ALTBurger’s poblano tamale. (Provided)
Top right, the teriyaki mushroom sandwich featured at Stanley’s. (Provided)
“I don’t want vegan food to be seen as bland,” Chef Aaron Wisecup said. He is the head chef at Stanley’s NE Bar Room, which competed in the Twin Cities Vegan Challenge this year.
For the month of August, Twin Cities-based nonprofit Compassionate Action for Animals sent out an invite to restaurants in the metro area. Twenty-four of them took up the challenge, two in Northeast Minneapolis, Stanley’s and ALTBurger.
The Twin Cities Vegan Challenge had only one rule. The chefs need to make a meal that is 100% vegan, meaning no ingredients can come from an animal, such as meat, dairy or eggs. From there, patrons from around the Twin Cities area were tasked with trying the dishes and voting for their favorite.
“I wanted to take some big bold flavors in there,” Wisecup said about his dish in the challenge, the teriyaki mushroom burger. “Teriyaki, kimchi, pickled red onion, they all have that bite to them, and it’s interesting when you get them in the same thing.”
Chef Derik Moran at ALTBurger, which stands for All Love This Burger, had similar sentiments about entering the challenge. The restaurant, which calls itself flexitarian, entered with the poblano tamale.
“Our goal was to make vegan food approachable,” Moran said. “The tricky thing with the idea is traditionally tamales are made with a lot of pork fat. The whole thing is edible.”
While Stanley’s is not your typical vegan restaurant, ALTBurger has options that fulfill the vegan lifestyle, even before entering the challenge. “We have options for just about everybody,” Moran said. “Gluten free, pescatarian, even omnivore offerings.”
The challenge itself wrapped up on Aug. 31, but the winners are set to be announced at Twin Cities Veg Fest on Sept. 22. The two restaurants have been happy with the results of customers coming in for the challenge.
“We don’t always see a ton of the vegan crowd at Stanley’s,” Wisecup said. “But it’s really good to see a true vegan dish sell really well over here.”
“We’ve had people come in and order this dish not knowing it was part of the challenge,” Moran said.
“There’s only 1% of the world that is vegan,” he added. But for one month, the vegan dishes were at the center of these two Northeast establishments’ offerings.