The Spiral Diner and Bakery

"The Mitch" Tofu Club with Potato Salad.

One of my favorite things about going to visit my mom in Dallas, TX is that I know we're going to go eat at the Spiral Diner (they also have a location in Fort Worth)! I love this place. The food is delicious, the atmosphere is comfortable, the staff is welcoming... what more could you want!? The food is satisfying, filling diner-style food without being heavy or overwhelming. They have a list on the wall of which ingredients are currently organic and a great list inside the menu of what "tempeh," "seitan" and other potentially mysterious ingredients are actually made of for the veggie diner first-timer. Each location has a great self-serve drink station with natural sodas on tap. In addition to being a great diner, they are also a bakery and always have a good selection of tempting vegan treats on hand so that you can end your meal with a cookie topped with a scoop of house-made ice cream anytime you like! The Spiral Diner also has a small "grocery" section at the front of each location with a few vegan staples, candies, books, tshirts, and more. Dallas is fortunate to have a place like this and I am fortunate to have another reason to visit Dallas more often!

The World's Largest Dog Collectables Museum

On our most recent trip to Texas, we drove from Dallas to Austin to spend a day there hanging out with our friends and visiting some new customers. We even hired a really great new Austin demo rep. On our way driving back to Dallas, we happened by a roadside attraction that we could NOT pass up: The World's Largest Dog Collectables Museum in Waco, Texas! The museum itself is situated in the corner of a large antique mall. Nothing in the museum is for sale, but many of the surrounding antique booths have great dog-related collectables. We could have easily spent hours here and not seen half of the thousands and thousands of items in the museum, but we saw what we could. We also looked high and low for a vintage pit bull figurine, but came up empty handed. When we left, since we hadn't bought anything, I tried to leave a donation for the dog museum, but the ladies at the checkout wouldn't hear of it. The dog museum is clearly a labor of love and I can't recommend it enough if you're passing by to budget the extra time to stop and take a good look around!

(Some more pictures of the museum can be found on this site!)

James Scott likes Zico Chocolate Coconut Water

Jamey Scott is a Dallas Vegan who is involved in a number of projects to help Texans Go Vegan. He works with Mercy for Animals and also helps to organize the Texas State Veggie Fair, which is in it's second year and taking place TOMORROW at Winfrey Point at White Rock Lake in Dallas. There will be a vegan deep fried food contest, vendors, samples, speakers and more! (I will be there teaching yoga early on so you can get the body prepared for digestion, and then working with Upton's the rest of the day). So come by the Veggie Fair and say hi to Jamey and thank him for his involvement in such a great event!

The Vegan Thing Jamey Likes is Zico Chocolate flavored Coconut Water. 

One of the more recent vegan things that I like (although, it's more of an obsession right now) is Zico Chocolate flavored Coconut Water. I grew up drinking Yoo-Hoo drinks (and the lesser-known "Chocolate Soldier") and loved the chocolately, sweet taste - much more than I liked chocolate milk (it's a wonder I still have all of my teeth!). Fast forward (ahem) a few years, and while I could easily snag a vegan chocolate "milk" product, Yoo-Hoo type drinks were nowhere to be found - until now! When I saw Zico's new Chocolate Coconut Water, I was not entirely excited - given that I'm not a huge fan of coconut water in general. But after my first sip, I knew I had finally found a replacement for those sugary sweet chocolate drinks of my childhood. The best part is, these *aren't* full of sugar, dairy, and high-fructose corn syrup. Just simple ingredients, low-calories and low-sugar, and full of flavor. What's more, its high potassium and electrolyte content make it a great post-workout treat! Try one today!

Chris Tate likes Macbeth's Eliot Shoes

Chris Tate is Crystal's (you know, yesterday's Vegan Person I Like) other half and her Co-Founder in vegan queso over at Food for Lovers. He is a really friendly and seems like a down to earth guy, which is always how I hope that fellow vegans will be when I meet them! Chris and Crystal's business growth has been quick and it's impressive that they really took the leap in a product that they (and the PPK forums!) believed in. I hope that they sell a whole heck of a lot of queso! Why not help out and pick yourself up a jar (or two or three)?!

The Vegan Thing Chris Likes is Macbeth's Eliot Vegan Shoes.

Photo from Macbeth.com.

I ordered shoes from Macbeth's vegan line from Vegan Essentials when I was 17. I was pretty excited to find vegan shoes after searching the entire internet. I was a new vegan then, too. After 9 years of veganism, I can't find better vegan shoes. I replaced them a few times, but I still wear Macbeths at 25. These cruelty free vegan shoes look great, are durable and last long. I've toured with Macbeths and did lots of walking around (before I could drive). I wear a couple of different colors from the Eliot style.


I think we still need more vegan shoe options. It'd be cool to see more vegan shoe companies pop up.

Crystal Tate likes Hail Merry Blonde Macaroons

I met Crystal (photo of her on the right with Ani Phyo at left) and her husband, Chris (more on him tomorrow!), both super sweeties, at Vida Vegan Con. Being in a couple that is "behind" a vegan brand, it's really exciting to meet other couples working to make vegan businesses a reality. Crystal is the CEO and Co-Founder of Food for Lovers, a company that makes some darn tasty vegan queso coming straight out of Texas! If you're in Chicago, we'll be offering Crystal's queso as part of our menu at Chicago VeganMania in a few weeks, so make a point to stop by (especially if you haven't tried this queso before). You will not be disappointed!

The Vegan Thing Crystal Likes is Hail Merry Blonde Macaroons!

Photo from HailMerry.com

Our kitchen is pretty much free of sweets. We sometimes make an exception for these snacks, because they're made with maple syrup. These macaroons taste like glazed donut holes, except they're raw. Each macaroon is really soft. Even better, the macaroons are made with coconut oil which melts at room temp. When you eat one, it literally melts in your mouth.


Hail Merry is a vegan female-owned company from Dallas, Texas. They are really involved in their community and are a really great company to check out.

Ari Nessel likes Nessel Development

Ari Nessel is an amazing vegan, yogi, and phenomenally deep thinker who I met several years ago as a result of our shared enthusiasm for yoga, and specifically the teachings of Yogi Sri Dharma Mittra. I was fortunate, a year or so later, to spend time with Ari in New York during our advanced training with Sri Dharma and to have the opportunity to soak up much of Ari's knowledge which he has acquired through a seemingly unwavering devotion to self-realization through a path of yoga and meditation.

Ari is also a devoted father to his two boys, pictured with him, Jonah (age 4) and Deven (age 18 months). In addition to all of this, Ari is a successful, generous, and purposeful vegan businessperson, as he tells below. The Vegan Thing He Likes is his inspiring business, Nessel Development.

My favorite vegan product, if I can pitch for myself a moment, are my apartment buildings in Dallas. We are a vegan company that provides free vegan lunches to our employees and all food bought at our properties must also be free of animal products. Additionally, we make many efforts to run our complexes in an environmentally sustainable manner. First and foremost, we buy properties that frequently others would demolish and we make them beautiful (really, I mean it). Then, through numerous renovation improvements, the properties become much more water, electric and natural gas efficient. We even have available for residents dog parks and organic gardens at all of our properties. And, if a resident adopts a pet from a shelter while living at our property, we don't charge them a pet fee.

I know you were thinking of vegan food products, but maybe vegan businesses are another way of supporting this movement. Also, we donate a considerable amount to animal rights advocacy groups each year and even provide free housing and offices to Mercy for Animals here in Dallas. (Ed note: Having met MFA folks who were working and living in a Nessel Development building, I have to say that they sound pretty wonderful!)

(Second photo borrowed from www.nesselinc.com.)

Forbidden Gardens

So, this isn't a food thing, but I think it still counts as a "vegan thing" since most of my discoveries come from my travels and this is one of my favorites! One of the coolest things about traveling is when you have a free hour or two to see something local and one of the coolest "something locals" we've seen was outside of Houston at Forbidden Gardens in Katy, Texas.

I didn't know until just now when I went to look up some details about Forbidden Gardens that it is now gone, which is a tragedy. The story, as I remember it, was that Forbidden Gardens was built by a Chinese American man who wanted to encourage a love of his Chinese culture in his children. His gardens included many buildings and models constructed in the traditional way (which were, unfortunately, not capable of withstanding the Texas sun). There was a scale model of the Forbidden City and, the most impressive, a 1/3 scale model of the tomb of the first Chinese Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, guarded by 6,000 terra cotta statues of warriors.

By the time we visited last year, Forbidden Gardens had fallen into serious disrepair and was all but deserted as we walked the grounds. The neglect made it seem even more surreal, as we saw the terra cotta warriors beaten and broken, but still standing guard under the magnificently blue Texas sky. It is not surprising, based on that visit, that the museum was not sustainable and is now closed, but it is sad to think that we'll never look on this amazing sight again. Now to see if I can pick up a piece of history for of my own.