Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Vegan Drinks at R.P. Tracks

Our Memphis Vegan Drinks group had our monthly meetup at R.P. Tracks tonight. It's a fun little college bar on the University of Memphis campus, and they have lots of vegan (and veganizable) options. We've had our Drinks meetups there before (and I've probably even blogged about us meeting there), but I didn't have anything else planned to post tonight. So here's a recap!

Here's the table. We had a nice crowd tonight, and we got a surprise visit from the owners of Imagine Vegan Cafe (Adam and Kristie) and all their kids! They don't get out much because running a restaurant and raising four kids doesn't leave them much free time.


I started with a Memphis Made Fireside — a full-bodied amber ale. Later in the evening, I ordered my very favorite local craft beer, the High Cotton Scottish Ale.


Most people stuck with beer, but Pam ordered something called a Urine Sample. No kidding. She didn't know what liquor was in it, but the yellow stuff was pineapple juice.


Kristie got a Wedding Cake Martini. 


And Vaughan and Nicole ordered some cocktails too — a Dirty Martini for Vaughan and a Rum & Coke for Nicole.


R.P. Tracks is famous for their BBQ Tofu Nachos (fried tofu coated in BBQ sauce, black beans, salsa, lettuce, black olives, and seasoned tortilla chips), and since it was Jennifer's first visit to Tracks, she had to try them.


Pro tip: Always order these with the chips on the side. It keeps them from getting mushy and makes it easier to pack some for leftovers because the portion is huge.


A bunch of folks got nachos because they're hard to resist, but I'd ordered these the past three or four times I'd visited Tracks. So I mixed things up with the Vegetarian Tofu Club — marinated tofu, vegan tomato aioli, hickory coconut bacon. It normally comes on honey-wheat bread, but that's not vegan (because honey), so I sub out their focaccia bread instead. No idea why they serve vegan aioli on non-vegan bread. But the sandwich is probably better on focaccia anyway. Sweet potato fries on the side!


Melissa got the BBQ Tofu Burrito — same toppings as the nachos but stuffed inside a spinach wrap. YUM!


A few folks ordered the Buffalo Tofu Wings. I was always afraid these weren't vegan before because some wing sauce contains butter, but tonight, we got for-sure confirmation that they are vegan! So I'll be trying these next time. The ranch pictured here isn't vegan though (Vaughan eats dairy sometimes, so he didn't mind).


Pam got another of my go-to faves — the BBQ Tofu Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries. It normally comes with slaw, but the slaw isn't vegan. But the tofu is so good that it doesn't need a slaw to be delicious on a bun.


Finally, Steven made a pretty genius order — Waffle Fries with Chipotle Hummus for dipping. The hummus usually comes with pita, and that's delicious too. But fries are better than pita. 


It was a fun night! And now I'm stuffed!

4 comments:

Hillary said...

It looks like such a fun night! Everything looks delicious, and what a brilliant idea, waffle fries dipped in hummus. Totally genius!

Dana Vickerson said...

I really love and appreciate that you guys don't hold a militant environment at your dinners (in the case of the ranch dressing.) We have a vegan meet up group that is starting to bloom here, but I think people are getting REALLY turned off at the super strict attitude that is put on everyone's orders. Not everyone that comes to the meet ups are vegan, but if they happen to order something with dairy it's a huge issue. Anyway, that's my rant for the day. You guys are doing it right in Memphis.

Babette said...
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Babette said...

"fries are better than pita" =)

I would totally eat and drink there all the time if I lived in your city. The food looks fabulous. I'm not sure about the urine sample though.