Midtown Lunch

Today, our Profiled Luncher from yesterday, JR, is checking out Jar Bar.

What I am about to tell you may well trigger your Mr. Yuck face: This review is for a vegan restaurant where nothing is heated above above 118 degrees. It’s raw food. And by raw, I don’t mean edgy. I’m talking uncooked sweet potatoes thinly sliced into “noodles.” Poseur pasta.

But try and keep an open mind! This restaurant actually brings something new and refreshing to Philly, albeit with uneven quality and expensive prices.

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Last winter Craig LaBan wrote an article about different food trucks around town, most I had visited or at least heard of but one truck mentioned was totally new to me- the Vegan Truck on Temple’s campus. This struck serves Asian style vegetables and soy proteins.  Looking at the menu, it seemed that the fully loaded “hot pot” was the best way to check out how the truck handles their different non meat products.

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Today, Luncher Molly is going veg at Philly’s newest hot spot for meatless meals.

I’d been hearing about the new HipCityVeg for quite some time; owner Nicole Marquis was the manager at the former Horizons, which I loved, and her new fast-casual restaurant at 18th and Sansom is just a few blocks from my studio. I spent quite a few years on the vegan train, and although I’ve been back in ovo-lacto-pesce land since 2006, I appreciate a healthy, plant-based option.

I had an afternoon meeting in Center City and needed a small meal to fuel my creativity, so I headed to HipCity. I found the interior to be light and the décor spare, which I dig – it’s all part of their sustainability mission, which includes salvaged building materials, compostable packaging, local sourcing, and bike delivery. The menu is equally simple, consisting of eight sandwiches, five salads and a few sides. I’ve been mourning for years the demise of North Carolina’s Crazie Mae’s, which had the best vegan fried chicken sandwich ever, so I went for the Crispy HipCity Ranch.

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A long time ago Mac and Cheese mentioned a place on Washington Ave that made their own tofu. With all the soy varieties, Viet Tofu is like a a tofu candy store. I finally sought it out and it will now be a regular stop whenever I am in the area.

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Pure Fare is not really my kind of restaurant in theory. It is all about healthy and calorie counting. Scary!  But I shouldn’t judge a restaurant by their calorie count. Besides, focusing on detox might not be the worst idea after St. Patty’s Day weekend.

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This week,  Luncher John gets after the falafel at Crisp.

I probably only ate my first falafel sandwich a couple of years ago. Being a big meat eater, I wasn’t sure what the fascination was with a vegetarian sandwich. Then I discovered it, and now, rarely does a week go by without eating a falafel meal of some sort. Working in Center City, I have plenty of options of where to go for a good falafel sandwich or platter. One of the more recent openings is Crisp on 18^th Street, between Market and Chestnut, and as a converted falafel enthusiast, I couldn’t wait to try to see how it stacked up with other area offerings.

Crisp opened up its Philadelphia location as its first outpost outside New York City. It prides itself on being 100 percent vegetarian, with its ingredients made daily. Not surprisingly, Crisp also is committed to being green, using recycled packaging and having separate recycling bins in its clean, bright space.

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Burger.org serves organic and kosher burgers on South Street in a bright, modern setting. Haters of beef will be please to find that veggie, chicken, turkey, and fish burgers are also on the menu. The base price for each burger, regardless of what died to make it, is $6.95. The prices go up from there with the toppings you choose.

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