Restaurant review - JIll's at the St. Julien Hotel & Spa

Ever since enjoying my entire time at Jill's I have been so excited to share my experience there with you.

Please note that I dined at Jill's for their Friday vegan lunch buffet. I have not dined there for other meals or on other days, so I'm not sure what the vegan options are outside of the Friday lunch buffet. Having met the general manager and the executive chef I can only imagine that they would make sure you were well fed!

Walking into Jill's on a Friday for lunch is like being catapulted to a vegan paradise. Every food item I saw within the multiple buffet areas was vegan. Everything looked so delicious. I honestly couldn't believe it as I looked at the scrumptious desserts all lined up in a gorgeous display.

I started with the salads. Apparently items are different every Friday so please keep that in mind. The kale salad was delish, and I love kale. If you don't love kale like I do there were half a dozen other options for salad. There were also two soups, including the butternut squash soup which I devoured. It was more like dessert for me, incredible flavor with a hint of sweetness.

Although there was pizza on the buffet and stuffed shells, I decided to go for the "make your own pasta dish" bar. When the chef told me that Alfredo sauce was one of my options for the pasta, I knew I had made the right decision. Over a dozen choices of veggies for the pasta, you fill your bowl and then hand it to the chef. He then adds pasta (my choices were penne and linguine) and the sauce (aside from Alfredo there was also marinara) and into the skillet all of that goes. A minute later I was handed a steaming dish of vegan deliciousness.

And dessert! This photo says it all. Three different dessert choices. I tried two of them and was ecstatic. I also ordered a cup of coffee which passed my coffee snob test.

The service was perfect. Friendly, hospitable, helpful, kind.

My reviews are always 50/50 based on delish vegan food and friendly service. Jill's rocks it. I highly recommend you check this out if you are in Colorado. And when visiting Denver, Jill's is only 45 minutes away in Boulder.

I'd also like you to know that there was wait when I left. Although disappointing for some, I love when there is a wait at a non-vegan restaurant knowing that it is for vegan food. This being said, you might want to call ahead and make a reservation if you cannot arrive right at 11:30am.

Jill's is an amazing treat. Go! I'll see you there!

Jil's is inside the St. Julien Hotel & Spa at 900 Walnut Street in downtown Boulder. Their phone number is 720.406.7399.

Thanks for reading!
vegandude@msn.com

Action of the week: Write a letter

More specifically, write a letter to the editor at your local newspaper.

Almost every day you can find a story that is about something you care about. More importantly, it is about something or someone that could use your voice: an abused woman, a polluted river, a tortured dog or cat, a homeless person or a shot bull elk.

The shot bull elk example comes from a recent tragedy in which a Boulder police officer shot and killed a bull elk in a city neighborhood to the outrage of the community. Petitions have gone up, letters written and many are calling for the firing of the officer.

A letter to the editor is a fantastic way to support something or someone that you believe in. If there is an article in the newspaper about an animal that was tortured and you are outraged, write about it. Be a voice for the animal.

It seems that many people read the letters to the editor. It's a great forum to bring up issues that might be new to some readers and for people who are open to different thoughts and ideas.

And it's easy. Most newspapers are also online, and some have letter options online. One simply fills out the online form and adds the letter into the form. Other newspapers have it so you can just email a Microsoft word document to them.

I have had several letters to the editor published, from letters about gay marriage or anti-gay bigotry to letters about animals in labs or being vegan.

You never know if your letter might create a dialogue, and have someone think about something they have never thought of before.

Try it. And let me know what happens!

Thanks for reading!

Cruelty-Free World

In the spring of 2006 Mike and I had become fed up with always having to buy cool vegan items and accessories online. It had become a joke ordering a vegan belt and having to return one that didn't fit. Also, we knew that there were so many companies out there creating amazing vegan purses, belts, wallets, bags, etc. that if people could just see them in person they would realize that one could buy gorgeous accessories without harming animals.

Cruelty-Free World was born.

We knew we didn't want a brick and mortar shop, rather we would sell at markets and festivals. Our first step was to introduce our product line to our friends and see what they thought.  About 75 friends joined us and let us know what they thought about all of the products we were going to sell. We got wonderful feedback about price and which products people would be interested in buying.

One month later we introduced CFW to the world at the 2006 Boulder Creek Festival. Since then we made a decision to donate 100% of our profit to animal rights and human rights groups. We get to meet great people, have lots (literally thousands over the years) of conversations about veganism and support groups making the world a better place for all living beings.This has meant thousands of dollars to big, national groups as well as small, local groups and animal shelters. All by having fun selling the best vegan products.

We are totally grateful to the companies that supply us with the best vegan products: Splaff, Queen Bee Creations and Hempy's.  In the last year we have really increased our sales in vegan cookbooks, and always try to offer our favorites which now include raw and gluten-free vegan cookbooks (more about the cookbooks we sell in another post). What an incredible feeling it is when a non-veg family leaves our booth with a vegan cookbook or two! And it's even better when they email us all excited by how their meals are turning out!

This year we created knew banners that have the CFW logo but also "home of The Gay Vegans blog". I'm curious to see how that will affect foot traffic. Well to be honest, I am curious AND excited.

The 2012 Boulder Creek Festival is Memorial Day weekend in Boulder, CO. If you're in the area we would LOVE to see you! We are booth 802!

Thanks for reading! Thanks to all those who have supported Cruelty-Free World! And if you might be able to come and say hi in Boulder let us know: vegandude@msn.com