Nashville Vegan Eats

I spent Saturday and Sunday in Nashville hanging out with Paul, who has taken a job there for a few months. He's mostly been coming home on his weekends off, but this past weekend, he wasn't able to get off two days in a row. So I made the three-hour drive to visit him. He didn't get off work until 6 p.m. on Saturday, but I really wanted to check out Vegan Vee — a new-ish gluten-free vegan bakery — and they closed at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

So I woke up in Memphis at 5 a.m. on Saturday (after going to bed way too late Friday night), got a 4.5-mile run in, and then headed to Nashville to make it there by noon! That's dedication. I really wanted to try their gluten-free doughnuts. I'll do just about anything for a doughnut. There were plenty of doughnuts left when I arrived. I went with the Vanilla Sprinkled Doughnut and the Chocolate Dipped Doughnut! These were cakey doughnuts, and they were outrageously good. I'm not gluten-free, and I don't always love gluten-free baked goods. But you couldn't even tell these were gluten-free!

Vegan Vee had all kinds of treats — cupcakes, bars, cookies. And most were sweet, but they did have these savory Pizza Rolls. And it was right at noon, and I'd been driving for hours. I was really hungry for something substantive. I had to have one. Bonus: They were still hot from the oven! This soft bun was flecked with sundried tomatoes and whole kalamata olives, and it was all topped with vegan cheddar. Seriously — one of the best things I've had to eat in a long time. Again, you couldn't tell it was gluten-free. It just tasted like the most amazing pizza roll in the world. After I ate it (in my car, after leaving the bakery), I considered going back for another. But I knew I had so much more eating to do in Nashville, so I talked myself out of it.

The folks at Vegan Vee were so nice! They threw in a free Chocolate Chip Cookie, which I enjoyed on the drive home Sunday night. Excellent! No weird gluten-free taste. Just a sweet, soft, chocolatey cookie.

Even though I ate my pizza roll right away, I was still pretty hungry. And I had lots of time to kill before Paul got off work at 6 p.m. So I headed over to another newish Nashville vegan place. Avo is an almost-too-cute-to-be-real raw vegan restaurant. It's located inside a shipping container, next to another shipping container that houses a CrossFit gym. And there's a volleyball court in the back. On nice days, one whole wall of the container rolls up, and the whole place basically becomes an open-air patio. 

The whole menu looked amazing, but I wanted something lighter since I'd already had the pizza roll and I still needed to fit one of my doughnuts in before dinner. I couldn't resist the Tree Nut Cheese Plate — aged nut-based cheddar, aged nut-based "goat" cheese, raw flax crackers, locally sourced pickles, fig jam, apple slices, and edible flowers. Y'all, this place is so fancy that the cheese plate is served on a log!!!

The nut cheeses were divine. Both were tangy, but the cheddar was slightly more sharp. It paired really well with the green apple slices.

I enjoyed the goat cheese schmeared on flax crackers with the fig jam. I really took my time with this plate, enjoying a book as I ate. I wanted to savor every single amazing bite.

After my special snack time, I hit up the Trader Joe's to stock up on goods I can't get in Memphis (we don't have a TJ's yet — later this year!). And then I stopped by the Whole Foods and Whole Body (they have a whole separate WF beauty & body shop!) in Green Hills. By the time I was done, it was time to meet up with Paul. We headed downtown for dinner because I wanted to check out Two Boots Pizza, a vegan-friendly pizzaria. Y'all, they have vegan pizza BY THE SLICE!

The V is for Vegan has artichokes and basil and red pepper pesto! And they're big ole New York-style slices. I grabbed one for dinner and a second one to go (ate that cold in the car on the way home Sunday).

I also got a salad to eat with my pizza for dinner. I love that their basic side salad has chickpeas!

After dinner, we had a couple beers downtown and then turned in for the night. But we got up bright and early for brunch at Wild Cow, a (mostly) vegan (they do have dairy cheese by special request) restaurant in East Nashville. I never visit Nashville without stopping in for a meal at Wild Cow! 

They don't have a brunch menu, but they do offer smoothie bowls on Sundays. And they had a special tofu scramble side. But it's been more than a year since I've eaten at Wild Cow, so I just had to go with my old stand-by — the French Quarter Dip. It's a French dip sub with seitan, portabella mushrooms, vegan cheese, & au jus. For my side, I went with Vegan Queso and Chips cause when you're going in, you just gotta go all in.

Look at the adorable mug they served my coffee in!

It was a delicious and fun-filled weekend!