Photo by Brei Olivier.
In 2010, the documentary Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead—which follows the two-month juice fast of overweight Joe Cross as he ultimately loses one hundred pounds, kicks all of his meds, and goes on to live the glory life—launched an immediate up-cropping of juice bars and a doubling in sales of Breville juicers pretty much everywhere but here.
Louisiana has earned its reputation as a place where trends are slow and late to catch on—think skinny jeans, yoga, and modern cocktail culture—but when we do finally embrace a trend we tend to do so with a vengeance, clutching desperately to it long after less change-averse places have moved on to the next new thing.
True to form, now that the rest of the country has moved on to wearing palazzo pants while munching chicken wings battered with cassava flour, sprinkled with umami salt, and dunked in Chamoy sauce, we are still pulling on skinny jeans to slurp at organic juice bars or to crunch raw, gluten-free, superfood, and/or vegan fare—as in no meat, dairy, or seafood of any kind … just one hundred percent plant-product meals.
"I used to say this is where vegetarians go to die," said Ben Tabor, chef-owner of the recently opened Sneaky Pickle in New Orleans' trendy Bywater neighborhood. "I think there has always been a demand for vegan and vegetarian food, but traditional Louisiana food is so compelling, so sexy, that no chefs really wanted to cater to alternative diets knowing many people would just give up and go with the flow." Tabor theorizes that the inundation of media reports espousing the evils of antibiotics, pesticides, and genetic alterations in the food chain have finally started to have enough of an impact on consumer demand that chefs and restaurateurs are now compelled to cater to these diets beyond the menu afterthoughts of a mixed vegetable plate or a fruit bowl. "At Sneaky Pickle I offer one meat option on a menu that is otherwise one hundred percent vegan and ninety-nine percent local and made from scratch. It's not that I think meat is evil, as some do," he said. "But for health reasons I think less than twenty percent of our diets should come from meat."
No matter how ingredient-heavy and detail-oriented her vegan menu may be at Bhava, running a single restaurant feels like a vacation to Chef Anne Churchill. She made her name as a tour chef working on the road for hot acts like singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge and the Dave Matthews Band, a role within which she was cooking vegan and vegetarian meals for as many as two hundred people, three times a day. She opened Bhava in New Orleans' Marigny neighborhood last year after meeting the full-throttle demand generated by a series of pop-ups she produced to test-drive her dining concept. People were ready for her re-interpreted New Orleans classics-on-a-meat-vacation. Today it can be tough to get a reservation for the opportunity to coo at your companion in the candle-lit courtyard over mushroom boudin, paté and gumbo, tofu Crabbish Cakes, veggie ceviche, tamales with mole, and molten chocolate cakes with chicory coffee drizzle.
It was guilt that drove Edgar Cooper to open Seed, his upscale, full-service vegan eatery in the city's Lower Garden District. A vegan of nearly twenty years, the New Orleans native travels the globe as a software industry consultant, and a recent trip to Borneo pushed him over the edge. "Borneo is one of the last habitats for orangutans," Cooper said. "But a significant portion of their jungle has been destroyed for palm oil production, the vast majority of it for use in the U.S. and all the processed foods we eat here. It is in everything. I came home with a sense of responsibility that I must do something to push for more sustainability." Seed opened in April, and it's a solid bunker in the vegan invasion. Certified Vegan/Raw Chef Ed Rhinehardt only uses organic foodstuffs that are often raw, soy free, and/or gluten free—"Garden-based, NOLA taste," as the restaurant’s tagline promises. While Seed’s gumbo with optional Seitan "sausage" will never replace your grandmother's time-honored roux and andouille stew, and while the eggplant poboy and Southern-fried tofu nuggets might never be tailgating fare, the food is undeniably delicious. It's been a big hit with the hipsters here in Hollywood South.
Brave early-comers to the Conscious Eating movement, like the Superfood Bar and Greenfork NOLA, which began as a delivery-only service in 2010, are finally starting to feel the love from the masses in a real way instead of merely catering to the smattering of people who quietly existed in this parallel universe prior to the relatively recent general enlightenment. Greenfork went from delivery service to a Prytania Street brick-and-mortar in 2012, offering juices, grab-and-go salads and sandwiches, and jars of soup. A second location opened in Old Metairie last fall.
In 2011, Joseph Stone rented a 180-square-foot storefront on a then-lackluster stretch of Magazine Street because he needed a workspace to grow his fermenting food hobby; and the $450 rent was cheap. When he began distributing his signature Samurai Kombucha tea around town, enthusiastic response led him last year to expand into the storefront next door, where he slept on the floor so he could pay the increased rent. Today the kitchen at the Superfood Bar is run by Chef Amie Havens, a Restaurant August kitchen alum who turns out organic smoothies and juice blends as well as a selection of vegan and mostly raw salads, wraps, and a soup of the day. Business is brisk, and Stone now sleeps upstairs, where he contemplates expansion, franchising, and investors. "I never intended to have a restaurant," Stone said. " I just wanted to make fermented tea! But this is where the path had led me, and it's a good one."
Two blocks away, the melodiously named Sheena Mannina was first exposed to juicing and vegan food culture after college at LSU while working at an upscale juice bar in the East Hamptons. After earning certification from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, the area native returned home a year and a half ago to be close to her ailing father, who was suffering from cancer. "I just kept wondering 'What's causing all this shit?' and I felt compelled to bring greater comprehensive wellness to New Orleans." She started making smoothies and delivering them to friends in jars because she could not afford the cold-process, masticating juicer she needed to launch her business in earnest.
The response was immediate and enthusiastic. In November of last year, the twenty-five-year-old entrepreneur and her boyfriend and business partner, Evan Cretini, opened Raw Republic in a small Magazine Street storefront and stocked the sleek, minimalist space with jewel-hued, cold-pressed juices, invigorating tonics and smoothies, cleansing systems, and a small selection of colorful raw vegan prepared foods like zucchini "spaghetti" with pesto sauce. A concealed vaporizer pumps out a blend of Balance, Lift, and Clarity—a few of the custom-blended essential oils sold in the shop—alongside a small selection of vegan, organic cosmetics and wellness books. "Everything here is a mindfully selected, nature intended product," Mannina said. "Even our t-shirts are organic cotton and printed with plant inks."
Soothing, patient, serene, and knowledgeable, Mannina floats blissfully through what she calls her "detox market," guiding customers through the steps they must take to adopt her lifestyle and the benefits to be enjoyed by doing so. That she is also a radiant beauty with clear skin, bright eyes, and glossy hair surely does not hinder her efforts: she seems to have unlocked the secrets to the good life. Who among us would not want the keys to that kingdom?
Details. Details. Details.
Bhava 2600 Chartres Street New Orleans, La. (504) 617-2652 bhavanola.com The Green Fork 1400 Prytania Street New Orleans, La. (504) 267-7672 200 Metairie Road Metairie, La. (504) 309-3677 greenforknola.com Raw Republic 4528 Magazine Street New Orleans, La. (504) 324-8234 rawrepublicjuice.com Seed 1330 Prytania Street New Orleans, La. (504) 302-2599 seedyourhealth.com Sneaky Pickle 4017 St. Claude Avenue New Orleans, La. (504) 218-5651 yousneakypickle.com Superfood Bar 4113 Magazine Street New Orleans, La. (504) 891-7733 superfoodbar.wix.com/nola
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