Denver

I'm in Denver for a convention this week. Last time I was here was 2002 and at that time I was disappointed with the vegan options I found, but now this trip I found some wonderful choices. I did my preliminary vegetarian restaurant search and decided to hit up Watercourse Foods main restaurant, their bakery and their pizza place/bar called City O' City. There were other restaurants that I found but when possible I prefer the totally vegetarian restaurant options and their menus looked great!

As a side note I was at the Denver Convention Center and they had a table sharing what Denver has done is terms of Greening the city, including a list of restaurants that recycle, are organic, and/or are vegetarian/vegan amongst "greening". It was nice to see.


City, O’ City
206 E. 13th Ave
Denver, CO 80203
303-831-6443
www.watercoursefoods.com
Vegan Pizza...need I say more. All the pizzas can be made vegan. I made my own although it was a tough decision considering their pesto, fig sauce, white pizza options. I did a red sauce with half vegan house made mozzarella and half vegan house made cashew cheese with pineapple and house made seitan sausage. The crust was the thin NY Italian style. It was delicious. I preferred the cashew cheese but both were super good. I also had a house salad with house made vegan ranch dressing, again very good. The restaurant also has sandwich options and the restaurant is Kosher.

The bakery listed on the Watercourse Foods website is adjacent to City, O' City and you can buy their baked goods and coffee at their store front. I tried a ho ho cupcake (amazing), a sweet potato cinnamon roll (I like it but it wasn't my favorite), and a melt in your mouth lemon poppy seed frosting on sugar cookie(I chose the gluten free version) it was soooo good. The bakery makes pies, cakes, coffeecake, muffins, scones, cookies, brownies, all vegan and with non-bonechar sugar.

WaterCourse Foods
837 E. 17th Ave,
Denver, CO 80218
303-832-7313
www.watercoursefoods.com
I also went to the main Watercourse Foods Restaurant. One of those you could eat there everyday places. All day breakfast with an assortment of scrambles, pancakes, french toast, biscuits and gravy, etc. A nice salad menu with a make your own salad option with tons of choices. I tried the vegan caesar-vegan house made parmesan (walnuts and nutritional yeast blend), croutons, crispy romaine (you can add herbed tofu or seitan but I opted not too) and a house made caesar dressing. It was very good. I also did a make it yourself salad with spinach, carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, vegan parm and again the caesar dressing...can you tell how much i liked it? I tried the Dona Lee-kind of like a gyro, crispy house made seitan with lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, and ranch dressing, in a warm pita, with steamed kale (sprinkled with sesame seeds), and french fries (they were like and just cut up potatoes not deeply fried). I also tried the country fried seitan covered in a white gravy, with amazing mashed potatoes and steamed kale(although this time it was very garlicy and a bit salty). My friends had the seitan french dip, one liked it the other thought it didn't have enough veggies (traditionally it doesn't) and thought it was a bit salty. We shared a piece of tiramisu which was moist and tasty but lacked the espresso flavor of tiramisu. The bakery provides an assortment of cakes, pies, cookies, etc. also available at Watercourse Foods. The onion rings were huge and I tried one which was enough as I like tasting simulated vegan SAD type items but usually a taste is all I need. Another thing Watercourse Foods has is Oogave a vegan fountain soda sweetened with agave nectar. I tasted the Key Lime, Watermelon, and Cola. There's free refills so I got several half glasses so I could taste the different flavors. www.oogave.com