Vegan Dining News

New Creole restaurant makes Oak Cliff Dallas' hottest vegan destination

Eggplant No Chicken Parm

Courtesy of VFH

A promising new restaurant whose menu is entirely vegan is coming to Dallas' Oak Cliff neighborhood. Called Vegan Food House, it will open at 832 W. 7th St., near the intersection of Tyler Street in a sweet little bungalow that was formerly home to the short-lived Nice Ice House shaved ice.

Slated to open in the spring, Vegan Food House comes from Elizabeth Anderson, who was previously involved with a restaurant in West Dallas called Da Munchies.

Opening Vegan Food House on West 7th Street puts her on the same side of town as Spiral Diner, DFW's original vegan restaurant, and Tribal Juice Cafe, the vegan-friendly restaurant in Bishop Arts.

Oak Cliff is suddenly the vegan center of town.

"I love Spiral Diner, and I like being over in this neighborhood, I live here as well," she says. "I'm glad for all of the vegan options that have cropped up in Dallas in the past few years. But I don't feel like anyone is doing exactly what I want to do."

At Da Munchies, Anderson offered vegan items as part of a bigger menu. When she decided to focus exclusively on vegan, she left Da Munchies (which is still open), to open her own place.

Anderson has also been doing a catering and manufacturing operation called Le Munchie Vegan Food Company, where she makes vegan versions of holiday dinners and other special-occasion meals, and is producing a line of vegan meats and sauces.

Vegan Food House will function as a one-stop spot, with a restaurant serving Creole vegan food plus a storefront selling her packaged meats and sauces.

"I've had different jobs in the music and nightclub industry, but I've been doing this kind of food since 1995," Anderson says. "I'd always intended to open an all vegan sit-down restaurant, and I've finally been able to get all the details together."

She says the theme is inspired by the cafés one finds in New Orleans' French Quarter. There are vegan po'boys, and a "cauli-burger" made from a breaded and fried cauliflower "steak," served with choice of vegan pesto or Buffalo sauce.

Her signature dish is her Big Mac N' Cheese Buffalo Chick’em Sandwich, in which oyster mushrooms stand in for the chicken. The mushroom is breaded in cornmeal, deep-fried, tossed in Buffalo sauce, and served on a bun with vegan mac 'n' cheese, pico de gallo, and vegan mayo.

"There are a lot of American classic dishes with some Creole influence," she says. "But I'll also do upscale things like flatbreads and avocado toast."

One of her dishes is a baked potato that's smashed, then seared in olive oil, so that it gets a nice crust. "We serve it with lightly cooked greens and Kalamata olive aioli — just simple and delicious," she says.

She's also into value. "I like to serve big portions at an affordable price," she says. "If you eat out, you want to feel like your money has been well spent."

vegan

Ice Cream News

Global ice cream brand Kelvin Scale makes creamy U.S. debut in Frisco

Kelvin Scale

Ice cream cones by Kelvin Scale

A unique new ice cream shop has made its U.S. debut right here in the Dallas area: Called Kelvin Scale Ice Cream, it's a dessert shop featuring ice cream, waffles, shakes, brownies, and ice cream cakes and it's now open in Frisco at 2650 King Rd. #750, in a former spa business near the intersection of Main Street.

Kelvin Scale was originally founded in India, where it has approximately 40 locations. The name comes from a temperature scale used by scientists that starts at zero — which they wink at with a motto that says "the Absolute Zero of additives."

Bringing it to the U.S. is a team of entrepreneurs who were impressed with the premium quality of the ice cream and other menu items, says spokesman Ram Bonda.

"We make the ice cream from scratch, not from a mix, with none of the additives or stabilizers used by some ice cream brands," Bonda says.

They also tout their use of A2 milk, a whole milk that has become popular because is supposedly causes less gas or digestive discomfort than regular milk — a claim that has yet to be proven. Nonetheless, A2 milk is more expensive.

They also do not whip in much "overrun" — the industry term for infusing air to make ice cream lighter (and less costly to produce).

"The texture of our ice cream is very creamy and rich, and you definitely get more with each scoop," Bonda says.

They offer an unusual selection of flavors, with global influences such as Belgian chocolate, Biscoff cookie caramel, cotton candy, and blueberry cheesecake. More exotic offerings include chikku, made from the sapota fruit which has a distinctly caramel flavor; lychee, from the floral fruit that's popular in Asian cuisines; and Rajbhog, a flavor that pays homage to an Indian dessert featuring almonds, pistachios, and saffron.

"We'll feature 24 flavors in the store, pulled from a total bank of 70 to 80 flavors, with flavors rotating in and out according to what's in season and trending," Bonda says. The company enjoys keeping tabs on social media and weaving in flavors that turn viral.

One scoop is $4.50, but additional scoops are a dollar, making it irresistible to get two scoops instead of one.

There are sundaes of all kinds, brownies solo or with ice cream, and an entire menu of waffle treats: waffles with Nutella, waffles with fruit, a red velvet waffle, and a waffle sandwich with ice cream sandwiched between two waffles.

Frisco was a natural place to introduce the brand in the U.S., Bonda says.

"It's one of most rapidly growing cities in the U.S., and it seemed like the ideal place to launch our flagship location," he says. "The location has an open kitchen so you can see the ice cream being made."

ice cream openings