The name of this post comes from the first thing I want to talk about: Colleen Patrick Goudreau. She is amazing. I already owned The 30 Day Vegan Challenge, but I have recently begun listening to her podcast and it is awesome. She speaks on a wide range of topics, from her top 5 kitchen tools to life after cheese (you may guess that a cheese grater is not in her top five.) She has taught me to stop apologizing for what I am. I’m a vegan. Why should I be ashamed?
Next on the docket: San Antonio, Texas. Why the hell would I go to Texas? Well my awesome friend Evan got us both onto a panel at the 2012 SSCA conference. So the gluten free and the vegan went to the most notorious of the red states to talk about Voodoo. Does that sound scary? Well it was.
Taking a tip from Colleen (she is known by her first name in my apartment, even though I’ve never met her) I did my research before we got there. I discovered there was a vegan resaurant in San Antonio as well as vegetarian one, and a few others that were veg-friendly. In case you need to go into enemy territory, I recommend doing your research too.
The first night we went to The Cove, a vegan friendly restaurant and beer garden. This place was great! I failed to take any photos there besides this one of my beer (which was delicious!) However, I recommend it, even if my salad was a little meh.
Next up was The Green Cafe which was not too far from our hotel 
(more on that in a minute.) This place would not be very impressive in the Bay Area, but it was pretty good for Texas! My “chicken” burger was okay, but Evan was disappointed by their tiny menu of gluten free options. (It sure looks pretty though, huh?)
We also checked of the San Antonio Art Museum (we are art historians, after all!) and were suprised to find a. the museum was awesome…really awesome! and b. we are what’s for dinner!
Are you wondering about non-veg restaurants? Don’t worry, we went to one of those too. Lulu’s Diner. It was adjacent to our classy motel and as far as I could tell there was only one reason to go there:
Yep. Cinnamon rolls the size of your head (if you have a really big head!) Not vegan though, of course, so I examined the menu for other choices. Much to my surprise they had one…
In case you can’t read that it says PETA voted their veggie burger best in San Antonio. What?! I can neither confirm nor deny because I did not try it, but I can confirm this place was ridiculous. Makes for good photos though.
And in case you were wondering if their food is healthy, check out their slogan…
On our way to the airport we stopped off at the place I really wanted to try… Vegeria. The only vegan restaurant in a city that I would not bill as especially vegan-friendly, Vegeria did not disappoint. Although they did seem a little overly fond of Daiya (it’s good, but whoa) overall the cafe was really innovative and delicious! A must-try if you find yourself in the area. It was so good I forgot to take photos until we had finished the amazing nachos (nacho cheese spread, hummus, black beans, avocado and pico de gallo, yum!) and were halfway through our food. Oh well, here is the photos you get:
The verdict? The Riverwalk is a brilliant idea, and very beautiful, but San Antonio did not rank high on my list of vegan-friendly cities. However, keeping an open mind about new cities can lead to some surprises!
anotherberkeleyvegan 