In this episode of Dining on a Dime, host Lucas Peterson heads to the East Bay, where Oakland’s finest vegan cuisine awaits — alongside a multitude of classic cars. Confused? The vegan restaurant, Hella Vegan Eats, was originally a pop-up inside Classic Cars West, a car showroom for vintage automobiles. It was so successful that it became permanent: The restaurant occupies a great outdoor space and is staffed with a welcoming (and fabulously dressed) group of people.
Not everyone who works at Hella Vegan adheres to any dietary restrictions. One staff member shares that although she eats meat, she’ll often choose the food at Hella Vegan because it’s so good. To put that claim to the test, Peterson stocked up on chicken and waffles, biscuits and gravy, and a tofu scramble (all free of animal products, of course). As he digs into breakfast, Peterson gets a little philosophical: “If you look at it from the perspective of, well, the goal is to stop suffering, then I think that there is a very strong argument to vegetarianism [...] there are good vegan options; I for one welcome our new vegan overlords.”
Watch the full video about to see how items like fried chicken and waffles match up to the non-vegan equivalents.
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