PlanJam!From your screen to the scene

With more and more New Yorkers going vegetarian and vegan, you would think the city would be just bursting with restaurants catering to the herbivore crowd. Unfortunately, that is not yet the case. That isn’t to say, of course, that vegetarians should throw up their hands in defeat. If you know where to look, there are a handful of fantastic eateries scattered throughout the five boroughs that combine vegetarian eating with the comforting flavors you know and crave, and one of those is The V Spot.

Brooklyn’s Park Slope has long been a haven for healthy eating, with its many coops and natural food stores feeding the locals since the neighborhood’s gentrification. Any neighborhood known for its artists and poets is bound to play home to a vegetarian or two sooner or later, and so came the need for restaurants like The V Spot. You won’t find any plates of colorless gruel here, though; vegan food has come a long way in the last decade or so. Nowadays, you can feast upon all of your diner favorites, sans guilt. Start with an appetizer of meatless Buffalo Chicken ($9), served with spicy BBQ sauce and sesame garlic blue cheese dressing, which is, like everything else on the menu, 100% vegan. You’ll completely forget you’re not eating chicken as you toast your microbrews, feeling more like you’re at a sports bar than a vegan restaurant (if you ignore the lack of TV’s blaring sports, of course). Then take your pick from one of the restaurant’s many sandwiches, entrées and pasta dishes. My favorite is the Classic Veggie Burger ($6), which is prepared with lentils, black beans, veggies and secret seasonings (top it with soy cheese or tempeh bacon to add some flavor). Other standouts include the Sesame Seitan ($16), which beats greasy Chinese takeout any day, and the Penne with Vodka Sauce ($10), which, like many of the other pasta dishes, utilizes the restaurant’s uncanny soy-based heavy cream in its sauce.

Check out The V Spot’s website to keep abreast of wine specials and other events, and don’t forget to stop by for brunch. If vegan restaurants are rare in the city, vegan brunch is even rarer, and it would be a shame for anyone to miss a New York tradition as venerated as weekend brunch. Here you can chow down on some meatless steak and tofu scramble, and show your non-vegan friends that you don’t have to eat meat to be a foodie. See, you can win friend with salad.