One of the only drawbacks to being vegan (other than the perception that you're a terrorist) is being forced to survive on condiment sandwiches and baked potatoes when traveling outside of major cities. And then there's the hours of research, hours I could have spent baking cakes or making friends or writing a dissertation I instead squandered googling different combinations of "tofu" "hummus" and "Green Bay" or "Morristown" naively believing there has to someone who wants to sell me food
while I occupy their town for a couple of days. For our honeymoon my husband and I rented houses and I carted a cooler and a stash of tvp and nutritional yeast around the Gulf coast for ten days. Except for one hippy kayak store in and a falafel place in New Orleans I cooked all our meals. How romantic.So when I was persuaded by our tiny vaca budget to explore the touristy region of Southwestern Michigan known as Harbor Country, I spent a week scouring the internet trying to find a boca burger or tempeh steak in a 20 mile radius. After finding a Reader article that alluded to tofu scramble at a cafe in Three Oaks only to discover that weeks earlier said cafe had burned down (it has since been rebuilt, see below) I resigned myself to my self-catering fate and packed a cooler.
However, the quaint town where we rented a cottage defied all standard American diet logic. Three Oaks Michigan turned to have the highest ratio of vegan options per capita of anywhere in the world. With 2,949 residents at the last census (which is probably the population of my block or at least the my quarter-mile quadrant of Logan Square.) With at least 6 dreamy meal options my English-major math tells me that's one for every 500 residents or so.
Also for breaks between eating Three Oaks has its own radio station(where I once heard the Canterbury tales in old English), a bike club that has mapped out scenic bike rides ranging from 5-60 miles, a yoga studio, and a tiny movie theater that only shows artsy independent films. It also has a bunch of other awesome stuff like art galleries and a vintage furniture store that specializes in Heywood Wakefield wares. And it's 1.5 hours from Chicago.
The most vegan friendly purveyor is the tiny health food store on the main drag (everything is on the main drag) Belle Via. It has four tables, maybe. When we were there a couple of weeks ago they had vegan apple rolls and muffins, and they made me a lovely ice coffee with soy milk see above). They also have a super healthy special salad and sandwich everyday (mostly these appear to include cheese but it can easily be omitted.) They also make vegan smoothies and offer lots of vegan grocery staples (soy creamer, tofu, organic teething biscuits for vegan baby), fair trade coffee, and local products like the mile's maple syrup. In terms of non-edible amenities it has free wi-fi, a ukelele (see above), and an adorable couple at the helm making lemonade from scratch when my husband asks for it. The only drawbacks are it's not exclusively vegan so you have to ask questions and it's only open Thursday-Monday.
I live in Logan Square, a couple of blocks walk from several lovely trendy brunchy spots that I never walk to and stand in line like a dillhole because, despite my anonymous phone calls urging them to, none of them (except you lula, but you are much farther) offer any vegan breakfast items. No wonder New Yorkers think we live in a cultural vacumm/small farming village. Some mornings when I'm hungry I'm ready to turn on my own city. In Three Oaks, a tiny burg where the movie Prancer was filmed, I can feel like a real cosmopolitan lady because I can wake up and walk two blocks to Bailey's cafe and order Tofu Scramble. It even says "A VEGAN TREAT" on the menu so there's no confusion.
Three Oaks, bless its heart, has some businesses that cater to very rich people who boat and have second homes in the nearby towns like New Buffalo. Froelich's, the bakery/cafe/most expensive food in jars store ever, is definitely geared toward to the sweater tied loosely about the shoulders type. If you can get past the patrons your in for a treat. They were selling 5 accidentaly vegan soups on my last visit, an olive spread to kill for and they have a hummus wrap on the everyday which is
pretty decent.
What three oaks is lacking is a decent place to score a proper vegan dinner. Fortunately, the nearby town of Harbert (also in the confines of Harbor Country) is a short drive or long bike ride up the road. There you will find Cafe Gulistan, a sit down Turkish restaurant with lots of falafel, hummus and lentil soup to tide you over until you return to the big city. The cafe's owner Ibrahim was jailed in a long struggle for citizenship after the post 9-11 immigration backlash. Last time I was there there were pictures of a community rally to support his release. They had a cut out of the statue of Liberty minus the face, and someone took pictures of everyone sticking their different colored and sized and aged faces in the empty space. Ibrahim, now free, is there and everyone who walks in seems to have a relationship with him. This somehow makes the food taste better.
Slightly less fancy and inspiring is Green Door Dairy, which in spite of its name was willing to make me a hummus plate and even advertised a vegan roasted autumn vegetable panini (unfortunately not available till autumn) and stays open until 10 pm. It is also conveniently located right next to three oaks' park, the site of live entertainment on Saturday nights.
