Granola Munchers like Me

V is for Vegan.

I recently found out I am not the only granola munching, blackberry picking, hippie in San Francisco; there are many more vegetarians out there! The San Francisco Vegetarian Society, which I did not know existed until 2 weeks ago yet it has been around for 25 years, held the 11th annual World Vegetarian Festival Weekend in Golden Gate Park. The festival was full of grocery stores and companies promoting their businesses and food. The delicious, raw, and vegan cuisine samples were delectable to try and buy.

The events were also a lot of fun to attend; I got to see a favorite author of mine, Rory Freedman, author of Skinny Bitch, Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, and Skinny Bastard. She talked about the title, how she hates it, and what influenced her to create such an influential novel. I loved how she mentioned during the festival that although she hates the title, it is the main thing bringing people to read the vegan eating novel covered up as a diet book.

Rory Freedman during the Veg Fest

There was also the first ever vegan fashion show held in San Francisco. The Show was featuring many fashion designers and apparel companies. Some of the companies were Mission Savvy, whose 5 separate lines have different missions, Pansy Maiden, which specializes in fashionable, handmade, vegan bags, Lion's Share Industries, who has an impressive amount of vegan inspired t-shirts, Rico Jeans, which has 60% recycled cotton jeans, and Vaute Couture, famous for the upcycled windbreakers. The president of the Vegitarian Society, who is 76 and has the legs of an 18 year old, was also featured at the end of the show. View the entire fashion show below.

To see SFVS's official website, go here.

Vegan Eating

Well it's also gluten-free and some of it was raw as well...

Cafe Gratitude

While my friend and I were walking down the street on our way to Cafe Gratitude, we saw this place that looked extremely free and loving... and hippie. It had "a world of plenty" and "home of the abounding river" painted in big, block letters on the outside. It turned out to be the cafe we were going to...


The scene was a bit "hip". Many long haired, Birkenstock-wearing, lovable, hip people. The rest of the people were families and such. I did love the bar though; the tiffany light around the setup was pretty.


I had the vegan mint chip shake and my friend and I shared the spring rolls and vegan tamales. Although the springs rolls were nothing to write home about (or on a blog), the tamales were to die for. I've been thinking about them every hour since I left. It came with beans and a huge scoop of guac! Mmmmmmm....



Also, the server's aren't too bad looking there, if I do say so myself! ;)

Cafe Gratitude (Mission location) on Yelp!