Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Sunchoke Olive Pistachio Toast | Inhabitat - Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building

Avant Garden serves up delectable vegan delicacies in a twinkly LES retreat lined with salvaged wood accents

03/21/2016

Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC

'Twas a drizzly, blustery night when Inhabitat Editor-in-Chief Jill Fehrenbacher, Editorial Project Manager Laura Mordas-Schenkein and I popped into <a href="http://www.avantgardennyc.com/">Avant Garden</a>, restaurateur <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/bourgeois-pig-owner-announces-plans-to-go-vegan-at-all-of-his-restaurants-and-bars/">Ravi DeRossi</a>'s nascent vegan foodie haven on the Lower East Side. After thawing ourselves out a bit in the eatery's warm glow, we soon forgot our wet weather woes and began gabbing as friends who haven't seen each other for many months will do. Jill, who was visiting from San Francisco, filled us in on the charming Airbnb digs she'd rented in Brooklyn Heights, but lamented her decision to dine at the sounded-good-on-Yelp restaurant below them. "The vegan options were so disappointing," she explained. "My $20 'walnut pesto pasta' turned out to be pasta slathered in store-bought pesto topped with a few walnuts." I could relate. As a <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/index.php?s=vegetarian">vegetarian</a> of nearly five years, I've been burned many times by restaurants that promised cruelty-free eats but delivered dishes that were actually cruel to the tastebuds instead. No wonder meat lovers aren't chomping at the bit to eat <a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/index.php?s=vegetarian">vegan cuisine</a>. How were we supposed to convince people to try it when so many places were passing off second-rate fare as vegetarian? And then our food came. Creamy, savory, and a world apart from the factory-made vegetarian tripe (who knew such a thing existed?) Jill had been made to gulp down the night before, Avant Garden's offerings were pure plant-based perfection.

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Avant Garden

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Hightop

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Mural

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Tabletop

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Chef

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Smoked Eggplant Celery

Smoked eggplant puree with Calabrian chili, celery, olive and pickled shallot on toast

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Sunchoke Olive Pistachio Toast

The sunchoke toast with olive, pistachio and quince was a particular favorite.

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC fennel Hummus Toast

Fennel hummus with Castelvetrano olive, orange and walnut on toast.

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Maitake Mushrooms

Maitake mushrooms with parsnip, broccoli rabe, Cipollini onions and apples

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Gnocchi

Gnocchi with butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, pears and black garlic

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Beverage Storage

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Branch Decor

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC Chefs

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC

'Twas a drizzly, blustery night when Inhabitat Editor-in-Chief Jill Fehrenbacher, Editorial Project Manager Laura Mordas-Schenkein and I popped into Avant Garden, restaurateur Ravi DeRossi's nascent vegan foodie haven on the Lower East Side. After thawing ourselves out a bit in the eatery's warm glow, we soon forgot our wet weather woes and began gabbing as friends who haven't seen each other for many months will do. Jill, who was visiting from San Francisco, filled us in on the charming Airbnb digs she'd rented in Brooklyn Heights, but lamented her decision to dine at the sounded-good-on-Yelp restaurant below them. "The vegan options were so disappointing," she explained. "My $20 'walnut pesto pasta' turned out to be pasta slathered in store-bought pesto topped with a few walnuts." I could relate. As a vegetarian of nearly five years, I've been burned many times by restaurants that promised cruelty-free eats but delivered dishes that were actually cruel to the tastebuds instead. No wonder meat lovers aren't chomping at the bit to eat vegan cuisine. How were we supposed to convince people to try it when so many places were passing off second-rate fare as vegetarian? And then our food came. Creamy, savory, and a world apart from the factory-made vegetarian tripe (who knew such a thing existed?) Jill had been made to gulp down the night before, Avant Garden's offerings were pure plant-based perfection.

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Avant Garden Vegan Restaurant NYC