Vegan Missionaries

Home has many shapes and forms. This particular evening, in Green River, Wyoming, it came in the form of the Coachman Inn, yes, but more the huge sky and rock formations that surrounded the cluster stop on the way to the great Flaming Gorge. But morning brought us back onto I-80 West, heading to our most western destination, Salt Lake City, before we hooked a U-turn and head towards America’s heart center.

With a quick ride through winding canyons and basins nestling the interstate to the Great Salt Lake, we arrived for lunch at City Cakes & Cafe in Salt Lake City, a mostly-vegan bakery and cafe with plenty of sweet selections. After not eating all too well the day before in Wyoming, I had tucked my appetite away and let it incubate in the sun and mountains. I ordered their Vegan Mac & Cheese, made with cashew and red peppers, as well as a Key Lime cupcake. Finally, some sustenance. This was just what my body needed to help combat the fluctuating altitudes and air quality that fiddled with my internal circles and axles.

Fortune had foiled our plan to visit Cakewalk Baking Company, an all-vegan bakery storefront in Woods Cross, Utah. This bakery has been on my radar for some time. Having always wanted to see some of the beauty of southern Utah’s red rock, the bakery had shifted this desire to the top of my domestic travel list. But no dice. Cakewalk is currently setting up location numero two in Salt Lake City and are operating with limited hours in the Woods Cross location. So we missed the old and new bakery space. Luckily Cakewalk delivers their goods to some of the area coffee shops… and into the Pacific Northwest to Sidecar For Pigs Peace in Seattle (blogged about here) and Food Fight Grocery in Portland, Oregon (blogged about here and here). How’s that for a network! Anyway, we did wind up picking up a Cakewalk S’mores cupcakes at Nobrow Coffee, a spacious internet cafe that cradled our weary minds in awaiting our evening plans, and Sugarhouse Coffee, a bi-level coffee shop with some vegan and raw options as well as Cakewalk’s famous “Dillos”, Twinkie-like cakes of different flavors and persuations. 

Moving right along our vegan tour of Salt Lake City, dinner would have to be at the city’s best all-vegan restaurant, Sage Cafe. We arrived as it opened and nabbed a great table on the patio surrounded by grapevines. The menu, which hadn’t looked all too promising on the website, was far more exciting than I had been anticipating. Having the hankering for some veggies, I chose the Tacos Vegetarianos, grilled, soft corn tacos stuffed with grilled vegetables and marinated tofu with yummy sides of cilantro-lime vinaigrette tossed greens, a house-made sour cream, salsa fresca and guacamole. This really hit the spot. The food was fresh and flavorful. I was thoroughly impressed!

It was sheer luck that we came to dine on the day they offered all-you-can-eat pizza and salad! This ain’t no Olive Garden, no. Our waitress delivered delicious slices of gourmet pizza to CP who had opted for the deal. I must admit my jealousy! Curry vegetable, portabello, Philly cheese steak, sausage: all ingredients made lovingly from scratch and their vegan cheeses, not packaged but concocted in-house using fine ingredients… nuts, nutritional yeast, etc. Soon the slices were piling up on her plate. CP made sure to note each type of slice for her reporting. Luckily I got to taste several of the slices and quickly declared each “thee best vegan pizza I’ve ever eaten!”
CP always makes a point to read the weeklies at our city stops. It was through this habit that we learned Trampled By Turtles happened to be in town, playing Urban Lounge that night in downtown Salt Lake. This was an amazing coincidence! I had spent some time getting to know these guys two and half years ago in Knoxville, Tennessee when I had spontaneously decided to take in a show on a roadtrip back from Miami, blogged about here. I quickly decided we had to go. After settling in in Bountiful, a suburb north of the city where our host-friend Vesper lives, we toasted to old friends in new places, experienced some of Salt Lake’s night life and caught Trampled By Turtles’ set. Here’s to friends all across the country!

Top left: The Mormon Temple-the city layout revolves around the temple and its location. Top right: Playing with 6-foot Samurai sword and machete that were stashed in Vesper’s sublet. Bottom left: Trampled By Turtles’ Dave and “the girl from New York”. Bottom right: Alcohol content is lower here in Utah, in accordance to Mormon law. In the bars, cocktails’ alcohol are measured precisely.

With one more spot to hit before hitting the road, we had to give Vertical Diner a try. Their hearty breakfast would replenish our bodies and ease our headaches. I chose their biscuits and gravy combination plate with fried tempeh, home fries and steamed veggies. The comfort food hit the spot though would have benefitted with more seasoning and pizazz. We decided to go ahead and order the banana split, hoping for a good blog pic. I have a particular view of what makes a perfect banana split and this was way off. The search continues!