Vegan News

Dallas' La Veganeria does an authentic chef-driven version of Mexican vegan

Stacked torta sandwich with fries from La Veganeria

La Veganeria

Vegan Mexican is a cuisine trend that was basically founded in Dallas, and now there's a bright, chef-driven new purveyor: La Veganería, which offers a plant-based twist on Mexican food, has opened a ghost kitchen at Commerce Cooking Fork Co., the ghost kitchen facility in West Dallas at 921 Commerce St.

La Veganeria was founded in 2023 by Cinthia Hernández and Joel Medina, who both hail from Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico, and yet met in Dallas.

They both worked in the restaurant industry and discovered a common goal: to own their own restaurant. Both are also vegan, and wanted to create another vegan dining option in Dallas.

After consulting with a private chef, they devised a plant-based menu that is chef-driven, consisting primarily of fresh foods, but buttressed by a small selection of faux animal and dairy products such as Just Egg, the plant-based egg substitute.

Vegan Mexican food has become a national trend that began in Dallas-Fort Worth when pioneering El Palote Panaderia opened in Pleasant Grove in 2016. DFW now has numerous options from Nunos Tacos & VegMex Grill to Casa del Vegano in Oak Cliff to Belenty's Love in Fort Worth.

La Veganeria stands out with a particularly authentic, upscale, and creative menu featuring dishes worth seeking out, such as:

Cochinita Pibil tacos: Citrus-marinated oyster mushrooms in a corn tortilla, with black refried beans, cilantro, and green salsa, served with white rice, 4 for $17.
Fish tacos: Beer-battered Lion's Mane mushrooms, on a bed of spring mix and coleslaw, with pineapple pico de gallo and tartar sauce, served with white rice, 4 for $17.
Seitan Milanesa: Fried seitan "steak" on a bolillo bun with refried beans, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, and cotija cheese, served with French fries, for $18.
Waffle sandwich: With sausage, Just Egg, cheddar cheese, and strawberry preserves, served with diced potatoes, for $14.
Blue corn masa sopes: Crispy tortilla base topped with beans, chorizo, potatoes, lettuce, cream, and cotija cheese, 3 for $12.

Everything's made in house, even down to the skin-on French fries.

"Where we are from, the colonias have cenadurías (diners) where they sell antojitos (appetizers) and garnachas (street food) only known by locals," Cinthia says. "We want to replicate this and provide very different food from what’s expected as vegan, and original even for non-vegan places."

Orders can be placed via third party vendors UberEats, GrubHub and DoorDash or at www.commerceforkfoodco.com, and picked up in this location or delivered, from 10am to 10pm every day, and until 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Their entire packaging has a bold distinct look, from their logo featuring a captivating calavera in the indigenous Huichol art style to their color palette to their menu design.

"Presentation is very important to us," Joel says. "We want to follow the way locals back home do it. We try to bring this to our customers, a bit of our culture."

vegan food-trucks openings

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