PHOENIX — More than 20 food vendors and restaurants around town will participate in the inaugural Phoenix Vegan Restaurant Week, which begins on Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021, and runs through Saturday, September 18.
During the week-long event, restaurants will either showcase a special item on their menus in addition to their regular menus or will have a multi-course available at set prices: up to $20 for breakfast or lunch and $33 for dinner.
The event was created by Chef Jason Wyrick, who opened Casa Terra, a fine-dining vegan restaurant in Glendale, and Jozh Watson, who created the PHX Vegan Night Market and oversees PhoenixVegan.com, a website that highlights vegan restaurants and events in the Valley.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a while. I’ve seen it pop up in other cities for a while…and I’ve wanted to put one together, especially since I started Casa Terra," Wyrick said in an interview with ABC15.
He said vegan-vegetarian cuisine has come a long way in the last several years -- and more restaurants, even non-vegan restaurants, are adding plant-based items to their menus because there is increased demand.
"We deserve to have a huge vegan food scene here — and it’s been happening here. I really want people to see that," he said.
One of the restaurants participating is Pachamama, a vegan restaurant that launched in 2019 at the downtown Phoenix farmers market and opened a small physical location in 2020 near 19th Avenue and Indian School Road.
"Some people said it was a crazy time to open in the middle of a pandemic," said Maria Lebron, who owns the restaurant with husband and chef, Kevin. "We said, if nothing else, it would make for a really great story. We know that we love what we put out and we hope other people do too."
"We've been very grateful; people keep coming in and out the door," she said.
Some of their signature items include the J'Asada Tacos, which are made with Hibiscus Asada, avocado crema, and serrano salsa, and the Wauli-Nut Rizo Burrito, which has walnuts, cauliflower, chorizo spices, and an almond-arbol salsa.
For Vegan Restaurant Week, Lebron said they're going to showcase their take on a popular Puerto Rican dish and add some Mexican influence to it.
They will have a lunch special for $20 that includes a drink, salad and entree, and a dinner special for $25 that includes salad, entree, and Dulce de leche olive oil cake for dessert. A drink is not included with the dinner option.
Chef Wyrick said there are always plans to bring back Vegan Restaurant Week in fall 2022.
Other restaurants that are participating include:
- Beaut Burger
- Brunch & Sip
- Chilte
- Desert Roots Kitchen
- Dilla Libre
- Early Bird Vegan
- Earth Plant-Based Cuisine
- Giving Tree Cafe
- Gooder Goods
- Ground Control
- Hot Sauce & Pepper
- Nanas Kitchen
- Pachamama
- Positively Frosted
- Salvadoreno Restaurant ##
- Simon's Hot Dogs
- The Nile Coffee Shop
- The Vegan Taste
- Trash Panda vegan
- Urban Beans Cafe
- Verdura
- Wok This Way
Visit https://www.phoenixvegan.com/attend to see the full list of restaurants and their menus.
