After much anticipation and excitement, the LA Vegan beer fest went down this last Saturday at the Roxy theatre on the Sunset strip. A part-time shift of drinking diverse beer brews and munching on tasty foods was a dream come true, a career I wouldn’t mind having ;)
The VIP tickets were awesome! $10 more for a full 8oz glass branded cup, upper deck access to the VIP lounger where two higher alcohol content brews were served, free bottled water, kick-ass Bruce Lee films on the flatscreen, funky James Brown beats bumping through the Pioneer speakers, and and great window views of the Los Angeles building architecture—all wonderful elements to gawk at while in an inebriated state.
The food was to great. I personally was impressed by Mandoline Grill’s Banh Mi sandwich! The french baguette bread was tender yet crunchy and oh-so-warm, it tore apart beautifully. I shared it with two new vegan friends I met at the beer fest —Seth and Sangetta. Other notable foods were the Plant for the People tacos, the two toppings per taco is a LA luxury, and Seabirds truck blew me out the water with their jackfruit spicy tacos and famous beer battered deep fried avocado tacos. I also indulged in*Azucar Fries—mexican styled sweet potatoe fries with dashes of cinammon and brown sugar by Fresh Fries truck. The ketchup was the finishing touch—surprising delectable for being just a side dish— and thrown out by a Banksy graffiti drawing!
The brews—- oh man the brews—knocked the entire event out of the park (second only to the free merch, stickers, pens, bottle openers, key chains, etc we scavenged for). The tasteful selection of the microbrews best ales, hefeweizens, and bachs just made the event all the better. Mostly all the tents that gave out samples or full 8oz pours truly brought their finest crafts to the table. I came back for seconds, and had a favorite brew per tent. The beer that takes the LA vegan beer fest trophy in my mind was Fireman’s Brunette, which ran out because it was in such high demand. The flavorful chocolately taste mixed with just a right bitterness in the aftertaste made my mouth feel like a salavating pavlovian dog, instead of a bell ringing, it was the inundation of my taste buds with such brilliantly brewed flavors.
CASE IN POINT: Vegan beer is amazingly good.
