My 14 faves of '14: #8

No surprise here.

Linger.

Linger is our favorite restaurant in Denver. Sister restaurant to Root Down a few blocks away and to the Root Down at the Denver airport.

They nail it with what is important to me at a restaurant: amazing service and incredible vegan food.

The menu changes, but my current favorite is the falafel. A true journey of flavors!

And the sweet potato waffle fries!

Make a reservation.

A night out with friends or a night with your special person.

Linger is part of what makes Denver such a great city for dining!

Thanks for reading!

Restaurant review: Linger, still the one

It won't be a surprise to read a wonderful review about Linger. The three-level restaurant in Denver's Lo-hi are has been our favorite for a couple of years now, and I can honestly say that I have never had a negative experience there. While dining there recently, I decided to do another, updated review.

Here you go.

If you are looking for amazing service and amazing vegan food options, check out Linger. If you're looking for a wonderful place for date night, check out Linger. A night out with old friends catching up over food and perhaps your favorite cocktail, check out Linger. Lunch with an important customer or client, well, you get it now.

First the menu. Every item that can be done vegan is marked with a "v". If you look out for gluten- free or nut-items those are marked as well. Have a particular food allergy? Just let the server know and the chefs will make sure your dish is just as delicious without the item you are allergic to.

Everything is served like small plate, tapas style. International street food at it's best.

We always start with the sweet potato waffle fries. Always.

The duck buns have been my favorite since first going to Linger. Their flavor has changed, but always delicious. The bun is squishy and moist and the tofu is highlighted with peppers and other fantastic flavors.

You see, what Linger completely rocks at is layering flavors. Just when you start enjoying one flavor in the bite you took all of a sudden you are realizing there is another one.

Please note that the menu changes seasonally. This means that what I am writing about now may or may not be on the menu when you dine with them.

Mike and I have recently been loving the falafel lettuce wraps. Talk about flavor! Three wraps are placed right in front of you with a tahini sauce that I could eat by the spoonful. This plate could honestly be a meal, but why stop there.

The beet salad can be easily shared and has several textures and flavors. Even if you have given up beets I would recommend at least trying this.

And then there's the masala dosa. The wonderful Indian dish that they seem to have perfected.

There is always a vegan dessert. These days it's the candy bar, a incredibly journey filled with chocolate and peanut butter. Oh my.

The culinary director at Linger is Daniel Asher. Not only one of the loveliest people you will ever meet but one of the most creative, food-honoring, flavor enticing chefs I have ever met. And he gets vegan food. He not only gets it, he creates vegan dishes that blow your mind. 

As all of my restaurant reviews, the review if half food and half service. You will definitely not be disappointed with the wonderful servers at Linger. Service is hugely important to everyone on staff and you will notice that there is always someone coming by to make sure your water glass has something in it.

Linger has a rooftop deck and a bar that are first come, first served. We usually make a reservation for the main dining area. And do make a reservation.

Thank you for reading!

VeganMofo Day 21: Vegan Denver

This is Day 21 of Vegan Mofo, a month of vegan food blog posts, and this post is all about Vegan Denver. Since I am not a food blogger, most of my posts for Vegan Mofo will not be recipes, rather experiences I have with vegan food and sharing people, places and things that have brought me and continue to bring me amazing vegan food.

Mike and I live in Lakewood, a suburb of Denver just west and south of downtown Denver. We live in the northeast part of Lakewood, about 15 minutes due west of downtown Denver.

We like our readers to know that we live in Lakewood because we think it's a pretty awesome place to live. But since Denver is more recognized and has more of our favorite places to eat, I'm calling this post Vegan Denver.

If you're a regular visitor to The Gay Vegans you most likely know of some of these places. This is a list of our favorite places to eat, grab a snack or shop. We highly recommend all of them and so far have gotten great feedback from readers who have gone to these places. This list is also a tab on our main page under "Favorite places to eat in Denver".

Linger

Linger is by far our favorite place to eat. Linger is not exclusively vegan but has some of the best vegan food around. They serve tapa style, with dishes from around the world. Mike likes their bar selection. Their vegan dessert is out of this world. The service is beyond incredible and friendly. Reservations are highly recommended.

http://lingerdenver.com/


Tarascos

The best vegan Mexican food in the state! Tarascos already had a full page of veg options and we simply asked if they could do vegan. Amazing. Since everything is done to order practically the entire veg menu can be done vegan. My favorite are the enchiladas espinicas (spinach) but everyhting I have had is delish. Try the grilled cactus if you never have. And be sure to order a jugo natural, a fresh juice!

No web site.

470 South Federal Blvd. in Denver
303.922.2387
Hours (as of this writing) are everyday from 10am - 10pm

Root Down

Owned and created by the same team that is at Linger, we like to go to Root Down for more special occasions (Linger is more like our hang out). The food is delish. Great service. Definitely go all out, including dessert and drinks. Reservations are highly recommended.

http://www.rootdowndenver.com/

Hops & Pie

Vegan pizza! This is our favorite in Denver at the moment. In the Highlands neighborhood so not far for us. The pizza is delish and they offer Daiya and well as vegan meats and tofu. They also have an incredibly flavorful vegan mac n cheese. YES! For you beer lovers, they have something for everyone.

3920 Tennyson St  Denver, CO 80212

303.477.7000

Beet Box

All-vegan cafe in Denver, just east of downtown. New, and we have already been there many times. Great place for a treat, or if you want to turn your office mates onto vegan delicacies you can bring a variety of what they offer into the office!

1030 E. 22nd Avenue in Denver
303.861.0017

http://www.beetboxdenver.com/

Nooch Market

We can't talk about food in the Denver area without mentioning our new vegan oasis, Nooch Market. Not a restaurant but for sure a place to stock up on vegan goodies. We totally adore the owners and see great things for them and our community. 

http://noochveganmarket.tumblr.com/

Pho Duy

Delsih vegan pho, just down the street from Tarascos. Yes, we have tested it and asked all of the questions. It's #21 on the menu (double check). Small, medium and large and for me the medium has been more than enough.

No website.

945 South Federal Blvd, Denver
303.937.1609

Sweet Action Ice Cream

One of our favorite places and one of our favorite couples! They always have two vegan flavors of ice cream plus at least two vegan sorbets. Check out the freezer for vegan ice cream sandwiches.

http://sweetactionicecream.com/



Vegan Van

We have had a bunch of meals prepared by Amie in her Vegan Van. We adore Amy, and are thrilled that the Denver area has a Vegan Van. From stew to vegan chicken and waffles, Amie does not disappoint. Check out her website to see where she will be next!

http://veganvan.com/

Enjoy Vegan Denver and thanks for reading!

Brunch at Linger

Linger is our favorite place t eat in Denver. I have written posts about them before, and our affinity for them boils down to two things: incredible vegan food and amazing hospitality.

Brunch is a great time for friends and family to gather for good food and good conversation while having time afterwards to enjoy a whole day. Now you can do brunch at Linger!

Last week I was living in dream land when I was invited to enjoy a press tasting of their new brunch. Linger now serves brunch from 10:00am - 2:00pm on Sundays.

Because I have been away from the drinking culture for awhile, I had forgotten that a good brunch had good drinks. I didn't try the three, $3.00 cocktails offered at brunch as a special yet everyone around me did and enjoyed them. The $3.00 cocktails include the Linger Mimosa, Bloody Mary and the Coconut Fizz. For those of us who don't drink, they also make delish mocktails.

I started out with the sopapilla and could have just eaten those for the rest of the tasting. Light, delicious and a great addition to any brunch. And available vegan. Two please!

A great accompaniment to the sopapilla is the Anti Milkshake. Naturally vegan. Made with almonds so if you have an allergy you can try the Green Gringo Citrus Horchata which is also vegan.

Next I tried the Chorizo Tacos which are made with Soyrizo and topped off with an avocado aioli. I instantly realized that like their vegan duck buns for dinner, I could easily eat two or three of these at a sitting.

A brunch offering that is similar to their dinner menu is their Breakfast Dosa. We love the Dosa at dinner time as this version is perfect. Complete with a little maple syrup and it's the perfect addition to your table full of brunch delicacies.

Still hungry? You can simply add a side of Brussels Sprouts!

One of the many things we love about Linger is that their menu changes frequently. Don't worry. They always have a wonderful assortment of vegan deliciousness. My fingers are crossed for a vegan French Toast! Mmmm.

Linger is at 2030 West 30th Avenue in Denver's LoHi neighborhood. Their phone number is 303.993.3120. Reservations are highly recommended.

Back to work!

My time being unemployed came to an end this week! As I had written about in another blog, this past Monday I started my new job at an agency that serve youth experiencing homelessness. It is an amazing gig and I am thrilled (and feel privileged) to be working there.

The week flew by and I just realized this morning that I had not written a blog post all week! Yikes! I have learned that the first rule of blogging is to be consistent in ones posts. It's not tat easy being brand new in a job, and I even more excited to be back in my blog world as there is so much going on!

First things first. My "Can you spare 47 minutes?" blog post in celebration of my 47th birthday ended up supporting so many awesome things. Dozens of our readers wrote me telling me what they would do during their 47 minutes. So much volunteering! I am truly grateful as this is how we all make the world a better place for living beings.

Mike and I celebrated my birthday with friends at our favorite restaurant, Linger. Dinner was amazing as usual and then the server brought our this beautiful birthday cake and so the celebration continued! Dear friends, delish food and a wonderful environment for a celebration. Who could ask for anything more.

The month I experienced being unemployed wasn't always easy. I am fortunate that I had many options, an incredible support system and quickly was interviewing. I know it's not that way for everyone and I have a much deeper understanding of what it's like for people who are unemployed and searching for a job. One thing we can all do is to reach out and support them. Take them to lunch. Remind them that we are on their side.

And so my journey continues and I am fortunate to share all of this in the blog world. I love our blog, and I love all of those who read it, support it and engage in conversation (and sometimes debate!) around it.

Thank you for reading! More to come!

Friendlier places for vegans to eat

Mike and I celebrated New Year's Eve last night at our favorite restaurant, Linger. The four course meal was one of the best I have ever had. Everything that we love about this restaurant was shining bright last night.

Linger is not a vegan restaurant. It's not a vegetarian restaurant. They happen to have the best (in our opinion) vegan food around, and they know how to treat customers. The service we get has always been extraordinary. Amazing vegan food and friendly, hospitable service. No wonder it's our favorite.

The owner, chefs and staff at Linger get it. They love food and know that they can be even more successful if they create delicious food that everyone wants to eat. Their menu is filled with items that are marked vegan, gluten free and nut free. Vegan without gluten and soy, no problem.

We are thrilled to have a restaurant like Linger where we live. There are more and more places to eat where good to great vegan food is found, and it's because of people who eat vegan going out in the world and asking for good vegan food (in some cases demanding it!). It's not difficult. And boy have times changed.

In the seventeen years that I have been vegan what I can choose from to order anywhere has completely changed.

Restaurant owners who hear from vegans about adding even one or two vegan items to their menu and listen to the request typically benefit from what they add to the menu. If they create delicious vegan dishes, word gets out. When one vegan wants to do a food gathering, such as a celebration, they can bring a bunch of people to a vegan-friendly restaurant that they love.

Just today we had lunch at a place we had stopped going to because of inconsistencies with vegan food. We had had very nice conversations with management and changes took place. The staff knows what is vegan and what is not vegan.

It starts with friendly conversation and a desire to be able to eat out and enjoy a nice vegan meal. It becomes big change, and at its' essence becomes a voice for the voiceless.

The first step is that restaurant owners need to know us. They need to know who we are and why we're vegan, and why we want their place of business to have more vegan items.

The restaurant business is not easy. Having friendly customers who want to make their business even better makes for a great day for the owner.

Try it. In the end you may just have more delish vegan choices the next time you go out to eat!

A few of our favorite things

It's that time of year again, when folks put out their "best of" lists. Last year we did a blog post on our favorite women and a blog post on our favorite men. This years' list includes many of our favorite things: people, groups, restaurants, etc. Like we did last year, we invite you to share some of your favorites with us!

Here we go:

My husband. This is Dan writing this post (and pretty much all of the posts). I am totally in love with Mike and am grateful for every day that I get to be his husband. We have an incredible life together.

Linger. You must know by now that Linger is our favorite restaurant in town. Amazing vegan food and the best service in town. I could go on and on but you can just go to the blog post that I wrote a review on them. If you live in the Denver area and have not been to Linger, go.

Mercy For Animals. This animal rights group ROCKS it for the animals. Their undercover work in the past couple of years has brought the inside of factory farms to the local news. The brutality, torture and fear inflicted on sentient beings that all animal rights activists know about has been brought to a TV near you, to people who maybe thought this happened but now have the facts. We love them so much that this year we became members of the major giving club and are grateful to do so.

Malala Yousufzai. You have heard her story. She is a true inspiration. She is 15 years old and from Pakistan. She made headlines in the US when she was shot by the Taliban. She constantly speaks out for the rights of women, especially around education. Her courage blows us a way!

Voters in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. Heck yes! They all supported a ballot measure that was pro marriage equality. In Minnesota they voted down a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and in the others they actually approved gay marriage!

Tarascos. The best vegan Mexican food we have had. Amazingly friendly staff. They actually APPRECIATE customers. Imagine that!

Chicago. An amazing city filled with wonderful culture and super options for vegan cuisine. We like The Blackstone Hotel, the Chicago Diner, The Art Institute of Chicago, Naked Pizza and strolling around Boys Town.

Alka Chandna and Bruce Friedrich. When I think of this couple I think of love, inspiration and powerful voices for the voiceless. We are fortunate to count Alka and Bruce as friends, and our world is fortunate to have them here. 

Eat Pastry cookie dough. As much as Mike and I like to bake, we are still totally in love with this fabulous vegan cookie dough. If you haven't tried it yet, we suggest you do so right now! Many flavors. We like the chocolate with chocolate. Mmmmm. 

Amy's Mac n Cheese. The vegan version of course. This is a staple for me (Dan). Love it. The only thing I wish Amy would do is to offer larger portions of this, like in a party size!

That's it for now. Part II coming soon! Thank you for reading!

A raw, vegan delight

Warning: This post is about a restaurant in Denver and their amazing food. If you are not in Denver please be aware that if this post makes you salivate you might start planning a trip to Denver!

I asked Mike to take me out to dinner last night and we ended up at Linger. We didn't have a reservation but the hostess got us in and we were ecstatic.

If you have read my post about Linger then you know that it is truly one of my all-time favorite restaurants. It's not exclusively veg but they have incredible vegan options on their menu, all marked as vegan so one knows exactly what they can order.

They also have incredible drinks. Since I don't drink I usually stick with water, and last night Mike ordered the Bartender's Choice which he loved.

The treat for last night was when Chef Daniel approached our table with some kind of deliciousness which turned out to be two, not even on the menu yet, raw, vegan appetizers. They were both incredible and I have to say that I am still thinking about the appetizer created in resemblance of a Chesapeake Bay Crab Cake. I still remember how delicious it was, how creative it was, and how much I can't wait to go back and get another one! The flavor of it was simply incredible. (It's officially offered starting today I think)

This is one of the many things I love about Linger: that they are constantly thinking of delicious new items to add to their vegan fare. In other words, they get it. They understand that having delish vegan food is a huge asset to a restaurant. It certainly works for us.

I can't finish writing about Linger without commenting on their friendly, attentive staff. You are treated as a guest, as someone important to them. You are told what is in the food you are being served and your water glass is never empty. I know from listening to many of our readers that good service is hard to find. The staff at Linger sets the standard high!

Bravo, Chef Daniel. Thank you, Linger!

Thanks for reading. We would love to know about restaurants where you live that are not exclusively veg but rock your world with vegan options.

Our first restaurant review(s)

We live in Lakewood, CO, a suburb of Denver. Most of the restaurants we go to are in the west metro area. We try to support places where we live.

We are ecstatic to share our experiences at two restaurants just west of downtown Denver (10 minutes from our home): Linger and Root Down. Owned by the same person, we tried them both last week and just had to share our thoughts with you. I realize that if you don't live in the Denver area this might be some sort of a tease, yet that just means you know you have great places to eat when you come to Denver!

Both restaurants are rather new in the Denver restaurant scene. If you have ever read any of our restaurant reviews on Yelp, you know that when we review restaurants we focus on two things: the availability of delicious vegan food and the presence of great service.

Both Linger and Root Down blow it out of the ballpark in both areas. As vegans, one of the great deals about their menus is that all vegans dishes or dishes that can be made vegan are clearly marked. No guessing. And the dishes we tried were so delicious that we totally took our time eating and savored each bite.

At Linger we enjoyed dishes that were centered around eggplant, butternut squash, and ethnic delights from Thailand and India. Yet the best was to come. If you are ever there for dinner and they have their vegan Peanut Butter & Jelly Cup on the menu, order it! Seriously, every bite was a little taste of heaven and each taste was more unbelievable than the previous one. We could not believe this dessert. After 16 years of vegan desserts, this was truly one of my all-time favorites. Maria was our server and made us feel incredibly welcome and that she was glad we were there. Also, as each dish was brought out, those helping Maria explained what we were eating and knew everything there was to know about the dish.

Our experience was very similar at Root Down. Again, all vegan (and gluten-free) items are marked so no guessing. Again, prefect service, thanks to Hillary and one of her peers whose name I cannot remember. We sat at the bar as there was no room in the restaurant, and we had a blast. Mike ordered the Risotto and I ordered a tofu dish, both incredibly delicious. We started with a vegan slider. Hillary recommended a cocktail for Mike (he loved it) and when I told her that I don't drink alcohol she made me a delish mocktail!

I could go on and on. We can't wait to go back. We highly recommend reservations as they fill up all the time and the bar fills up too. Both places make it easy to share, so order several dishes. For us, both restaurants are on the high end regarding cost yet 100% worth it. And during happy hour they have vegan items on the menu.

Check them out, and let us know what you think!

Thanks for reading!