Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Vegan Mofo Day 20: Posted today for your pleasure

Posting at work is risky business, and not just on account of the "hey, you shouldn't be doing that" factor. My computer sucks on ice, so posting by email is actually not a bad way to go, minus the formatting disasters and inability to create links. So I've been saving mad drafts. Case in point.

Portland's small business friendliness enables tons of crafty, homegrown, quirky, kitschy, or just plain strange entrepreneurial ventures. If you could afford it, you could eat, wear, listen to, and ride entirely local. Pretty rad, no?

As such, PDX, being the super-liberal, local-pride type town that it is, hosts a host of vegan bakeries. My two favorites are the two heavy-hitters in town. Both Black Sheep and Sweetpea have storefronts and wholesaling enterprises, and are utterly, utterly bomb. Black Sheep's blueberry cornmeal muffins are truly inspirational, as are their peanut butter brownie bars. Slabs of heaven. Sweetpea, also often gluten-free, does these g-free brownies that are to die for. I don't know what kind of mad genius makes them so rad, but they are, friends. They are.

Sift is also gluten-free on top of being vegan, and distributes their cookies widely, notably through grocery stores like People's and New Seasons. New Seasons, by the way, carries a fair selection of vegan goodies and even makes some of their own.

Monkey Wrench owns my heart in terms of cookies. I have yet to try the lemon poppy seed or the espresso chocolate chip because I usually breakdown and reliably go for peanut butter chocolate chip. These cookies are my solution to a bad day and have been since I moved to Portland - well before Operation: Vegan Month.

Cherry Bomb Bakery appears to be an all-order type operation that does wedding cakes and other things of that nature. Her pictures are gorgeous. Check it!

Piece of Cake in Sellwood has a decent range of vegan cakes and cookies. Their storefront is truly strange, if you're ever in the neighborhood. The owner is quite friendly, but don't get her started on politics.

Word is that Sweet Masterpiece in the super-yuppie Pearl District has many vegan options. I have yet to confirm this. anyone have the scoop?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The only thing I saw on the menu that was vegan at Sweet Masterpieces is the cheesecake, which costs $9. I'm gonna assume that it's big enough for at least 2 people to share but I have not tried it yet. At $9 a piece, I doubt they'll get many takers.

They have Cherry Bomb Bakery goods at the Whole Foods in Laurelhurst - yummy stuff! The husband of the woman who runs it works there - very nice.

Have you actually tried the Piece of cake stuff? I've tried two and never will again. The chocolate cupcake was so stale and dry I couldn't even finish my sample piece. And the chocolate cake has sauerkraut in it! And you can taste it and feel the texture, and it's NOT a good thing. Their goods also weigh a million pounds, which is never a good sign in vegan baking.