I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about Blackbird, which is located in the space near South St. formerly occupied by Gianna’s. Gianna’s had both meaty and “vegan” items, but the quality definitely went down over the years and also they infamously managed to infuriate the Philly vegan community by lying about the vegan-ness of their soy cheese (it wasn’t, and they said it was). So it’s nice to see an all-vegan pizza/sandwich place take over the space.

We got a BBQ pie to go. South Philly is a bit of a haul from where we live, which is unfortunate (or perhaps fortunate for our waistlines?) because the pizza was really good! The menu said the BBQ pie included baked tofu, but I guess they ran out of tofu because ours was topped with tasty crispy breaded mushroom pieces. They use Daiya cheese, which I still haven’t made my mind up about, but it was yummy combined with the crispy mushrooms and tangy BBQ sauce. The real standout is the crust- a pleasing combination of thin and crispy but with a large puffy edge. I usually don’t bother eating the outer crusts of pizza, but this crust was so good that I ate the whole thing.

Their selection of sandwiches looks really interesting, and I’ve read some rave reviews for the seitan cheeseteak. We’ll definitely be back for more of Blackbird!

Bonus awesome points for Blackbird- they use eco-friendly pizza boxes made from recycled cardboard. This is the most cleverly-designed pizza box I’ve ever seen. The lid is perforated so you can break it apart into four plates, and the bottom folds up to make a smaller triangular storage box for the leftovers.

First up, an amuse-bouche “Vegetable tartlette with star anise tomato chutney.”  I think I was expecting something more tart-like, with a softer shell, but the little crispy shell worked well too. There was an assortment of little diced veggies inside, and the tomato chutney was delicious and stood out above the other veggies. This was a tiny little thing, maybe an inch and a half across, just a bite of good flavors to start off the meal.  I’m fascinated by the whole amuse bouche concept, so this was pretty cool.

Next up, something not on the menu- an herb-filled flatbread served with some sort of red-pepper dipping sauce. There was a delicious aroma of rosemary, and the sauce tasted a bit like coconut. The flatbread was the only true weak spot in the whole meal- some of the pieces were definitely undercooked.

The next course was “Heirloom tomato salad, cucumber granita, pickled red onion, Thai basil emulsion, crispy rice cracker.”  This was a refreshing and simple summer salad. I loved the presentation and vibrant colors. The tomatoes were the best I’ve had yet this summer- juicy and sweet and lightly salted. I thought the cucumber granita was interesting and a great compliment to the other elements, although my dining companion was less convinced. It did compliment the other elements of the dish quite well though. I’m a huge fan of pickled red onions, and these were lovely.

Next was “Grilled Japanese eggplant, salt baked fingerling potatoes, gingered carrot puree, Indonesian kaffir lime curry sauce, crispy chickpeas.” Another beautiful plating. Unlike some previous unfortunate encounters with severely undercooked chickpeas (hello, Mi Lah), I loved the chickpeas in this dish, with a perfectly cooked interior and crispy exterior.  I really liked the crispy lotus root garnish too, having looked with envy at a similar garnish on a chicken dish at a work lunch last week. Not much flavor in lotus root, but they sure are pretty and have a pleasing crunch. The eggplant was perfectly cooked, although I would have added some sort of glaze (miso?) to them. I couldn’t help but compare it to the heavenly miso eggplant at Kaijitsu. The carrot puree was far more interesting than one would expect carrot puree to be, and I’m always a sucker for a pretty microgreen garnish.

Then the main course- “Mushroom lentil sticky rice in a banana leaf, shallot confit, fricasse of asparagus and royal trumpet mushrooms, lemongrass espuma.”  Often when dining in restaurants I find myself thinking about what elements or techniques I want to explore in my own kitchen, and banana leaves are now definitely on the list. I was pleased to see some fiddlehead ferns, which I just experienced for the first time this year at my favorite NYC restaurant, Candle 79. The mushrooms were perfect and full of flavor. The rice had an interesting vegetal flavor which I assume came from the banana leaf, and was accented by a wonderful smoked tomato topping (this is one of the elements I inquired further about since it was so good). It made me wish that I had someplace for a grill so I could smoke things (I had a similar reaction to the smoked coconut tofu club sandwich at Memphis Taproom. All this fascination with smoky flavors isn’t terribly surprising considering that one of my favorite scents in the world is a nice smoke fire, my favorite Scotch whisky is Laphroaig, and my favorite spice is smoked paprika.) Anyway, the lemongrass espuma was a nice high-note accompaniment to the low-note flavors of the rice and lentils and mushrooms and smoky tomatoes.

For dessert- “Rhubarb soup, coconut panna cotta, strawberry salad, sesame tuile.”  We got a flat disc of dark chocolate instead of a sesame tuile. The flavor of the chocolate complemented the rhubarb, strawberry, and coconut well, but the solid disc texture felt a bit heavy compared to the rest of the dish. As my dining companion and I were talking about the meal afterwards we both felt that a lighter, more web-like presentation of the chocolate would have been more appropriate, so it was interesting to revisit the online menu and see that something like that was the original intention.  I’m not a huge rhubarb fan, but the soup was nice, and the coconut panna cotta was yummy.

They also went to the trouble of getting a definitely-vegan wine to go with the meal, which really impressed me. I tend to not fret too much about the vegan-ness of alcoholic beverages since the problem is usually just a matter of filtering or processing, not in actual ingredients. I won’t drink something that is obviously un-vegan with milky ingredients, but I also don’t worry too much about isinglass filtering or whatever. But if presented with an option that I know for sure is vegan I’ll always choose it over one that isn’t. Unfortunately we didn’t get to have the wine with the meal since we were one of the early seatings and it was still chilling, but we had a glass after the meal and took the rest of the bottle home. It was an Australian rose, that was quite nice. I don’t really know enough about wine to be able to review it with any confidence whatsoever beyond a gut-level “I liked it!”

So, big kudos to the chef at Meritage for a successful and interesting foray into vegan fare! This is definitely something that would fit more into my “special occasion” dining category, because it isn’t exactly inexpensive, at least not for my budget. But you can also tell from the quality of the food and the care of the presentation that it isn’t cheap, and that is a good thing since too many people equate vegan food with bland rice and beans or boring salads. I hope Meritage continues to offer this menu and I’ll definitely be interested to see if they explore different flavors for each season.

The view from my spot at Penn Treaty Park during Fishtown Shadfest. I never knew this little park existed, and it’s so pretty, right next to the river!

Of course this needed to be investigated immediately, so off we went. Fino’s is delivery/pickup only, being a tiny place and lacking tables. But that’s ok, we intended to get takeout anyway, and the prospect of delivery is intriguing for sometime when we are feeling exceptionally lazy. There have been a few times when I have complained about the lack of vegan delivery options. We’ve gotten plenty of fliers for local pizza joints, which I suppose could be persuaded to leave the cheese off of a pizza, but that prospect is just unappealing. I’ve eaten too many mediocre pizzas ordered from places who consider it a violation of some sort of natural law to have a pizza sans cheese.

Faced with four different vegan options and a choice of three sauces (chipotle, pomegranate, or pesto), we chose the “Healthy Balance” (Vegan chicken, caramelized onion with flax seed oil, cherry tomatoes, grilled broccoli, roasted garlic, roasted peppers) with the chipotle sauce. The owner was friendly, saying he thought he was the only one who ate this way and was surprised by a recent surge of interest in the vegan pizzas. With a 20-minute wait, we wandered half a block up the street to check out the local branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, also something previously unexplored since it’s generally easier to visit the downtown branches near to work. It was a small but nice library with a pretty good selection.

Back to Fino’s to collect our pizza, and then home, hoping it was actually good. And it was! When we make pizza at home, we do a nice thick crust, so the thin crust of this pie was a nice change. It was cooked well, not soggy and not too crispy. The topping/crust/sauce ratio was good and the vegetables were nicely cooked. I hate pizzas with too many overcooked vegetables and soggy crust. So, this was a pleasant neighborhood discovery, and I’m sure we’ll be back to sample the other options!

Sunday Oct. 11. Today D. and I went to Soy Cafe in the Northern Liberties section of the city for a late lunch. I had tried their wrap sandwiches at an art event in the summer, but we had never actually been there before. It’s always nice to see “Vegan Friendly” on a sign at a cafe!

Soy Cafe has 22 different kinds of smoothies, all made with soymilk! They are all listed as containing honey, but you can substitute maple syrup instead. They also have Homemade Soymilk, Soy Special Drinks (Chai, Hot Apple Cinnamon Soy, Cocoa Mint Soy, etc.), fresh squeezed fruit/veggie juice, and the usual coffee/espresso drinks and tea.

As far as food goes, there are quite a few vegan or veganizable choices on the menu. 4 of the 7 salad choices are vegan. Only 2 of the wraps (out of 8 choices) are vegan or easily veganizable- the Grilled Eggplant (leave off the soy cheese, it’s not vegan) or the Soy Wrap. There are also some toast options- I’m guessing these are like open-faced sandwiches. Of these 3 out of 9 are vegan if you skip the soy cheese. But I’m guessing the melted cheese is most of the appeal of these, so you’re probably better off sticking to the salads or wraps. Maybe they’ll get some vegan soy cheese someday! I also saw some mini vegan donuts there but didn’t sample those.

We got two soy wraps, one with soy beef and one with soy chicken. They also contained wasabi hummus, cucumber, avocado, carrot, and sesame. There is a choice of wraps and we got Garlic Herb. The wraps were tasty, but we both wished there was a bit more of the wasabi hummus for a little more flavor. What there was of it was delicious, but there were a lot of bites of just plain vegetables and soy beef/chicken which were a bit bland on their own. The avocado was a nice touch. I’d probably have added some onions and sprouts if I was making something like this at home, but overall it was a nice little wrap and the portion size was perfect for lunch.

We also each got a smoothie- I got the Pink Panther (strawberries, raspberries, tofu, soymilk, maple syrup) and D. got the Hello Sunshine (pineapple, mango, banana, soymilk, maple syrup). Both were delicious and had a nice thick consistency. We sat in their back garden seating area, which was small but nice.  We don’t live anywhere near there, so I don’t know that I’ll be back anytime soon. Its not the sort of place I’d go out of my way to visit frequently, but it’s nice to know there is another cafe in Philly where there is yummy vegan stuff to be had! If I lived near there I could definitely see myself stopping by often for a smoothie or coffee.

I just realized that probably about 1/3 of my photos are of bridges. The Ben Franklin is probably my favorite bridge in Philly. The color didn’t come out so well in this one. It’s actually more blue/green colored.

Monk’s Cafe is a Philly institution. Fantastic beer selection, and they always have something vegan on the menu!  Sometime in the past year or so they upgraded their vegan burger from an obviously commercial patty (Boca or Gardenburger or something) to an obviously house-made burger, which was a great improvement. They also have a seitan cheesesteak (leave the cheese off for vegan!). And even better, there’s always at least one vegan entree on the menu, which seems to change every few months. This most recent visit offered a seitan/mushroom meatball dish with polenta and mixed vegetables. They actually ran out of this entree so even though three of us ordered it there was only one serving available. My fellow vegan dining companion got the vegan burger instead, and an omni friend confused the waitress by switching to a meat burger.

I expected the solid variety of polenta and was surprised to receive the soft variety, which I don’t typically like very much. But this serving was pleasantly seasoned and went well with the tomato sauce and soft balls of seitan and mushrooms. The vegetables were cooked perfectly and were also nicely seasoned.

A word of warning if you do go to Monk’s, especially on a weekend evening. If you want a table, they want you to order food. Otherwise you can stand at one of the two small bars. It is a small place and they do not take reservations. You have to put your name on a waiting list, and you have to make sure your entire party is there before they will put your name on the list. At peak hours, it can be quite a wait. We went on a Saturday and were told 45 minutes to an hour, but it was more like an hour and a half.  This all sounds like a pain, but if you like beer it’s worth it once in a while. It’s much better to go for lunch, or on a random weekday for dinner. I once went on a Wednesday right after work, and got seated right away.  The owners of Monk’s also own Belgian Cafe, which has a much roomier dining area and also has several vegan options on the menu (including a fantastic vegan creamed chipped “beef” for brunch!)