Vegetarian Friendly Options at The Treehouse in Tremont

'Tis the season where I want to spend every free moment ouside running or drinking on a patio.  This past weekend I got to do quite a bit of both and happened to discover that one of my favorite bars - The Treehouse - now serves food.  And vegetarian friendly food, at that.  Their entire menu is "vegetarian coded" so you can easily determine what you as a non-meat eater can or cannot eat.  (my dream in life is for every restaurant to mark their vegetarian items so I don't have to ask waiters and waitresses 57 questions before ordering) And it seems like many of these vegetarian items can easily be vegan by removing cheese, ranch dressing, etc.

Grilled veggie sandwich - interesting pickle placement

I ordered a garden grill which is just what you'd imagine - a sandwich made up of grilled vegetables.  Unlike many of the grilled veggie sandwiches I've eaten, the vegetables on the one I ordered at The Treehouse tasted fresh and hadn't been overcooked.  I opted for a side of tots to go with my meal and they weren't quite as awesome.  Just your average run of the mill tater tots.  But what's not to like about a tater tot anyway?  I washed all that down with an excellent (and strong) Moscow Mule and spent an enjoyable couple hours on the patio.  Some of my friends tried out some of the other vegetarian friendly items - like the black bean burger and an Thai chicken salad (minus the chicken) and seemed happy with their meals. 

I'm happy to know that I now have another option for relatively cheap and vegetarian friendly patio dining in Tremont.  (my first gluttonous love is Edison's, but their patio isn't nearly as nice as the one at The Treehouse) 

Review: Vegetarian Tacos at Barrio in Tremont

There are few things I enjoy more in life than margaritas and a good vegetarian or vegan taco.  So when I heard about Barrio in Tremont - a new taco joint where 806 Martini Bar used to be - I was pretty excited.  I was even more excited once I read some Yelp reviews that said they have vegetarian refried bean tacos and tofu tacos.  So despite my rule of not going to a restaurant if it doesn't put its menu online (it's a drag to go somewhere only to discover they have nothing for vegetarians), I guilt tripped my boyfriend into going with me last Thursday. 

I really liked 806 so I was interested to see how the place looked as a Mexican restaurant.  Basically it looks exactly the same with some new "day of the dead" murals and decorations.  Interesting. 

When I walked in the door there was a small sign that said to ask a bartender for a table if there wasn't a hostess available.  There was no hostess in sight so I had to elbow my way to the bar. There were two very overwhelmed looking bartenders and it took me about 10 minutes to get their attention and ask for a table.  Luckily there were a few empty but dirty tables but a bus boy was able to wipe one down for us pretty quickly.  And sadly, that was the only "quick" part of our evening.

Not sure how the servers are assigned tables, but our waitress showed up a good 10-15 minutes after we'd been seated - with no menus.  She plunked down the extensive drink menu on the table and gave us taco order sheets.  She promised that we'd be getting water and free chips and salsa shortly.  And then she dashed off.   

taco order sheets

When our waitress returned, I decided to order a citrus-y specialty margarita.  The name escapes me now. (and the drink menu isn't online).  My boyfriend got a beer and we tried to order a queso dip appetizer but they were out of it, so we ordered some guacamole.  We had a couple questions about how the taco ordering system works, so our waitress broke it down for us.  All of the tacos are $3 each.  First you pick a type of taco shell - flour or hard or soft corn.  Then you pick a protein, salsa, toppings, sauce, and cheese.  Easy peasy.  You fill out what you want on a nice little order sheet and your order is whisked away to the kitchen.  If you don't like tacos, this really wouldn't be your kind of places because they pretty much only serve tacos, salsas, a couple sides, and a salad and soup.  

Our drinks arrived first.  My drink was great.  I'd never seen a margarita this color but it was good.  It tasted green if that makes sense.  But I'm a vegetarian and like "green" things, so it was fine by me.  My boyfriend tried it and hated it.   

green tasting margarita

About 15 minutes later our waitress reappeared to check on us.  I asked if we could have some water and she promised it would show up soon.  And it did.  But not before I finished my drink.  And there was still no sign of salsa and chips.  Not sure if this was an accident or they just wanted us to drink faster?  So we ordered another drink.  And waited. It's been ages since I worked in any sort of restaurant environment, but I get the impression that it's pretty easy to serve up chips and salsa, yes?  And I'd think guac would be the same way.  Make a huge batch of it, throw it in a bowl, and boom!

Our second drink arrive before either of those things.  I got a traditional margarita that was ok.  My boyfriend's peach margarita tasted just like my traditional one.  The bartender (there was only one for most of the time we were there) was too overwhelmed to make our drinks so our waitress went behind the bar to make them for us. (which caused a bunch of confusion a half hour later when the bartender finally got to our ticket and tried to serve us the drinks we ordered)

Shortly after that our chips and salsa arrived.  I wasn't expecting green salsa.  It was just ok.  The chips were great, though.  Nice and fresh.  We ate our way through the chips and started to wonder if we'd ever see our guac or tacos.  The next time our waitress showed up we asked about our guac.  She explained that the kitchen was backed up and that it should be at the table soon. 

green salsa

I forget how long "soon" was...but it really wasn't soon.  Tables that were seated when we were had their checks and were leaving before our guac arrived.  And if I'd known how it would taste, I never would have even bothered to order it.  I've never had guac out of a bag in the grocery store (y'know, the kind that has who knows how many chemicals to keep it fresh in the store), but I'd imagine it would taste like this stuff.  Boring, bland, and with a weird consistency.  We were starving by this point otherwise we wouldn't have eaten it.

more green food - guacamole

Thankfully our tacos showed up before we ate too much of the guac.  I had great hope for them.  If you have a restaurant and are going to serve basically one menu item, that menu item is going to be awesome, right?  Wrong.

I had 2 tofu tacos and 1 refried beans taco in flour shells.  The beans were pretty dry and bland and all of the toppings I put on the taco couldn't help to make it taste good.  I didn't finish it.  The tofu tacos were a smidge better.  If you like unseasoned tofu.  (but who really likes unseasoned tofu?!)  The cilantro pesto sauce gave the tofu a little bit of flavor but not enough to make it great, in my opinion.  My boyfriend's tacos weren't much better.  He enjoyed his pork taco, but he didn't finish the other two that he ordered.  Maybe I should have expected less from $3 tacos?  Dunno.  I think my $3 might have been better spent at Edison's for a slice of pizza.

$3 tacos

But...I seem to be in the minority in my opinion of Barrio, based on the other reviews I've read online.  I have no plans to rush back and try it again, so I guess if I want a good vegetarian taco, I'm going to have to go to Deagan's on a Tuesday.  But if you check it out, let me know what you think. 





Review: Lava Lounge Happy Hour (Sorry for Party Rocking)

My theme song for the night.

I think I've mentioned that to me, birthdays are kind of a big deal.  Life is very short.  Too short to stress out about getting older, in my opinion.  I generally try to throw some sort of birthday bash every year, and some are more elaborate than others.  I turned 31 this year, which is awesome, but has no real significance, so I decided that a mini bar crawl (or night of mayhem as my running club friends like to call them) this past Friday in Tremont was the way to go. I wanted to start the night of with a classy vibe, so we all met up at Lava Lounge.

To be honest, I was a little nervous about my venue choice.  The last time I'd been at Lava Lounge, it was summertime and I was with a large group of friends and we were thoroughly grossed out by a couple making out at the corner of the bar.  It looked like the man was going to swallow the woman.  It was gross.  (she was also eating chicken wings while making out with him which made the situation even more bizarre)  But I was excited to try out the Lava Lounge happy hour because it features my favorite drink - the Moscow Mule - and vegetarian food options.  Plus, they have happy hour even on Fridays (until 8 pm).

My boyfriend and I arrived first, a little after 6:30.  The place was bumpin'!  Apparently the word is out that Lava Lounge has a great happy hour.  While we were waiting for my friends to arrive, I ordered $5 hummus of the happy hour menu, along with the first of (too) many Moscow Mules.  The hummus was fresh and garlicy, and the portion size was large.  (some places skimp on happy hour plates, but not Lava Lounge, apparently) 

Disappointing Vegan Dinner at Dante

Have you ever been to a restaurant that was so hyped up that you couldn't help but be disappointed after actually eating there?


Yeah. That was my experience at Dante in Tremont.

I have friends who drool when the hear the name Dante, let alone when they eat at the restaurant but I just wasn't feeling it.

I did enjoy the ambiance of the restored former bank. I sat within view of the vault, which now houses a large table. I could also catch a glimpse into the kitchen and saw Dante himself come out fairly often to talk to patrons. But not us. Weep womp.

The meal started off well with some great bead with a hummus spread. On the house. (don't get me started about restaurants that charge for bread these days) And then we ordered a few drinks. I started off with some sort of odd tasting blood orange concoction but quickly switched over to Moscow mules. Let me rephrase that - fantastic Moscow mules. Sadly, that was probably the best part of my dining experience.

I was excited to see that Dante offers vegan options, so I decided to order an entire vegan meal. I started off my meal with the 7 vegetable vegan salad. It had everything from Brussels sprouts to radishes. I feel like it's pretty difficult to make a bad salad, but this salad wasn't so great either. Maybe it had too many vegetables?

Shortly after I finished my salad and the numerous attentive servers had repositioned my napkin and silverware (but what if I wanted a crooked knife on my table? huh, huh?), my vegan entree arrived. It was a mix of hearts of palm and beets and a hodge podge of sauces artfully smeared on the plate. And that's the nicest thing I can say about it. I've mentioned this before, but if you're new to reading my blog, I think there's a difference between good vegan food and food that tastes vegan. Good vegan food wouldn't make a meat eater bat an eye because it's flavorful. inventive, and pleasing to the eye and palate. Bad vegan food tastes vegan, as in "this food tastes a little funky - it must be vegan." Sadly, my meal tasted vegan. So much so that I almost wanted to walk down the street to Edison's to get some grub to get the "vegan" taste out of my mouth. It was pretty disappointing. As I was glumly poking at my meal, my meat-a-tarian boyfriend was gleefully eating his steak which was, as he said, in one of the best mushroom sauces he's ever eaten. Meat eaters:1 Vegans:0 for this meal, I guess!

Although I didn't have the most enjoyable experience at Dante, I'd definitely give it another try. I do like supporting chefs who offer vegan and vegetarian options, and maybe the items I ordered off of the recently unveiled spring menu need some tweaking? And at the very least, I'd go back for some Moscow mules!