If you’ve been vegan for as long as we have, you likely remember some pretty basic, early- to mid-ninties vegan staples that are now, happily, obsolete. Tofutti’s chalky dairy-free ice cream and plastic-y vegan American cheese slices? Anything in powder form from Fantastic Foods? And how about that boxed Ener-G Egg Replacer?

To be clear, I mean no offense whatsoever to these early vegan mainstays and these blazers of vegan trails—without them, we’d be nowhere. But the vegan and animal-friendly world is, awesomely, a much different place than it was twenty some years back. Back then, the demand for this kind of thing was so low; now, happily, it’s a fucking bandwagon entrepreneurs are elbows-out jumping on, and it’s making it not only easier than ever to go plant-based and animal-free, but also tastier than ever.

So, yes, there are a million better vegan ice creams (like Van Leeuwen, who we just interviewed) and vegan cheese slices on the market (like Chao + Follow Your Heart’s slices, which we also recently wrote up); yes, there are amazing falafel joints at ever turn in most ever urban center and, failing that, great store-bought humus from Sabra; and yes, there’s now finally a vegan egg alternative that you can actually use in things other than baking recipes.

Again, no disrespect to the early vegan path-finders, but Ener-G’s product—while great as an egg-replacer in baked goods and other recipes needing an egg-like binder—was never intended for use as an egg-substitute in things like omelets or scrambles. The new product from Southern California’s Follow Your Heart is.

First off, full disclaimer—neither Katie nor I were ever huge fans of eggs as food. It was just a taste, texture, and general concept that neither of us ever got behind. That said, we were excited to give Follow Your Heart’s Vegan Egg a try while in New York recently. Unlike us, our hosts—one of them at least—were indeed huge egg fans in their pre-vegan lives and couldn’t stop singing the praises of this new, magical, cruelty-free “egg” product. Made primary of algal flour and algal protein of all things, nay-sayers or non-vegans could easily call the Vegan Egg an empty shell protein and starch; for those that have given up the egg but still crave a good scramble, it could easily be a god-send. It takes some work in the form of constant stirring over heat, but, eventually, the Vegan Egg—which, while it’s savvy packaging hints at conventional egg containers, is actually a powder—whips into a convincingly scrambled egg-like texture, with the sulfurous black salt in the “egg” giving off a distinctly eggy scent. Again, we were never huge fans of the conventional touchstone here, but what we had, we loved—scrambled Vegan Egg on toasted focaccia with a slice of Chao and some sriracha for a perfectly decadent, post-Thanksgiving breakfast sandwich.

If you’ve long given up egg, or—better yet—are considering doing so and need that extra little push, give Follow Your Heart’s Vegan Egg a try. We’re guessing you’ll love it. In the Los Angeles area, you can get it at local super-shop, Organix; elsewhere, check FYH’s page for the nearest location to you (or order from Food Fight).

Below, Vegan Egg prep and the glorious breakfast sandwich.

Over at our sister journal and collaboration with longtime developer and music-lover, Paul Singh of Pel—Forgotten Favorite—we’ve written a piece on old-fashioned ways of discovering music being kept alive by friends in Los Angeles. And crazy-awesome Thai music of the sixties + seventies. Give it a look/listen.

Alright, who’s old-school enough to remember the pre-think-about-your-Google-searchability shop, Shop, in the lower east side?

We employed this tote at the studio today and it brought back fond memories of the long-gone women’s boutique and an era of pre-crash economy when New York was rich with small, independently owned shops like Shop. They’re all too absent these days, in New York and in many other urban centers, but their spirit lives on in many forms…like this tote, I guess.

Less so in the Web site—iloveshop.com is being parked by (sigh) buy.internettraffic.com.

Way back in the summer of 2013, we first noticed ice creamery and coffee chop Van Leeuwen‘s welcome vegan friendliness. They were on our regular route from our home in Carroll Gardens to our design studio in Cobble Hill and we saw a poster they’d put up about their new vegan flavors. We reached out to them then and there to find out more, writing up a brief piece on the journal at the time. Then, when we made the move to Los Angeles a little while later, we again stumbled across them, this time in pint form as they expanded to new and exciting flavors (again, a write-up). As their ice cream kingdom grows to include five shops and a fleet of trucks in NYC, two trucks in LA, and two-going-on-three brick-and-mortars in Los Angeles, we thought we’d reach out again, getting the scoop from co-founder and one of two namesakes, Pete Van Leeuwen, on the move west, their propensity for amazing vegan ice cream, and our eerily parallel moves.

Get it?

Scoop?

raven + crow: Okay, first off, how did you all get into the ice cream game in the first place? What’s the story behind the early days of Van Leeuwen?

Pete Van Leeuwen: Ben and I used to rent Good Humor ice cream trucks from a couple of Greek brothers named Teddy and Peter from Queens and sell novelties in the suburbs for a few summers . A few years later, Ben graduated from Skidmore with the idea of selling the best ice cream in NYC out of retrofitted ice cream trucks. I was already living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn working for a vodka company and playing in a couple bands. Laura had just arrived from Down Unduh, and her and Ben moved into my apartment. Within a year, we had bought and outfitted two old postal trucks, learned how to make and produce incredibly good ice cream, and hit the streets much to the delight of the “ever so hungry for the new” New Yorkers .

And where does that name come from? I mean, I know it’s you and your brother’s surname, but what’s the inspiration behind using that for the business name?

Originally we were calling ourselves Churn, but we were advised that IF we ever were successful with our brand, undoubtedly someone would sue us…. So , we decided to go with our very difficult-to-spell last name, against my wishes. In the end I’m of course thrilled that we went with it, as I can’t imagine it being anything but Van Leeuwen. You only have to plug the first 4 or 5 letters in and Google knows what you mean, so spelling didn’t turn out to be an issue.

Good point. Guessing Churn would not have fared so well in this internet age. So no affiliation with the nationwide distributor of aftermarket motorcycle parts and accessories since 1973, then?

None. Nor with the guitarist from Queens of the Stone Age or the father of microbiology Van Leeuwenhoek (though I can’t confirm this!)

I mean, food chemistry’s clearly in the blood…. Can you school us on the correct pronunciation? Sorry for the fixation—we’re branding people.

Van Loo-in.

That helps. I usually gave you all the usual treatment when I don’t know a pronunciation, where you kind of murmur the syllables you’re not sure about. The result was something along the lines of ‘Van Lu-uh’. So you started out with the trucks and then the shops in NYC, then you landed a truck in LA—oddly right when we moved into town (thank you)—and now you’ve got a shop in Culver City and one that just opened (pictured above) walking distance from our studio…AND one seemingly opening down in Franklin Village, walking distance from our house. So the clear question is: Are you guys stalking us?

Yes. We have all of our favorite customers micro-chipped. We track their movements for 2-3 years before plugging the information into an algorithm my cousin wrote, which then dictates our next location to open in. It’s very good, in that we can even zero in on precise neighborhoods, blocks and even program in filters like “southwestern facing storefronts only”.

I KNEW it!

The truth of it is, we actually started with 2 trucks in NY. Eventually we opened a store front, then a few more all the while growing the fleet of trucks up to 6 in total. I took 2 of those 6 trucks (the Eagle and the Rattlesnake, both native creatures to California), put them on a flatbed truck, and sent them here with the same strategy in mind for LA…. In terms of good taste in neighborhoods and such? Well I guess we’re just on a plane.

No, seriously though, you’re taking over LA—what’s the story behind the initial westward move?

We’d entertained the idea of coming to LA from the first winter in business, actually. 2014 (7th year in biz) was the first year we could make it happen. I was getting colder and colder with every passing winter and was psyched to spearhead the big leap.

I hear you, man. Without just dissing New York—which we all love dearly—what do you all like about Los Angeles?

The weather, the weather, the weather aaaaaaand the weather. No really, there’s a lot I like about it. The tacos, the sushi, the farmer’s markets, the ocean and mountains, Griffith Park, living in Beachwood canyon. The people out here all seem more relaxed (for better of for worse!). There’s even a better music scene than I’d anticipated, great venues and so many great outdoor events like the shows and films at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, etc. The proximity to the desert and loads of National Parks. Life is pretty good in LA if you can handle the traffic thing. I think the traffic is why so many dispensaries stay in business.

So true on so many fronts. And yeah, you’re right about the music scene—I was pleasantly shocked to find how vibrant it is here, and I feel like it’s just getting more so.

So, we used to walk by your Boerum Hill shop nearly every day on the way to our studio. I actually tell the story of the time Hope Davis had to calm down our then newly adopted dog outside of that shop so I could pick up coffee one day. Absolutely no question there, I just needed to meet my weekly quota of telling that story. Check!

That’s awesome! How’d she do it? Or was the pup just star struck into submission?

I mean, I was, Owen the Dog coulda’ cared less. Though Ms. Davis was great with him. If you’re reading this and ever looking for a backup career, we suggest dog whisperer.

So, how are things back in New York? Are you all looking to expand there as well? Or…what’s the next phase of ice cream world domination for you all?

We are just about to open up our ice cream factory in Greenpoint that we’ve been building out for almost an entire year! By mid 2016 we will have doubled our number of shops from 4 to 8 and so I think it wise to try and refine the entire operation and have it running as perfectly as possible before determining our next big move. That said though, you never know. Sometimes when an opportunity arises you have to take it. We weren’t planning on Franklin Village as being a possibility for us but one day there was a “for rent “ sign in the window and we KNEW we had to have that spot. An absolute home run location (and right down the street from my house, so hard to beat)!

Man, yeah, we’re neighbors! Beachwood’s the absolute best. Can’t wait for the Franklin location. Speaking of new though, you all did just do an ice cream “cook”book, right?

Oh yeah. Came out in June. We worked on it for almost 2 years. There’s 100 incredible and VERY accessible recipes, both classic and vegan in it, and we are all very proud of it. The incredibly talented and sweet Olga Massov helped us write it.

That’s awesome. Being longtime vegans, that was the thing that set you all apart for us, the really fucking good vegan flavors. And not just, like, chocolate and vanilla—ya’ll have a ton of really great, creative, addictive vegan flavors. First off, what made you all want to offer that?

Actually, we’d talked about it for a couple years before really going for it, but one day I remember talking to Ben in the East Village shop and having one of those “duh” moments where you realize you absolutely HAVE TO do something. I stressed how important I thought it was that we offered vegan options and pushed him to get the ball rolling with experimenting and R&D and so forth . Initially we came up with just a chocolate and vanilla that were primarily coconut based and where they were “good” they certainly weren’t great. Ben who is far and away the most talented ice cream maker among us, buckled down and went to town on experimentation, refining and refining until finally emerging with a cashew milk, organic coconut milk, organic cocoa butter, organic extra virgin coconut oil base that, when brought to life with our meticulously soured flavors, in my experience turned out to be without doubt, the best vegan ice cream in the world.

I mean, we’re not ones to fall for easy superlatives, but we 100% agree and have for a while now—you guys do vegan fucking well. What are your favorite current flavors?

Favorite classic flavor currently is the Chocolate. We use Michel Cluizel 99% infini noir dark chocolate in our ice cream and, with as many amazing specialty flavors as we are making right now (which are incredible!), at times, I come back to the basics. Though our chocolate is anything but basic, my chocolate addiction must be answered to…daily. My favorite vegan flavor is The Green Tea Matcha, which is exclusive to LA right now. It may also be the most photogenic flavor we’ve every made!

Um, agreed (see below). Literally just had it for the first time. It’s really good—rivals my prior favorite, the Salted Caramel. Any crazy-awesome new flavors (vegan or non-) on the ice cream horizon? …mmmm, ice cream horizon.

Oh most definitely . I can’t let you in on it, but I’ll give you a hint. It rhymes with “nerf” but is positively not “turf”.

I mean, happy to hear you’re not doing a steak flavor, but surf-flavored…might be gritty. Thanks, Pete!

If you’re in New York or Los Angeles, you’re probably standing next to or in front of a Van Leeuwen right now—look up. If not, you can check their site for shop locations and their trucks’ Twitter feeds. You can also get their pints—vegan and not—in a good number of stores in NYC + LA; check their locator online (Beachwooders, look for them in the freezer at the Oaks).

Above, a shot we just took of the new shop’s exterior, part of One Santa Fe, that giant condo building with bright red accents that’s started to open pretty great businesses on the ground level, Van Leeuwe and Cafe Gratitude among them. To the right, opening night at the new location (courtesy of Van Leeuwin). Below, the Arts District shop’s interior (courtesy of VL); the aforementioned vegan Matcha, which is indeed amazing (photo VL); really really good vegan chocolate chunk cookies at the Art District shop, made by Pete himself; a sign describing what you can do with those cookies; us, enjoying having done that with those cookies. By the by, if you haven’t done it before, I highly recommend ice cream lunch. The sugar coma that follows is quite calming.

A few weeks back, when Katie + I were prepping for our first New York visit since early spring, we ran through a usual routine for us: Meticulously assembling a list of new vegan and vegan-friendly NYC eats and prioritizing said eats. Los Angeles is an amazing resource for superb vegan food—some would argue better than New York—but there are some things Gotham will just always do better than our new home.

As we were assembling this substantial list, we noticed a trend amongst our top-runners—many, many sandwiches, and, amongst them, specifically a lot of places now known for their vegan burgers; prime among them, the much-lauded Superiority Burger and the über-cute By CHLOE in the Village.

As we noted in our write-up of LA’s Burgerlords last month, GQ named Superiority Burger’s vegetarian burger the year’s best burger…not the year’s best vegetarian burger, year’s best burger. Now, one could argue that GQ’s pulling some sort of publicity stunt, poking the red-meat-loving bear that is their primary demographic, or, if you’re more generous, you could argue they’re concerned about the health of their average reader and want to promote a meat-free lifestyle more publicly. You could even argue that Superiority Burger’s burger is indeed the best burger of 2015. Us—we don’t care, we just love that people are promoting vegetarian + vegan food more and more every year, that it’s getting easier and more mainstream to rid diets of animals, and that it all results in fewer animals being locked into a cruel system that ultimately ends in their death. I think the animals are with us on that one.

Yeah yeah yeah, you say, preaching to the choir—HOW ARE THE BURGERS‽ Well, they’re fucking good.

We’re not going to play the Who Has the Better Vegan Burger game—we’d be tempted, but they’re both so good and we feel like we’d need a side-by-side comparison, ideally; plus, they’re both great, so everybody wins! The two establishments couldn’t be more different in their general approach to food and space, though; that we will comment on. If you’re looking for a restaurant franchise, you got to check out jackintheboxfranchising.com this link.

By CHLOE has nailed the fucking adorable branding, going to the restaurant branding go-to, Paperwhite Studio (hats off to you, sirs + madams). From restaurant signage to sandwich wrappers to fry holsters to even coconuts with her logo, chef + partner Chloe Coscarelli comes across as having a clear idea of her brand and it’s communicated clearly and copiously. CHLOE also trends toward the younger, more health-minded crowd, stocking juicing and air-baking fries (which, are actually remarkably good), which is super-smart given their proximity to NYU. Again, absolutely love that this beautifully done, amazingly tasty spot is so easily accessible to the mainstream NYC college kid. And the food is just that—tasty, very tasty. The burger’s great, with a savory housemade tempeh-lentil-chia-walnut patty that’s got a great texture and…hate this word, but…mouthfeel (shudder), and is topped off with fresh pickles, onion, lettuce, and awesome beet ketchup on an equally awesome, soft, slightly sweet potato bun. AND it’s all gluten-free. What might be even better than the burger in this barbecue-lover’s opinion, though—their Whiskey BBQ sandwich, smokey portobello mushrooms + housemade seitan smothered in a bourbon barbecue sauce and topped with sautéed kale, onion marmalade, and grilled pineapple on that same delectable potato bun. It’s just as messy and amazing as it sounds. Our only complaint with regards to CHLOE—the place is on the small side and seemingly ceaselessly packed to the gills with customers, to the point that seat-hunting becomes a sport both stressful for the hunter and the guilt-ridden seated alike. It’s a superb problem for Chloe + co. to have, but not the most enjoyable eating experience.

Superiority, by comparison, is about as laid back as it gets, in both its presentation and it’s overall attitude toward its food. Though the place is small (it’s actually in Dirt Candy‘s old spot), it’s staff is extremely chill and the seating’s so sparse it’s kind of a non-issue, making for quicker eating at the European-style swivel-out tables or counter-eating to the side or, more likely, take-away or street-eating. And the menu and space are both nearly equally adorable to CHLOE’s in their lack of refined branding and clear marketing expertise. The main menu (billed as vegetarian with a lot that’s “accidentally vegan just ask!”) focuses on cultivating a small number of staples and doing them really well—the namesake red quinoa-based Superiority Burger, the sloppy Joe-style Sloppy Dave (tofu in a mildly spicy tomato-based sauce on a larger sesame seed bun)—and then branches out with some really well-done, plant based sides that tend to circulate. We had a really great beet dish and a baked potato sopped with a relish and both were wonderful. Friends and frequenters of Superiority actually swear by the sides, telling us that they trump the burger itself. We think it’s all great though. And, as mentioned, the staff’s super-nice—they actually threw in a couple off-menu items when we ordered, the shiitake BLT and a tiny yuba Philly vegan cheesesteak that packed quite a punch and ended up being one of my favorite things. It’s clear that chef + founder (and former executive pastry chef at Del Posto), Brooks Headley, is a creative fucking dude and we’re excited to see what else he has in store. You can actually hear a great piece that Evan Kleiman did with Headley recently on KCRW’s Good Food on the thinking behind the burger and his general philosophy on food. Our only complaint with SB—the Superiority Burger itself is pretty tiny…slider-size, in fact. We hear that’s a relatively new development, but, regardless, they’re really great.

In conclusion, mmmmmmmmmmm, vegan food.

Thank you, goodnight.

Photo above of CHLOE’s offerings and just below of their facade courtesy of by CHLOE; just below that, CHLOE’s burger; the Whiskey BBQ; a shot of the sandwiches and fries; Superiority Burger’s facade; their starkly jaunty menu; the Superiority Burger; the fried onion-covered Sloppy Dave; Superiority’s beet side; their burgers again; the shiitake BLT; and SB’s tiny interior with immeasurable attitude. To the right, an amazing old White Castle poster at SB.

We’re still recovering from the food coma that was our recent trip to New York City, but one must-visit for us was the new Bed Stuy vegan joint, Toad Style.

Picture a take out style restaurant created by a vegan kid who loves fried food, video games, and kung-fu, and you’ve got Toad Style. Actually, as far as I know, that might be the story behind Toad Style. But, regardless of back story, Toad Style is well worth a trek out to the Bed Stuy-Bushwick border, just don’t visit when you’re “kinda hungry”—there is a lot of bread here and most everything is deep fried in the classic fried chicken style…which is fitting for a neighborhood chock-a-block with traditional fried chicken take out places.

We settled on two sandwiches on our visit—the vegan báhn mí (coconut-crusted fried oyster mushrooms, pickled daikon + carrots, cilantro, hothouse cucumber, lime aioli, five-spice mushroom paté, and house chili sauce—and their BBQ pulled jackfruit (tender smoked jackfruit, house BBQ sauce, Brussels sprouts slaw, fennel jam, and spicy pickles—and rounded things off with fried pickles with creamy horseradish sauce and fried lemon + rosemary brined cauliflower with sweet chili mustard sauce. So, yeah, not the lightest of meals, but goooooooooooooooooood. And, for the more gluten free eaters, the batter on those last two sides is actually gluten-free.

Word on the street is that Toad Style’s vegan eggplant parm (served on soft garlic bread) is to die for and their grilled cheese (with tiger figs and house almond cheese) sounds awesome, so I think we’ll be due a trip back next time we’re in New York. Shouldn’t be for another few months, so I think we should have time to work our appetite back up.

In the meantime, let us live vicariously through you—get thee to Toad Style, young warrior.

Last week, we were pursuing the latest and greatest our watch-anything-now TV offerings, looking for a low-key, slightly holiday-themed night in when we came across Netflix’s A Very Murray Christmas, described as the following: “Bill Murray rounds up an all-star cast for an evening of music, mischief and barroom camaraderie in this irreverent twist on holiday variety shows.”

It was pretty much exactly that and, though it took a little but for us to track what it was going for, it ended up being a great take by Murray on the holiday special genre, lampooning it and celebrating it at the same time. Directed by Sofia Coppola, the hour-long show is characteristically (for her) artistically slow and drawn-out in a wonderful way, featuring a bizarre array of guests that we won’t spoil save for the following: Of the many musical numbers in their many varied forms, one of our favorites came from the unlikely combination of Bill Murray, Paul Shaffer on piano, Jason Schwartzman on drums (who, in addition to his acting chops, used to has [had?] a great solo band called Coconut Records), and French popsters Phoenix playing a multitalented hotel kitchen staff.

The song they play—”Alone on Christmas Day”—is a little-known Beach Boys song from an unreleased Christmas album and it’s pretty awesome. It’s available as a limited edition 7″ and digital download via iTunes + Spotify, with all proceeds going to benefit one of our favorite clients—UNICEF. Given the fact that Coppola’s been married to Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars since 2011, Murray’s little quip at the end of the track’s pretty nice.

And yes—coolest married couple ever.

Following the first single they dropped from their coming third studio album (which we featured on our November mixtape), Swedish pop maestros Miike Snow released another excellent single yesterday that’s got us very excited for the new release.

Genghis Khan follows their usual, hook-filled pop formula and we love it. Give it a listen below; the new album, iii, is available for pre-order as of today via the band’s Web site.

For anyone who doesn’t already know, Pantone—”the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards”—has been choosing colors of the year since 2000, the intention being to both predict and guide trends in the coming year.

Today, Pantone announced the 2016 colors, marking the first time ever that the color experts have chosen two colors to brand a single year. It also denotes what may be a much more socially conscious, politically aware decision-making process for that choice. Or good PR. Or both.

According to Pantone, the two new colors—Rose Quartz + Serenity—”demonstrate an inherent balance between a warmer embracing rose tone and the cooler tranquil blue, reflecting connection and wellness as well as a soothing sense of order and peace.”

They continue, via press release:

“The prevalent combination of Rose Quartz and Serenity also challenges traditional perceptions of color association. In many parts of the world we are experiencing a gender blur as it relates to fashion, which has in turn impacted color trends throughout all other areas of design. This more unilateral approach to color is coinciding with societal movements toward gender equality and fluidity, the consumer’s increased comfort with using color as a form of expression, a generation that has less concern about being typecast or judged and an open exchange of digital information that has opened our eyes to different approaches to color usage.”

Though the tone and verbiage of the announcement might verge on pretentious over-importance and the video that accompany it (below) strike me as very Scientology (or at least yoga retreat-y)…I like the idea and welcome some serenity and peace in the com in year, especially after so much sudden violence close to home.

Now to order yet another new set of Pantone books….

In combing through some old files today, I came across this old sketch I did awaiting jury duty in New York, 2008, I think, and then turned it into a quick illustration.

Civil service bring out the morose in me, seemingly.