Memphis Vegan Festival 2023

The annual Memphis Vegan Festival was Sunday in Fourth Bluff Park. Our vegan fest, organized by Memphis event planner Cynthia Daniels, isn’t your typical vegan fest with speakers and free samples. Instead, it’s a gathering of local (and regional) food vendors selling food.

The fest is free to attend, but you definitely need to plan on spending a good amount of money to eat. Which is fine by me because I love using my money to support small, local, Black-owned, vegan businesses. The vast majority of the businesses at this event are Black-owned (perhaps all of them were this year).

I arrived just after the fest opened because these tend to get very busy later in the day, and then you have to spend time standing in food lines. But when I arrived, most vendors were just getting started. I spotted Little Rock-based Utopia Deli right away, and since I can’t eat their food very often, I went there first for this Hot Chop Sandwich!

This was a fried vegan pork chop (but it had the same texture as vegan chicken) covered with agave-gold sauce and served on a brioche bun with garlic aioli and pickles. It was sooooo good! I sat on a park bench and enjoyed every bite.

Next up, I spotted Thicc Ass Vegan, who was selling alfredo pasta and milkshakes. I was too full for pasta, but I’d been wanting to try her milkshakes for a while. So I ordered this Cinnamon Toast Crunch Milkshake. It had little bits of cereal mixed in, and wow!! Who knew cereal would be better in milkshake form?

Somehow, milkshakes are very filling. So I didn’t have room for any more food at that point, and I’d spent plenty on two items. So I headed home. But I wish I had all the money and all the room in my belly because I wanted to eat so many more things: burgers, tacos, loaded fries, mushroom wings, cinnamon rolls, vegan ice cream. Everything looked so good!