MEATLESS NO LONGER MEANS MEAGER. Across the state, high-end eateries that specialize in plant-based menus are offering fare that’s extraordinarily sophisticated, satisfying and complex. These are wonderful places to enjoy with colleagues and clients, offering a sense of discovery without leaving you overstuffed or guilty.
You’ll find both M.A.K.E, a raw or “living food” restaurant, and the adjacent raw-food cooking school, on the dining deck of Santa Monica Place, a high-end, open-air shopping mall just blocks from the beach. Owner Matthew Kenney is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and a highly celebrated chef. The food here is gourmet and gorgeous; a favorite dish is the market lasagna-layers of tomato, zucchini, macadamia nuts, pistachios and basil. M.A.K.E. recently hosted a dinner and demo for Merrill Lynch and a weekend intensive for The Honest Company. Dining options include a communal bar where guests can watch the chefs work, an airy dining room and a full-service patio. As rarefied as the food may seem, it’s a crowdpleaser. “Observing a dining room full of guests enjoying raw cuisine together, you are able to sense the high people feel from consuming a meal that isn’t heavy and hard to digest,” says Kenney. “It’s a creative culinary experience; our dishes are artistic and visually appealing- they’re conversation pieces.”
Located in San Diego’s trendy North Park neighborhood, Spread offers a boutique dining experience for groups of up to 70. The menu changes daily to reflect the locally grown, organic produce unearthed each morning at local San Diego farmers markets and farms. “It’s all about what’s at the market that day,” says owner Andrew Schiff. “When I started the restaurant 11 years ago, I wanted to create something real and different, and also a lot of fun.” In addition to munching on dishes like wild mushroom ragu or banana curry oatmeal, guests can grab a beer or glass of wine, knock around a few balls at the one-hole miniature golf course in the restaurant’s garden, or take a cooking class to learn how to recreate Spread dishes at home.
Sure, chef Tal Ronnen became famous for preparing Oprah’s meals when she did a 21-day vegan cleanse and for catering the vegan wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. Still, he thinks of the food at Crossroads Kitchen, his sexy new West Hollywood restaurant, “as Mediterranean first, plant-based second,” he says. With dishes like truffle leek flatbread, a root vegetable potpie, hearts of palm calamari, a nut-milk cheese plate, a full bar and a highend wine list with an emphasis on organic and biodynamic bottles, no one feels deprived here. The wine room seats 30, a second private dining room seats 15, and the entire space can be bought out, with a capacity of 300 for cocktail receptions. An event hosting last year’s Emmy nominees was held here, and Crossroads has become a popular spot for Hollywood soirees. “People really enjoy taking their company to a place that’s unique,” Ronnen says.
When Millennium opened in San Francisco in 1994, fine-dining vegan was not a concept to which most Americans could relate. Today, while half the restaurant’s clientele are vegan or vegetarian, the other half are omnivores. “At almost every table, the comment I hear is, ‘I could eat vegan if I could eat this every day,’” says Kyle Bullen, Millennium’s assistant general manager. This is a white-tablecloth, special-occasion kind of place, catering to serious foodies. A variety of tasting menus are offered throughout the week, all featuring farm-fresh organic produce, and all reflective of chef and founder Eric Tucker’s fascination with world cuisines. The restaurant is known for its gorgeous plating of dishes such as Arborio-crusted pumpkin, with cashew roasted garlic polenta, and potato tikki cake, served with a sweet pepper and cabbage hash. Millennium has an extensive vegan wine list and a seasonal cocktail menu. The restaurant’s private dining room seats 30 for dinners and can accommodate 60 for a cocktail party.
Greens Restaurant, San Francisco
It’s hard to say which is more stunning: the view out the window or the artfully plated food on the table. Suffice it to say Greens is a restaurant that speaks to the senses on multiple levels. The wall of windows puts diners so close to the water, they could almost jump into one of the sailboats bobbing in the bay. On clear days, the Golden Gate Bridge stands postcard-pretty in the background.
Meanwhile, as Laura Fraenza, director of event sales, says, “every single dish is a work of art.” These include a butternut squash and sweet potato gratin, wild mushroom and leek pizza, and desserts such as a salted caramel chocolate tart.
Greens’ back dining room, which shares the same view as the main room, seats 50 and can host a standing reception for 70. The restaurant’s location at historic Fort Mason Center, a Civil War-era military base now managed by the National Park Service, comes with a bonus: ample and cheap parking.
