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!

VeganMoFo Day 6: Vegan date night

Welcome to Day 6 of Vegan Mofo, a month of vegan food blog posts. 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.

Friday nights are usually date night for us. We have several restaurants that we like to go to and I'd like to share some of them with you on Fridays during VeganMofo.

Root Down is one of our favorite places to eat. Incredible vegan food and spectacular, friendly service.

Dinner in the private dining room.

In the LoHi neighborhood just west of downtown Denver, we love Root Down for special occasions and once in a while the last-minute desire to go out to eat.

Root Down is famous for cocktails and local food. We of course love it because of the vegan food. Starting with veggie sliders and sweet potato French fries is always a good idea. If you come before 7pm you can get Happy Hour deals on cocktails and appetizers.

Then the entrees. Our most recent visit Mike ordered the Corn Risotto and I ordered the Country Fried Tofu. Both are delicious and are usually found on the menu in different forms depending on the season.

Corn Risotto

Country Fried Tofu

If you have read any other of my restaurant reviews, you know that service is key for us. Root Down has never disappointed. If you are down with having to apologize to wait staff for coming into the restaurant, you will LOVE Root Down.

Aside from an awesome restaurant, I also want to say how important date nights are to us. We all need time with our beloved or best friend or favorite relative.

Thanks for reading!

VeganMofo Day 2: Root Down at Denver Intl Airport

Welcome to Day 2 of Vegan Mofo, a month of vegan food blog posts. 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.

Like Root Down in Denver. Sister of Linger (our favorite restaurant), Root Down started first and has always been a treat for us. Like most of our favorite places to eat, Root Down is not exclusively vegan, or vegetarian, yet has some amazing vegan food. Plus awesome service (huge for us).

Now, if you are ever flying through Denver, you can experience the amazing food of Root Down! Root Down has just opened a location in DIA, Concourse C! Yes, this means those of us who live here can't go unless traveling, but it also means that all of you who are always traveling can find a delicious, vegan meal at the airport brought to you by folks who know how to create delicious, vegan food.

I haven't seen the space yet, only photos. And I don't fly (this could be another series of blog posts) so I won' be there any time soon. And I just had to write about it and make sure everyone knows so that when you travel to or through Denver you can eat well!

When you do visit Root Down at DIA, please let me know what you think.

Here is their website so you can check out the menu, at least at the original location: http://www.rootdowndenver.com/ 

If you are traveling to Denver and want to get out of the airport as soon as possible, check out Root Down and Linger, both just west of downtown Denver in LoHi.

Thanks for reading!

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!