It’s Easy Being Vegan at Vee Vee

It’s not easy being vegan.  The rigid but enriching lifestyle eschews, of course, all animal dietary products, including honey, as well as the use of wool and leather.

On a personal note, I’ve been a vegetarian (with vegan tendencies and phases) for untold years.   I’m perfectly happy with “pleather” belts and shoes, acrylic or cotton sweaters, and I more or less regard milk as a beverage for babies. 

In the early days, it used to be a challenge to find meatless meals when dining out.  Like many others, I relied on ethnic restaurants, chiefly Indian, Asian and Mexican, where the variety of vegetarian dishes was always ample.   Nowadays, it’s certainly much less difficult.  

By my count, this article marks the twenty-first of my “” columns.  From to and just about everywhere in-between, I’ve had the unique pleasure of nibbling my way across Jamaica Plain’s innumerable “veggie friendly” eateries, and have scarcely encountered a bad morsel of food.  

, the executive director of JP Centre/South Main Streets, and one of the neighborhood’s most tireless cheerleaders, once told me that Centre Street now boasts more restaurants than Newbury Street has hair salons.   As a Boston dining destination, JP’s now in the big leagues, and can compete with the likes of the restaurant rows in the Back Bay, and the North and South Ends. 

So, it’s surprising, especially given JP’s, what shall we say?  ...it’s countercultural Cambridge-like consciousness, that the neighborhood doesn’t have a single, strictly vegetarian or vegan eatery. 

Despite the salivation of some, I must admit a certain amount of disappointment to recently learn that a “will open next month in the space that was .  If I only had the capital and the culinary skills, I’d open a veg/vegan restaurant myself, and would soon expect to be turning away the hungry crowds.  

In the meantime . . . enter .  On Wednesday nights the Centre Street restaurant offers a downright delicious $25 prix fixe vegan menu that could probably convert the most hardened carnivore. 

With its reliance on fresh, local produce, Vee Vee’s weekly three-course menu, consisting of an appetizer, main course and dessert, changes regularly.  On a recent frigid Wednesday evening, the restaurant offered a winning combination of stick-to-your ribs, wintry comfort foods. 

The night’s first course was a Chunky Beet Soup, an excellent and elegantly presented bowlful of red and yellow beets in what seemed like a long simmered broth flavored with a splash of vinegar.  Not at all sweet like your grandmother’s borscht, the exquisitely colored soup was served with a slice of first-rate crusty bread to sop up the last delicious ruby red drop. 

The evening’s entrée was equally attractive, healthy and tasty.  Accompanied by a small frisée salad, the main course consisted of rounds of Delicata squash stuffed with black lentils, slices of well-roasted Portobello mushrooms and caramelized carrots.  The austerely seasoned beans and vegetables spoke for themselves and the simple hearty pleasure of fresh seasonal quality ingredients cooked with care.

Without the usually prerequisite eggs and butter, vegan baking can be a challenging endeavor. (Nearby, excels remarkably at the skill.)  At Vee Vee, the final course, Vanilla Cake with Poached Pears, was as wonderful as its predecessors.  Moist and fluffy as any of its artery-clogging counterparts, the room temperature yellow cake and half a warm brown pear was an understated assortment of tastes, textures and temperatures. Served with a reduced, wine-sweetened syrup and sprinkled with a snowy dusting of confectioner’s sugar, the delectable desert was a splendid finish to a superb dining experience.

Though stylish and sophisticated, the atmosphere at Vee Vee is friendly and unassuming.  On the rather quiet night that I visited, there were fewer customers in the restaurant’s well-appointed dining room than at the
comfortable bar, where diners vied for seats and the always pleasant company of local artistic entrepreneur extraordinaire of the and , who also works at Vee Vee. Epicurean vegans chatted with the neighborly Refsland and other patrons who imbibed on Vee Vee's extensive menu of local beers, and chowed down on its meatloaf and pork belly dinners.

In the midst of this diverse and affable clientele arrived fermentologist Garth Shaneyfelt of Green River Ambrosia LLC , who pulled up a seat at the bar, availed himself of the vegan special, and generously shared samples of his homebrewed mead and honeywines with the other diners.

Though the most orthodox vegans among you might object to partaking of Shaneyfelt’s innocent and appetizing aperitif, it illustrates the difficulty of adhering to this demanding lifestyle whose benefits cannot be disputed.

As good as they are, despite JP’s wealth of “veggie friendly” eateries, it is fair to say that many of the menus are overly dependent on dairy products with such readily available items like quesadillas, pasta, meat-free sandwiches with cheese, and the yogurt and ghee used in a lot of Indian foods.   In my now rather long career as a local food critic, I will always remember one reader who posted a comment in response to a review of a restaurant that shall remain unnamed, writing “Cheese Louise!”

Until an enterprising entrepreneur opens an exclusively meat-free establishment in JP, for affordable, fresh, super satisfying and ultra-healthy food in a warm, welcoming atmosphere, my advice is to get thee to Vee Vee on Wednesdays where it’s easy to be vegan.

Located at 763 Centre Street, (617-522-0145) is open Tuesday - Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday from 5:30 to 9 p.m., and serves Sunday brunch from 10:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.)