Bluff City Vegan Eats: Hi-Tone Cafe

I know Daiya vegan cheese has been making appearances in pizzerias in major cities across the country for, like, forever. But Memphis is always a few steps behind. We've had vegan cheese offered at our Mellow Mushroom in nearby Germantown for a few months, but Midtowners like me have to drive 45 minutes to get there.

Enter the Hi-Tone Cafe. This rock club features shows by local and national touring acts nearly every night of the week. It's the kind of music the cool kids like (indie rock, hipster music), so naturally, it's not really my scene for shows. But the Hi-Tone also serves food, and they've just begun offering Daiya vegan cheese for their delicious, massive homemade pies. Just last week, some friends/co-workers and I ordered this Veggie Pizza with Vegan Cheese:

Damn, was this pie tasty. The kitchen is super-generous with the Daiya and it's piled with veggies like mushrooms, spinach, etc. After ordering, we realized that we could have added veggie burger to the pizza for an additional charge. Oh well. Next time.

Here's Hannah and Ashley, ready to dig in:

Hannah's newly vegan, and Daiya is the first vegan cheese she's tried. She said she loved it immediately. My first vegan cheese was nasty old Vegan Rella back in 2004 (sorry Rella, but you weren't that tasty). Teese and Daiya truly revolutionized vegan cheese. As for Ashley, well, she isn't vegan, and she still loved the pizza. She said she'd order it again, even if she wasn't dining with vegans.

The Hi-Tone also serves Sunday brunch, and they typically offer some sort of vegan special. Some days, that means tofu scramble. Other days, that means vegan pancakes. I'd recommend you call first on brunch day though, just to make sure they have a vegan option. Here's a tofu scramble platter (with lots of taters, asparagus, and toast) that I ordered on a past Sunday brunch:

They also have homemade veggie burgers on the regular dinner menu, but I've never tried them. It's hard to order a burger when there's vegan cheese pizza available.

The Hi-Tone is located at 1913 Poplar Ave. Call 901-278-8663. Click here for their menu.