries for a volunteer event that we're hosting, so we came to Organix here in Eagle Rock. It's an all-vegan market and deli. They have burgers, burritos, tacos, and so much more. It's amazing. It's one of my favorite places in Los Angeles.

So Los Angeles has a ton of amazing vegan restaurants. It's an incredible place to come eat if you are veg, but it's also home to an incredible activist community. It's thriving here, and it's been such an honor to be a part of this community over the last few years—and to be able to put this passion that I have into working professionally in this incredible movement. One of my favorite things that I do is I help to steward the development of local activists, people that want to become leaders in this community and leaders in the movement. I help facilitate an internship program with students. I give talks on local campuses, universities, and high schools, teaching students about the horrors of factory farming and the realities of industrial agriculture. Additionally, last year we worked a lot on Proposition 12, getting that on the ballot and getting it passed, and it is the strongest and farthest-reaching law protecting animals in the history of the world. And that's why I love doing what I do here in Los Angeles.

Donut Friend here in Highland Park in Los Angeles is a dream come true for anybody that's a fan of sweets like myself. They have a pretty impressive array of different kinds of donuts, so whether you like something classic or a crazy specialty donut like one of these, there's something for everybody. And I think it's not negotiable if you're making a trip to LA, you have to come visit Donut Friend. Their entirely vegan menu consists of drool-worthy vegan donuts. Today, I got the youth brûlée. It's a bullseye donut filled with Bavarian cream and topped with brûléed sugar. I don't know where else you get it from, really. Now I love to go to one of my favorite brunch spots.

Hey there, we're now outside of Kitchen Mouse here in Highland Park, my neighborhood, and it's one of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles. They have an amazing market next door called Topo as well. We're about to head inside and talk to Erica Daking, the owner and founder of Kitchen Mouse. They're known for their amazing vegan options, delicious healthy food, and I can't wait to show you.

So we're here at Kitchen Mouse in Highland Park with owner Erica Daking. Can you tell us a little bit about your vegan options? It's such an incredible place to come eat if you're veg.

Erica Daking: So when I opened Kitchen Mouse, we were getting a lot of requests for vegan food, gluten-free food, dairy-free food. So I wanted to open a restaurant where people had to ask less questions, where they could just come in and know that they could eat anything on the menu. These are the Moros Cakes, and I would say that these are definitely a favorite. It was sort of our answer to a deconstructed veggie burger. With the breakfast tacos, you can get it with eggs or tofu, and those are right up there. Our general manager, Rachel, this was her idea to do this, and we whipped these up together. They're just our house pancakes, and we developed a cinnamon sugar butter, and they're really good.

We wanted to offer a quicker and more accessible option to our food and our flavors for people who weren't looking to sit down and eat a meal, but wanted to bring something home, sit at their desk, and eat it. And also, it gave us an opportunity to sort of have fun and fill this place with cute, colorful things and create more of an experience for our customers.

Chloe Fuller: It's one of my favorite places in Los Angeles. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

It was such a treat to talk to Erica here at Kitchen Mouse, learn more about their story, and taste some of their incredible dishes. Now we're gonna head over to downtown LA and experience one of my favorite pizza places.

So now we're gonna check out Purgatory Pizza, another one of my favorite spots in Los Angeles. They have an incredible selection of vegan items on their menu. Anything that you see on the menu, you can also get vegan. We're also gonna talk to Alex Koons, who's a co-owner of Purgatory Pizza. Purgatory and Purgatory are huge supporters of the Humane League. They actually sponsored our vegan prom last year. All right, so let's go in.

Has it impacted your business positively to introduce more vegan options?

Alex Koons: Yeah, I think so. And I mean, obviously we get a lot of people here that are vegan, but I think it's also, again, nice because a vegan person can come here with their non-vegan people and everyone kind of wins, you know? And I feel like if you don't have vegan options on your menu, like, you're living in the past.

Chloe Fuller: And a last question, what's your favorite thing on the menu?

Alex Koons: My favorite thing on the menu is the JoJo's, the fried JoJo's. When you get them, you know, if there were people that were like, "Ah, they're just JoJo's," but those things take, like, that's like a five-hour process. They're wedges, potato wedges, but we hand-cut all the wedges, bake the fries, then we batter them, and then you fry them, then you have to freeze them, and then you fry them again. It's a process, but that or, like, any of the pastas, I love vegan pasta.

Chloe Fuller: Thanks so much. I appreciate your time.

So those were phenomenal. I can see what he was talking about earlier, how they take so long to prepare them. These are really a must-have if you come here.

That was amazing. I'm feeling really good now. I'm gonna head over and hang out with some of our incredible volunteers who make The Humane League's programs and campaigns possible. We just came from Purgatory Pizza, and now we're here at Pollution Studios. We're about to have a Humane League photo shoot, and some of our very important, effective, and incredibly special-to-me volunteers have come today to participate.

The Humane League is such an effective organization because of our volunteers. We wouldn't be able to win the campaigns that we win or have such a far reach without their hard work and passion. The activist community here in Los Angeles is what makes my work worthwhile. Whether there is a volunteer that can commit 30 minutes of work a week or 30 hours of work a week, we find a place for them in our community, and we all work together to create change for animals.

So I'm here right now with one of my very favorite activists. His name is Bobby Sud. He is vital in the LA activist community. We met at a Humane League happy hour, and I was immediately taken by his drive and his passion and his positivity. So tell us about your work a little bit. You're a videographer, right?

Bobby Sud: Yeah, I'm a videographer. I work with Sean Monson, going into slaughterhouses and filming what actually happens, and exposing it so that people have the opportunity to see it.

People ask me if I'm making this my life's purpose or my life's goal. I don't have the secret to happiness. I don't know what the meaning of life is, but for me, I know that there's suffering out there, and I can help. So that's why I do it.

Chloe Fuller: Now we're off to Little Pine to have dinner with some THL supporters.

We had an amazing dinner with THL supporters at Little Pine last night. It was an incredible conversation with really inspiring people there. It's so much fun. I've showed you all around LA, to some of my favorite restaurants and spots to shop. But now I have to get back to work. So if you would like to get involved with The Humane League in any capacity, please click the link in the description. I would be elated to get to know you, connect with you, and get you involved. So until next time.