bourgeois vegan food

i like fancy vegan food. i don't mind spending lots of money for food when it is good. and i understand the concept of quality over quantity.  but horizons! guh. what a waste.
dinner started with focaccia. when i was in rome, i would eat focaccia bread almost everyday from the 24-hour bakery by my apartment. i love it. horizon's focaccia sux. really thin and some bites too salty, other bites too plain. disappointing, but i ate a lot of it to try and get my money's worth. for an appetizer, we got bbq seitan. really good, but small.
for dinner, i got the mushroom crepe. crepes! another thing i love a lot. this was 1 (over)stuffed crepe. i am not always a fan of mushrooms, but these mushrooms were well cooked and yummy. but the crepe, which is supposed to super thin and super soft, was on the thick side and had an omelet like texture. that would cool if i ordered an omelet, but i ordered a crepe jerks. shawn got the $19 tofu block with (5) pieces of local squash and chickpea mash. why so much money?! tofu is $2, chickpeas $2, squash $.50. "but they pan sear it so well!"meh. that is not enough of an explanation for me. i was not impressed.
i have often been warned (by shawn) that dessert was overpriced and small. but we had heard good things about the chocolate beignets (donuts!!). the night before, we had been down the shore and talked a lot about our love of zeppole. we didn't get any cuz it was $5 and that seemed like a lot of money. well we paid $8 at horizons for what was pretty much 3 teensy beignet/zeppole and a tiny coffee float. yeah the beignet were good, but the chocolate inside was way too cocoa powdery and i actually scooped mine out and just at the beignet plain. the float was good, but small.
overall, if horizon's was across the board $5 cheaper, i would like horizon's way more. but it's not so it sux.

then there is sprig and vine. it is like $1-$2 cheaper than horizon's and i can't say enough good things about this place. i have been for brunch, lunch, and dinner. for both brunch and lunch, i got the reuben. mmm fermented goodness. a+. at brunch, i also got cinnamon sugar donuts. only having started to drink coffee 2 years ago, i have never dipped a donut into coffee before. these donuts are wonderful for that. light and airy in a way i am not used to donuts being, these donuts were perfect. lunch dessert was olive oil cake. i have never had cake like this before. it was the exact opposite of the donuts. dense and moist, with a solid rosemary flavor and a hint of sweetness. delicious.
for dinner, shawn started with the tofu satay. a solidly sized and good appetizer. i usually stay away from tofu based dishes, since i am usually disappointed, but i would order this. the tofu was cooked soo well. i started with the grilled peach/tomato salad. how can you go wrong with local summer peaches and tomatoes? it was banging. for an entree, we split the tempeh. holy fuck. never have i had tempeh like this before. it came with a maple mustard sauce that, when cooked, made a delicious caramelized crust. the sides were decent greens and really good mashed potatoes like my grandma used to make. even though shawn and i split it, i was super satisfied with how much i had eaten. the only disappointing part of the meal was the "flatbread", which started our dinner and was kinda just like shitty roti.
but overall, sprig and vine is probably my favorite place to eat fancy food on the east coast (mmmm...i still dream about the meal i had at the millennium with sofi in san fran). if sprig and vine was closer, i would probably eat there everyday.


amy