Photos courtesy Reverie
I recently filed a big vegan and vegetarian food story for the magazine (it's forthcoming—subscribe!). In my researches, I discovered that local vegan consensus is that the best vegan restaurant Minnesota ever had was Reverie—a little spot by business and romantic partner-owners Kirstin Wiegmann and chef Jeff Therkelsen. It started on the corner of Franklin and Nicollet as coffee shop, grew into an amazing vegan spot, and then lost its lease. Well, they're back! With wheels.
Reverie Tacos
Here's the scoop. Wiegmann and Therkelsen just got back from Portland, where they have commissioned a very snazzy food truck with four burners, a big griddle, fryers—the works. In a few weeks, Wiegmann is going to fly back and drive the thing at a top speed of 65 miles an hour—slow food coming!—across the Rockies and the Dakotas (and past a lot of startled cattle who never heard of a vegan food truck) straight to the Twin Cities. Once they get here, they will kick off with a fundraiser, serve food outside Dangerous Man Brewing all Thursdays in May, serve outside Venn Brewing sometimes, and otherwise hit the streets. Like almost all local food trucks, they'll also cater, in case you have a vegan dad or grad.
Reverie Food Truck - start up menu
What's in it for you? "We make great sandwiches," Wiegmann told me. "Our barbecue mock duck is a huge favorite. We make our own seitan, and serve it with a berbere barbecue sauce Jeff created. Our jackfruit tacos were really popular. The thing about us is we make everything from scratch. If our tacos have 'sour cream', we make it"—in this case from lemon grass, lime leaves, cashews, and rejuvelac, a sort of kvass made from fermenting grains. They will also make fried "chicken," bringing the total number of vegan fried "chicken" options (as well as vegan food trucks) on the streets of Minneapolis to two for the summer of 2018, when we used to have none.
This all feeds into a conversation Wiegmann and I had about vegan food in a general sense—is it all oils, sugars, and flours? I fear that a lot of vegan food is, regrettably, health-halo marketing, but not legitimately healthy. For instance, these Vegan Rob's cauliflower puffs have as much legit crunchy cruciferous cauliflower as a Cheeto has legit cheese. Highly processed powders, flours, and oils are not healthy whole foods—and in my opinion don't count as something that figures in Michael Pollan's ideal of "eating mostly plants". This is why I'm so excited that Reverie is getting a food truck. What will plant-based foods look like made from real vegetables in a real fancy kitchen on the streets? We're about to find out.
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