Guide To The 2017 Vegan Street Fair Nights

(credit: www.stevendewall.com)
Vegan Street Fair (VSF), the vegan food and lifestyle celebration touting bite sized eats, has continued to expand in size and popularity since its inaugural event in 2015. Its first event hosted 44 vendors with 10,000 attendees, grew to 100 vendors and had 20,000 attendees in 2016 and added the first VSF Nights in September with 3,000 attendees over two days.

The event will feature 14 of some of the most highly sought-after vegan and vegan friendly vendors in California. Instagram personality @VeganFatKid carefully curated the event and wanted to keep the event intimate. Wanting to find the right balance of vendors for an overall quality experience, @VeganFatKid wanted to, "give the crowd a few old favorites, mixed with some new vendors they haven't tried."

The vendor lineup includes: Bling Bling Dumpling, S + M Vegan, Taqueria La Venganza, The Wild Chive, Cocobella Creamery, and more. A total of 14 vendors from across Southern California will be bringing their unique vegan food and drink creations and combine it with musical entertainment by Orange County's 80s cover band FlashPants, a beer garden, board games, beer pong and giant jenga set under the stars.

$4 and $10 Eat It All Passports: Each passport holder gets a snazzy passport good for 1 $4 or $10 item from each vendor, respectively. Attendees will get a stamp on the passport at each vendor as they collect their eats/drinks. Friday is 21+ and Saturday is all ages, with beer, wine, and frozen margaritas flowing for those of age both nights.

Cena Vegan
PO Box 412726
Los Angeles, CA 90041
www.cenavegan.com

Located in Eagle Rock, Cena Vegan sells authentically Latin American plant-based meats seasoned with generations-old family recipes and produced in small batches using a proprietary three-step process. They happily return to VSF Nights with a larger setup to serve its ever-growing fan base, serving salsas from scratch and corn tortillas made on-site using fresh masa. Attendees can try their plant-based carne asada, pollo asado, al pastor and gluten-free barbacoa in big vegan burritos, nacho boats and street tacos.

S+M Vegan
www.snmvegan.com

S+M Vegan, a pop up and catering company founded in Oakland, is currently based out of Los Angeles. Following successful weekly events, pop ups at bars and shops and reservations-only dinners, their from-scratch cooking is inspired by their Italian, French and Southeast Asian roots. They will be serving Fried Brussels Sprouts on a stick ($4-$5) or a sampler of all three flavors ($10), General Tso's, bacon and cheese, and Buffalo style, with blue cheese dressing on the side. Attendees can also order their classic sausage, cheese pizza or pink pizza with smoked beet with sides of their buttermilk ranch to dip ($4-$5).

Ridiculous Baking Co.
www.ridiculousbaking.com

Ridiculous Baking Co. is LA's premiere local vegan bakery, creating great food vegans miss having like delicious buttery croissants, minus the butter of course. The RBC team is teaming up with Herbivorous Butcher to bring back the ham 'n' cheese and the reuben croissants from last year, along with adding a banh mi croissant (all $10) made with salty sliced "pork" from Herbivorous Butcher. Those looking for something a little sweet, try their cronuts ($4).

Taqueria La Venganza
Harrison St & 15th St
Oakland, CA 94612
www.taquerialavenganza.com

Taqueria La Venganza started on a corner sidewalk and has grown rapidly to become a vegan festival favorite. Featuring all of the Mexican 'meats', they are excited to be back for VSF nights and will be serving tacos ($3-$4), taquitos ($7), burritos ($10) and the popular carne aside fries also ($10).

The Wild Chive
thewildchive.squarespace.com

This Long Beach-based pop-up specializes in hand-crafted, soulful vegan dishes. Chef Soozee Nguyen became vegetarian at 19 and has since yearned to create meatless versions of her childhood meals prepared by her Vietnamese father, favorites growing up in Texas. Nguyen is proud to bring her Vegan Monte Cristos ($14) Mushroom Po'Boys ($10) at VSF Nights.

Word Of Mouth Truck
(323) 610-1878
www.wordofmouthtruck.com

As a 100% plant based food truck that serves comfort food, Word Of Mouth are excited to return to VSF. Along with the favorite mac and cheese bites ($4), guests can order chili cheese fries ($10) an Inside Out Grilled Cheese ($13), and they are also bringing back a childhood favorite veganized Dunkaroos ($3.50).

Bling Bling Dumpling
(323) 308-0636
www.blingblingdumpling.com

Bling Bling Dumpling sources local, organic ingredients from around Southern California. From being taught authentic Chinese cooking by their Taiwanese mothers and grandmothers, they offer a fresh take on the dim sum cart, giving traditional Taiwanese recipes a modern twist. At VSF Nights, they will be serving their shiitake mushroom dumplings, two dumplings with spinach ($4), fried tofu ($4) and combo plate which includes four dumplings and fried tofu ($10)

The Federal
5303 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601
(818) 980-2555
www.thefederalbar.com

Along with serving beer, wine, frozen margaritas and other drinks at the event, The Federal will also be selling two items from their regular menu. The Spicy Hot Dog is their chipotle dog, avocado, mango salsa, cilantro crème on a pretzel bun served with veggie chips. And the vegan burger is made with sweet potato and quinoa, topped with avocado, arugula, and garlic on a wheat bun, also served with veggie chips. 

Spitz
1725 Hillhurst Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 522-3309
www.eatatspitz.com

With four locations across LA, a food truck and four additional locations, Spitz is based off the healthy eating lifestyle. At VSF Nights their truck will be serving a selection of three falafel balls with hummus ($4), vegan salad ($10), Doner wrap ($11) with pommes and falafel and the Doner combo ($15) which includes the wrap, side and a drink.

Cocobella Creamery
1253 Vine St #12
Los Angeles, CA 90038
(323) 848-4672
www.cocobellacreamery.com

Hollywood's Cocobella Creamery is a 100% dairy-free, vegan, and gluten-free ice cream parlor serving 16 rotating flavors of ice cream, specialty sundaes, floats, and ice cream sandwiches from scratch. At VSF Nights they will be serving six flavors including a new flavor, Horchata, which is being launched at the event ($4 single, $7 double). Other desserts offered include their gluten free Horchata Churros Sundae ($10), and a collaboration with Cha Cha Kombucha for a passion fruit Kombucha Float with vanilla ice cream ($8).

Charlie's Brownies
8603 Airdrome St B
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 738-2773
www.charliesbrownies.com

Charlie's Brownies serves the finest vegan and gluten free gourmet brownies, blending only organic ingredients and home baked love. This year at VSF Nights, they'll be serving Bronuts ($6) and Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches ($10), all gluten free, organic, and sweetened with coconut palm sugar. There will be several flavors of the ice cream sandwiches to choose from including Matcha Coconut, Maple Bacon, Peanut Butter, Superfood, and Dark Chocolate Pistachio, all come with a choice of house made chocolate sauce or caramel sauce on the side.

Cha Cha Kombucha
(949) 385-1463
www.chachakombucha.com

Cha Cha Kombucha's raw and authentic approach to ingredients partnered with a handcrafted approach, results in kombucha cultured to perfection with a distinguished taste. They are serving four flavors on draught: guava, strawberry basil and green apple ginger for $5 a glass and their hops flavor for $4, as well as a flight of all four flavors for $10.  

Scandylous Delights
(818) 618-9144
website

Scandylous Delights brings specialty sweets to vegans and others with specialized diets with freshly-prepared treats that satisfy anyone's decadent sweet tooth. During VSF Nights they will be serving their award-winning funnel cakes, frappes, smoothies and pretzels with sweet mustard sauce and will also be introducing their new cheezy bites with basil aioli sauce, prices range from $4-$11.

Donut Friend
5107 York Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90065
(213) 995-6191
www.donutfriend.com

Highland Park's popular donut shop serves colorful, creative and vegan takes on the classic donut. The shop offers endless create-it-yourself options along with other signature made-to-order donuts on display. They will be serving a selection of cake donuts, raised donuts, and pictured above, the donut ice cream sandwich.