Mill City Vegan Visits Boston

I've been fortunate to have traveled to Boston four times since the late 1990s. Three visits have been for conferences related to my profession, and a family vacation accounted for the other trip. Each visit to this wonderfully walkable city has resulted in new vegan discoveries.

My flight arrived on a Friday night.  After checking into my Back Bay hotel, I headed straight for The Other Side Cafe, located a short walk from the Sheraton. I had enjoyed this place during a previous visit, so a return trip was in order. I indulged in the vegan burrito, which is quite possibly the world's perfect food. This vegan gem is stuffed full of all of the things that one should hope for in a burrito. I also like that it includes brown rice. The Other Side is a pretty loud and happening place on a Friday night.

I didn't have a lot of time to go out for breakfast during my time in Boston, so I usually found myself walking over to a nearby Whole Foods Market for vegan muffins and juice prior to heading to my conference each day.

Saturday morning I found one of my most anticipated destinations of the trip: an all-vegan shoe store called Sudo Shoes. After a five-minute walk from the Porter T station in Cambridge, I arrived shortly after the 10:00 a.m. opening time. I settled on a pair of $116 work shoes made by Vegetarian Shoes. Because my carry-on bag was already going to be stuffed full for the flight home, I asked them if they could ship the shoes to my home. They happily obliged for an additional $14 shipping fee. I could have spent A LOT more money at this place had I not exercised a bit of restraint. This is the kind of place that I wish would be located in every major city. But we're not all that fortunate.

Sudo Shoes

Inside Sudo Shoes

We had lunch at My Thai Vegan Cafe that afternoon. Located on the edge of Chinatown, you're rewarded with a really great vegan meal after braving their scary entryway to get up to the second-floor. The mock beef with mixed vegetables is definitely a winner.

Mock beef and mixed veggies at My Thai

Later that night, we hopped on the Green Line out to Allston, where we LOVED the pizza at another all-vegan establishment, Peace o' Pie Gourmet Vegan Pizza.  I'm a pizza fanatic.  This place certainly didn't disappoint.

Peace o' Pie

I headed back to The Other Side Cafe for lunch on Sunday. This time I ordered the vegan BLT, which was stacked super high with vegan bacon, among the other good stuff found on your typical BLT, including vegan mayo.

For our final dining out experience in Boston, we were looking for something reasonably close to the hotel. The destination: Mumbai Chopstix, located on Newbury Street. Indian/Asian fusion with at least a few dishes on the menu that appeared to be vegan. Mine was a mix of tofu, eggplant and spinach, all in a tangy garlic sauce. This turned out to be a nice find.

One of the many things I love about traveling is the adventure of seeking out vegan food and vegan-friendly businesses. Given that I'm also quite fond of enjoying urban places and getting around on public transportation while seeking out great those vegan-friendly establishments, Boston has definitely become one of my favorite places to visit.

This visit was certainly made easier by the consulting Vegguide.org, which is my favorite online source for tracking down vegan food.