We’ve been fighting the good fight for Soul Vegetarian East’s menu since MenuPages Chicago came online around 18 months ago, a project that takes on new urgency every time SVE is mentioned by a Chicago food media outlet.
So far as we can tell, this has happened three times over the summer, most recently in a review on Drive-Thru. People seem to constantly be discovering its existence, what with its out-of-the-way location, semi-obscure cuisine, and fringy religious ties, but everyone who makes the trip down to 75th Street (and writes about it) seems to enjoy what SVE has to offer.
The entire menu of sandwiches, salads, sides and entree plates is vegan, and represents a heterogeneous tradition of meatless cuisines: there’s some Southern-style dishes (Greens & Cornbread, $5.50), some Asian (Stir-Fried Tofu served with brown rice, $6.50), some Mediterranean (Veggie Gyro, $5.75), plus a dash of cult appeal (the Prince Elkannonn (Garvey) Burger - $5.50 - seems to reference an unGoogleable religious alias of Marcus Garvey?). All this sounds somewhat dreary on paper, but the food is bursting with color and flavor, and is generally light and healthy (except for all the fried stuff). This carrot burger is representative; check out the Drive-Thru post for a more extensive photo gallery.
Allow us to quote ourselves on the raison d’être of the restaurant:
[Soul Vegetarian East’s] vegan cuisine is inspired by owner Prince Asiel Ben-Israel’s religious beliefs. He and his wife Yohanna are African Hebrew Israelites, one of the purported “lost tribes” of Israel (for a gross oversimplification, think of it as a Jewish version of Rastafarianism), and among the Biblical passages they take seriously, one from Genesis stands out in informing their dietary choices: “God also said: ‘See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food.” There’s plenty of stuff in the Bible about eating animals, too, but whatever - Soul Veg’s offerings are a hell of a lot healthier than standard soul food fare, but similarly spiced and entirely enjoyable. Good for the Earth, good for the body, good for the soul, and all that jazz.
We’ve been fighting the good fight for Soul Vegetarian East’s menu since MenuPages Chicago came online around 18 months ago, a project that takes on new urgency every time SVE is mentioned by a Chicago food media outlet.
Soul Veg: Down Home Soul Food all made Vegan. [Drive-Thru]
Soul Vegetarian East [MenuPages]
Soul Vegetarian East [Official Site]
So far as we can tell, this has happened three times over the summer, most recently in a review on Drive-Thru. People seem to constantly be discovering its existence, what with its out-of-the-way location, semi-obscure cuisine, and fringy religious ties, but everyone who makes the trip down to 75th Street (and writes about it) seems to enjoy what SVE has to offer.
