Vegan Kitchen: From Cornish to Corinth, new vegan eats are just about everywhere

Next a pandemic-fueled winter and spring of speedy-flowing vegan meals news, the rapid rate of plant-centered announcements continues this summer months in Maine.

Talking of fast-flowing, a plumbing explosion occurred within the all-vegan Robin’s Desk in Biddeford on July 22. The cafe was closed when it took place, and it will not reopen.

“I’m so unhappy and of course, offended,” proprietor Robin Adams stated right after the incident. “But I will go past this. Suitable now, I will step back again, acquire a breath and smile being aware of that Robin’s Desk was effective and appreciated. As for the foreseeable future? No concept.”

Robin’s Table initial opened in March 2020, just before the pandemic lockdown started, and the restaurant was then shuttered for more than a calendar year. Its fate remained unsure until finally the finish of April when Adams reopened. This summer season, like quite a few dining places, Robin’s Table struggled to find more than enough staff members, which minimal hours. 

“Ironically, my final day of organization was my greatest day of business,” Adams claimed. “I at last felt like it was likely to occur. Persons found us. I had reservations, cake orders and standing orders with two significant firms for every month orders. I was at the cafe on Thursday performing my prep, and the plumbing actually blew out because of an concern in the constructing driving me.” 

Adams explained a worker was trying to distinct a clogged pipe in the adjacent developing, and it resulted in sewage inside her formerly cleanse restaurant. Have been she to come across yet another spot, Adams stated she doesn’t know “if I can find the money for to go as a result of the process” of opening the cafe for a 3rd time.

There is no denying the closing is a decline to the local vegan neighborhood. I would like her properly.

This summer’s other vegan information items are rosier. For one particular, in mid-July, Fred’s Fried Dough meals cart lastly returned to the late-night Previous Port scene for the initially time because 2019. New this yr on the cart is vegan ice cream in addition to the vegan fried dough. The cart posts its location details at @fredsfrieddough on Facebook and Twitter, and @fredsfried _dough on Instagram.

Final month brought information that the all-vegan Peace Ridge Sanctuary designs to open up an equine shelter on 640 acres in Freedom. The sanctuary needs to elevate $650,000 to establish a horse barn and other needed amenities. Right now, an nameless donor is matching all donations, and if the sanctuary can increase $50,000 by October, it will be in a position to break floor right before winter season. Right until the horse barn is designed, requests to take abused and neglected horses are stacking up at the sanctuary in Brooks, with no room in the current barns to dwelling the big animals. 

The last couple months have also brought news of a new vegan foods cart, a new vegan retail retail store, a new on-farm vegan cafe and a new vegan doughnut store. Here’s a seem at these latest developments. 

SOUTHERN-ISH Food CART IN CORNISH

The Greenhouse by SAO food cart did a quick check start in the drop of 2019, even catering a vegan wine tasting at Cellardoor Winery in Portland, followed by a wintertime of scheduling and generating preparations for a huge launch in spring 2020. But owner Shelby Anne Oates’ strategies for the launch of the all-vegan foodstuff cart ended up turned upside down by the pandemic. In its place, Oates took the cart again house to Atlanta, where she was born and lifted, to serve her vegan convenience meals in the course of the uncertain year.

But this summer, The Greenhouse by SAO cart returned to Maine, with a household base outside the house The Local Equipment in Cornish and pop-ups at other locations and situations, exactly where Oates serves a modifying menu of masala avenue corn, carrot puppies with black bean chili, barbecue mushroom sliders, grilled cheese sandwiches, chickpea frittatas and pasta salad. 

“You will unquestionably taste some of my Southern roots, I imagine,” claimed Oates, “especially in the staples I place on the menu far more frequently than many others, like my SAO sweet Southern cornbread or my gradual-cooked collard greens, but I also like to enable vegans get a take care of that sometimes requirements addressing like a wonderful charred and melty SAO grilled cheese. I have been serving up my BBQ Shroom Sammich a large amount this summertime, created with leeks and shiitakes mostly, piled on a thick piece of grilled Italian bread included in an SAO residence garlic and smoked paprika spread. It was a strike at the Ossipee Valley New music Competition and will even be served up at a wedding day I am catering quickly.”

The food items cart has been popping up in Steep Falls and Kezar Falls and will be at Doles Orchard in Limington for apple-harvest year. Verify social media (@saocooksandcatering on Fb) for weekly plan updates.

Very little LAD’S GOES RETAIL

Since June, lovers of Tiny Lad’s famed popcorn and of its previous cafes (the previous of which shut in 2015) have been flocking to Major Avenue in the Penobscot County town of Corinth, exactly where the vegan food items manufacturer opened a compact retail outlet offering its total product line along with sandwiches, soups and scoops of up to 20 flavors of its Nice Creme.

The new Little Lad’s shop is housed in a former bank developing with out of doors seating and a push-through window, where by buyers can decide on up cellular phone orders. Tiny Lad’s is very best-acknowledged for its popcorn, yet the keep shares all of its extra than 100 products, which includes granola, crackers and fruit tarts designed in the Popcorn Factory found 250 toes down the road.

In the store, a complete rack is stuffed with baggage of the signature popcorn in all its flavors. Refrigerator and freezer circumstances keep beverages, grab-and-go sandwiches, veggie burgers, frozen dinners and Nice Creme pints. The retail outlet also can make sandwiches to order and offers breakfast things, soups and desserts.

“We also have some locally grown berries suitable now, and typically some fruits and vegetables for sale, far too,” reported operator Maria Fleming, who has recently employed a lot more workers at the output facility to hold up with steadily climbing demand from customers. 

Fleming stated the shop has been hectic this summer season, with tourists halting on their way to Moosehead Lake, clients of earlier Small Lad’s restaurants producing a pilgrimage and locals swinging through the takeout window to grab lunch. 

The Minor Lad’s shop is open up Sundays from noon to 6 p.m., Mondays as a result of Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Front-ROW SEAT AT FRINKLEPOD

In July, an outdoor cafe identified as Snagglebites serving farm-fresh new lunch opened upcoming to the vegetable fields at Frinklepod Farm in Arundel. The limited menu functions plant-primarily based bowls, salads and bite-sized snacks. The cafe is open Thursday by way of Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“For years, we’ve been toying with the plan of providing extra lunch options in the course of the summertime,” claimed Flora Brown, who farms with her partner, Noah Wentworth. In the wintertime, the qualified-natural and organic farm sells prepared foodstuff from its wintertime shop, which closes throughout the hectic summer period. “This winter season we took the plunge and acquired a utilised lunch cart which we have turned into Snagglebites.”

The title arrives from the children’s e-book “Uno’s Garden” beloved by Brown and Wentworth’s daughters and the source of the farm’s title. Supported by the farm’s business kitchen, the cart extends the food items prep location out of the summer market place space and lets clients to enjoy their plant-based bowls and salads remaining prepared. 

“We understood that planning lunch ideal in front of our consumers would enable them to see how it’s made and hopefully even inspire them to attempt earning a similar dish at household working with substances from our farm store,” Brown mentioned. “We also wished to reduce the food waste and packaging troubles that we have skilled with striving to continue to keep our retail cooler loaded with organized food items.”

Most of the Snagglebites bowls start out with a rice-quinoa pilaf topped with a selection of baked Heiwa tofu, hummus or fresh greens (raw or grilled). This is drizzled with peanut ginger, barbecue or inexperienced goddess sauce (all produced on the farm). A new addition to the bowl menu is the black bean bowl with tortilla chips and potato queso. 

LOVEBIRDS Over THE BORDER

Mainers cannot appear to be to get more than enough vegan doughnuts, and now the all-vegan Lovebirds Donuts in Kittery is getting ready to bring its wares in excess of the bridge and throughout the border to a shop in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The new store will be found on the pedestrian-helpful Vaughan Shopping mall.

“The Portsmouth location is significantly more compact than the Kittery site, substantially a lot more of a boutique, city cafe, primarily developed for takeout services with a couple of seats inside,” explained Tamara Monroe, who owns the organization with Ryan MacDougall. 

On the weekends, Lovebirds consistently bumps up versus the boundaries of the amount of clients they can serve, creating enlargement the sensible subsequent move. All the doughnuts will carry on to be built in Kittery, exactly where the kitchen was crafted with the intention of giving several shops. Monroe states it takes 7 minutes to get from the Kittery bakery to the Portsmouth store. 

This vegan Hunneecomb doughnut from Lovebirds Donuts will soon be marketed from a bakery on the Vaughan Shopping mall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, alongside with all the other Lovebirds doughnuts. Image courtesy of Lovebirds Donuts

Gearing up for the new retail location, Lovebirds has added bakers and is in the process of using the services of a lot more baristas, who will rotate amongst the two retailers. The new site will offer you the same month to month menus and on the internet ordering as the original. This signifies flavors, like this month’s Hunneecomb, a brioche doughnut dipped in ganache, stripped with butterscotch and topped with housemade vegan honeycomb candy, will be accessible in the two spots. 

Monroe stated they hope to have the Portsmouth Lovebirds open this drop. Right until then, glance for their doughnuts at the Kittery shop and Nectar Cafe, Grateful Gardens at Rocky Acres and Strand Cafe (all in York), as nicely as Copper Department in Portland and Frinklepod Farm in Arundel.

Avery Yale Kamila is a food stuff author who life in Portland. She can be attained at 

[email protected]

Twitter: AveryYaleKamila

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