What's the Matter with Miami?

Why is it so hard to find vegan food down here? If, like me, you eat out at least half the time and hope to find a tasty, square, filling vegan meal when driving around, well tough luck. I’m usually restricted to finding two items at the bottom of a menu (on a good day), piecing together a sad meal from side dishes, ethnic restaurants (read: Chipotle, Taco Bell and Chinese), or just resorting to the reliable local sustenance: black beans and rice (Pollo Tropical has saved me many a starving day.) 

Unfortunately, the few existing vegan places here are 

A. Far-flung apart B. Muy expensive C. Dark, strange-looking places that I’m usually too scared to enter or eat from

The question is: Why?  Miami is more than anything a city in progress, a city trying to make an identity and become more sophisticated, cultured and cosmopolitan. But as far as veganism goes, it lags way behind other large cities. And yet, I don't understand why. This is a place obsessed with fitness, yoga, body waxing, plastic surgery, the South Beach diet, putting boob and butt implants up on billboards. It loves sexiness.  It loves trends. It loves frozen yogurt.  It seems the juicing craze has caught on big here, but actual decent vegan food? It's super hard to find, and it’s a real mystery as to why it’s so lacking. As the food critic Lee Klein once asked in a New Times cover story about Miami’s low status in the general culinary world: “What’s the Matter with Miami?”

Thankfully, we have several beacons of hope – including Choices Café and Bunnie Cakes – that serve excellent vegan fare and are helping push Miami into the brighter plant-based future. 

 It is my sincerest hope that this blog serves as a useful resource and guide for all the poor vegan-challenged souls in and around the Magic City, and also inspires and encourages others to start a mini-movement of their own and ask for more vegan foods and options in South Florida markets and restaurants.

It's actually an exciting time to be vegan in Miami, and I'm happy to be here to see it blossom and grow.