Saturday, March 29, 2008

Magnolia Bistro

We of the How to Feed a Vegan household no longer endorse this eatery. Please reference this post for details of our latest experiences which have caused us to never go here again and advise the same to anyone who truly cares what they are eating. I can't bring myself to delete the post. Think of it as a homage to what could have been. I was so happy for this place when I wrote this. That makes it all the more sad I suppose.

Our new favorite breakfast place, Magnolia Bistro, located at 1 Lawson Lane in Burlington. Now anyone vaguely familiar with Burlington is asking, "Where is Lawson Lane?" It's more of an alley really, between American Flatbread and Pacific Rim on St Paul St downtown. American Flatbread is delish as well but that we shall save for another day.

Magnolia Bistro is the second openly vegan friendly cafe to open in Burlington. Items on the menu that are already vegan are labeled as such but many items can easily be modified to vegandom. Observe:

California Omelet with the eggs subbed out for tofu. Vegan sausage, avocado, tomatoes, yum!



A custom scramble with black beans & toms.
See those beautiful home fries? yeah, vegan.
That wheat toast? yup, they have Earth Balance.

Sesame Tofu Scram, for the love of garlic! Sesame oil and seeds add to the yumminess. This one is a little light on the seeds, it's always a little different every time but always good.

Huevos con Diablo, sans the huevos add tofu. This is a great comfort food breakfast. Polenta topped with scrambled tofu then layer on black beans and salsa. Be sure to ask for it vegan to keep the sour cream at bay, they are great about this.

Most items are veganizable and they understand the word "vegan" in the kitchen. It's pretty great really, especially in a town where there has yet to materialize a completely vegetarian restaurant.

They serve breakfast and lunch and have free wi-fi should you need to do a little browsing. The atmosphere lends itself to hanging out and relaxing with various featured artists hanging on the brick walls. Sunday can be a little crazy but just drag yourself out of bed before everyone who drank too much the night before and you should get a plate of delicious food in good time.

Oh and did I mention they serve a good strong cup of organic fair trade Mexican coffee?

3 comments:

Mara said...

Was that place there when Don and I lived in Burlington? I don't remember it... my favorite breakfast place was the Penny Cluse cafe.

Wouldn't home fries always be vegan? I can't imagine what they'd do to potatoes, onions, and peppers to make them un-veganified, unless it's frying them up in butter or bacon grease or something, which even I would deem unnecessary.

Was

Bex said...

Yeah, Penny Cluse home fries aren't vegan (enter butter, booo). I plan on writing about them too though, they do have a couple vegan options that are tasty.

Magnolia is pretty new. I think they are still in their first year or just completing it.

Lindsay I-F said...

Magnolia is great! the chickpea sandwich is soo good!