Candle Cafe, Cafe Blossom, and More... NY Vegan Restaurants

I love to travel. I love to eat. So, as you can guess, I'm one happy girl right now because I'm able to do both. I've been looking forward to coming to NY for a very long time because of the plethora of vegan (and Raw) food options. I came prepared with a long list of places that I want to try. While Raw items might be limited on some of the menus, I still wanted to try out a bunch of places. 

The first restaurant we visited Wednesday night was Candle Cafe (we went back Thursday for lunch). There are two restaurants in the city by these owners, Candle 79 (more upscale from what I understand) and Candle Cafe. We plan on checking out Candle 79's brunch menu this weekend. The owners pride themselves on serving organic vegan food and I was stoked to try them out. We were not disappointed. It was fantastic. That's a pic of my lovely green juice I had with lunch Thursday.

Then, for Thursday's dinner, we went to Cafe Blossom in the upper west side, which is very close to our hotel (lucky me!!!). Like Candle Cafe, they were packed. The decor was beautiful and we loved our food. We will be going there many times during our visit here in NY. They're under the same ownership as Blossom (supposedly more upscale). They were the winner of "Time Out NYC Eat Out Awards 2008 Best Vegetarian Restaurant" and I'm eager to try Blossom now as well.

Exciting Times with Exciting People!

I have a fantastically FUN schedule full of social get togethers with many Raw foodies while I'm here. Friday, I'm meeting the lovely and talented Judita for lunch at Pure Food & Takeaway (I've been dreaming of eating here for so long!). You can bet that I'll be visiting this awesome place multiple times since I can't eat everything on the menu in one visit, although I might try. 

Saturday afternoon, I'm meeting the uberly sweet and fun Gena (of Choosing Raw). She is fast becoming a great friend of mine and I can't wait to give her a huge hug. We're getting juiced up at Cafe Blossom. This won't be our only visit together. Fortunately, we are staying not far from her, so we'll be gal palling around more than once.

Saturday night, I'm meeting the super famously cool cat, Dhru (of We Like It Raw) at Pure Food & Wine (another place I can now check off of my life's to-do list - whoot!). Again, I plan on going there a few times so I can try different things. In fact, I'll be there next Thursday night (fingers crossed) to meet up with one of my girlfriends from culinary school. 

Next Friday, I'm excited to meet up with Michelle (of Raw Cool... Black is the new blog...). We're getting some delicious grub at Quintessence. I've heard only great things about that place. Can't wait! Good times!