There is a time to laugh... and a time to weep. A time to mourn... and there is a time to eat vegan junk food and drink vegan beer in abundance with a bunch of vegan people. And that time was Portland Vegan Beer & Food Festival. It was a beautiful crisp fall day in what felt like a real deal episode of Portlandia and I was ok with that. We kicked things off with a stroll to A.N.D. cafe to prep our bellies with mouthwatering waffles then it was onto VooDoo Doughnuts. What? I said donuts. Sheesh.
Upon entering the fest we were met by our LA vegan crew who were all sorts of excited to get first dibbs on the jewels. There were soooo many awesome things in one place it's definitely sensory overload. It's time to thrown down. This is the type of place you can't come to alone. You won't survive. It's best to come in a large group and try out bites of everything your crew gets. Trust me on this one. Strategy people.
I'll just highlight some things that particularly tickled my fancy. One was the Chicken N' Waffles Grilled Cheese from the Grilled Cheese Truck which I tried for the first time and holy crap was it good. I'll let the picture speak for itself. Then there was Sizzle Pie's "Drugs Benedict" Pizza. Seriously tasted like a loaded baked potato on a slice of pizza. #drooling
Moving onto the Mac N' Cheese from Of Roots & Bloom which was one of THE best Mac N' Cheeses I've EVER had. Kudos to them for bringing it hard. Sushi Love was keeping Portland weird with their Taco Sushi Roll. Wtf? And yeah, it did taste like a taco! To round everything out at the end we finished it off (barely) with Petunia's Pecan Pie. Ugh, everything was just too good to be true including the beer. I'm not a beer connoisseur so there's no way I can accurately tell you anything other than I was drinking really good tasting beer.
It was so amazing to be surrounded by so many crazy cool vegans at one time especially all of the familiar faces from LA. I got to meet new people and see old friends. It was a blast! Thanks to VBF and Portland for being such great hosts. We can't wait for the next one!
To see all of our photos from our PDX adventure, check out our Facebook Album Here.
Until next time,
Love & Beets!