Birthday Weekend Fun!

My birthday is Tuesday! Yay! And since I'm a Libra, I like to spread out the celebrations as far as possible. Birth week started with a fun, food-filled birthday weekend with some of my favorite people!

On Friday, after work, my BFF Sheridan and her partner Drew came to Memphis (from Little Rock), and we went out for dinner at Today & Always (the new name of our restaurant at Crosstown Arts!). They hadn't had a chance to eat since we opened our plant-based cafe at work, and I was all too happy to share a meal there with them (even if that did mean going back to the office an hour after leaving on a Friday!).

I ordered the Steak & Cheese Wrap — a seitan steak philly-style wrap with cashew cheese sauce. Chef Raymond makes his own seitan and slices it very thinly for deli meats that are just phenomenal. On the side, I got the Creole Coleslaw.

We all three split an appetizer of Vegan Pimento Cheese. This spread is SO GOOD.

After dinner, we headed across the lobby to Art Bar, Crosstown Arts' bar concept. Bar manager Bart and crew are whipping up some artful, inventive cocktails, and they're served in a super-cool lounge with vintage furnishings and retro knick-knacks. I started with The Last of the Mississippi Speedballs (yaupon, Jameson, lemongrass, camomile). This tastes like tea and drinks like liquor.

Chef Raymond also creates the bar snacks for Art Bar, so we snacked on his delicious homemade Salt & Vinegar Chips. We were sitting at a table with green lighting, hence the color.

More Art Bar shots! After my cocktail, I switched to Hamm's because it's good, cheap beer.

The next morning, Sher, Drew, and I went back to Crosstown Arts' Today & Always for brunch! They serve chef specials only (no regular menu) at Saturday brunch, and one of Raymond's specials was vegan Grits and Grillades. This featured his homemade seitan, in cutlets, over grits with red wine gravy and coleslaw. OMG so good.

They had to leave shortly after brunch (but we did get in a quick trip to Trader Joe's first!). And then later that night, Paul got into town from Nashville. We joined some friends Saturday night at Dru's Place, our fave gay bar, for drag and pool.

And then on Sunday morning, we met up with Pam and Megan at Imagine Vegan Cafe for the most amazing brunch of my life — Vegan Doughnut Burgers!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!! Beyond burger patty stuffed between two glazed vegan doughnuts with special sauce and a side of sweet potato fries. This was a brunch special a few weeks ago when I was out of town, so I nicely asked Imagine owner Kristie if she'd make it again for my birthday. And she did! Love!!

I really should have eaten a salad for dinner, but Paul's mom sent him with some cash and told him to buy my birthday dinner on Sunday night as a gift from her. So we kinda HAD to eat out again. This time, we decided on takeout from Crazy Noodle, enjoyed while watching a scary movie, Hereditary. I went with my fave Vegetable Ramen (extra tofu).

Whew! That was a lot of delicious food (and drink!). It's a good thing the full No Meat Athlete Health Made Simple plan launched today because I need to get back on track. I'll update y'all on day one of the full meal plan in tomorrow's post.