(Fried Green Tomatoes with Hummus for an appetitzer at Cafe Sunflower)
I have been to Cafe Sunflower a few times now. When I first became vegan about 6 1/2 years ago, I went to Cafe Sunflower when I was in Atlanta for work. In the process of trying to find the restaurant, a coworker and I got lost in one of the worst parts of Atlanta and almost didn't make it to the restaurant at all before they closed. But we did and that was one of my first experiences of being vegan at an all vegetarian restaurant. Since then, R and I went last year and then we went again Friday night with Allison. Last year when we went, I remember loving the Power Bowl (a special entree on the vegan portion of the menu at the Buckhead location). I kept thinking about that dish and how I could recreate it at home. So, of course, I ordered it again Friday night. Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as what I remembered. I am not sure if I just built it up so much in my head from before or if it truly just wasn't as good. Either way, I was definitely disappointed. However, these fried green tomatoes in the picture were pretty amazing. In between each tomato was hummus. That made a great combination and as you can see in the picture, they made the dish very pretty!
Another disappointment was the service. We had a really bad server. He was pretty rude and didn't do a good job. That kind of put a damper on the experience. It's amazing how much service can affect the dining out experience. But we did order dessert and I have to say that the peanut butter chocolate mousse pie is one of my all time favorite vegan desserts I have ever had. It was amazing. Definitely NOT healthy, but it was delicious! I have had this dessert before and it continues to be delicious everytime. :)
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and just enjoyed the short amount of time we had with Allison. Her flight had to leave at 10:50 on Saturday morning so we really did not have much time together. But we did manage to make a trip to Dulce Vegan Bakery before dropping her off at the airport. Everything I had was amazing!
I had 3 noteworthy things at Dulce Vegan Bakery. I had the breakfast sandwich. You can choose the items you want to go on your breakfast sandwich and you can also decide if you want it on a biscuit, english muffin or bagel. For me, that was a no brainer. Vegan biscuits are a delicacy so, of course, I had to have it on a biscuit! :) So, my breakfast sandwich consisted of a biscuit, tofu "eggs," "sausage" and Daiya vegan cheddar cheese. Amazing! (I ended up getting the exact same thing Sunday morning before we left town!) I also got a cherry almond scone that was right out of the oven and delicious. I usually am not crazy about scones, but I decided to get one because they were right out of the oven and their cinnamon rolls wouldn't be ready while we were there that day. Serious bummer! But the scone was awesome! Also, I got an orange mocha. I have never seen this coffee drink option anywhere. I have always loved the orange chocolate combination so I knew I would have to try this out. (Side note***I also ended up getting this the next day too!) :) The orange chocolate combination never disappoints. I think I might try to figure out how to recreate this at home! R was a little bummed out because she could not get a gluten free breakfast sandwich option and their gluten free biscotti would not be ready while we were there that morning. So we ended up making another trip to Whole Foods so she could get some substance for breakfast that morning. Before we knew it, it was time to send Allison off to the airport.
(Allison, R and Me at Dulce Vegan Bakery)
After we dropped Allison off, we also made a trip to Trader Joe's to stock up on some stuff. Asheville doesn't have a Trader Joe's....that seems crazy to me but who knows?! I buy a lot of stuff other than food at Trader Joe's like toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, facewash, soap, etc. I love Trader Joe's! Please come to Asheville, TJs!! :)
After we left TJs, we met up with another friend of mine. I have known my friend Megan since junior high! We have really only been good friends since college though. We reconnected in college and have kept up with each other ever since even though she moved away to Baltimore (and now lives in Atlanta with her husband) and I moved away to North Carolina. I told Megan that I would like to do something active during the day to burn off some of the delicious vegan food I had been eating. We decided to go to Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain was an interesting place! We decided to hike to the top of the mountain and what's funny is that once you get to the top of the mountain, they have a ski lift that can take you back down (I guess you could ride it up too) and they have a concession stand where you can buy popcorn, sodas and other junk food! Crazy! R did decide to take the ski lift down to preserve her knees for Zumba though. So I guess it is a really good thing for people who can hike up but have problems hiking down because of their knees.
(At the top of Stone Mountain where the ski lift and concession stand are!)
After hiking at Stone Mountain, it was time for more vegan food! Megan made us some hummus and an artichoke dip that we ate with crackers....delicious! Then we went back to get ready for dinner. We went to Soul Vegetarian Two. I love vegan soul food, but the service at this place was so slow! Also, all of the servers looked like they were miserable being there. I am not sure what religion the people were, but they had some religious background music and preaching in the background while we were eating. I would have to say that the slow service, unhappy servers and the weird religious rantings/music took away from the experience. However, there was some really good vegan food mixed in there. We all shared the onion rings and they were delicious. Then I had the country "steak" that was made of something they called "kalebone." I have never heard of this before but the description basically sounded like seitan. Maybe they don't like to say "seitan" since it sounds like "satan?!" Not sure. Anyway, it came with side dishes so I had the vegan mac and cheese, collard greens and sweet potatoes. The "steak" was a little chewy but it was good and the mac and cheese was pretty good too. I can't say I would come back to the restaurant again though. Before we left, we also got some of their ice cream.
(Yes, that says "Eternity Ice Kream Parlor.")
The ice cream was pretty good but, once again, I was not really blown away by anything at the restaurant. Don't get me wrong, it was all good food. Just not enough for me to go back with all of the other things I mentioned before.
After going out to dinner, we explored a little bit of the Atlanta night life scene with Megan and her sister, but we really didn't end up staying out too late. The next morning we woke up early, went to Dulce Vegan Bakery (they had cinnamon rolls on Sunday that were AMAZING and they had the gluten free biscotti this time!) again and then headed back to Asheville. It was great getting away for the weekend! I even made it back in time for my Sunday spinning class!
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