4301 Guadeloupe St. & 43rd. (512) 323-0440
(Other Location - 100 B. North Loop Blvd. (512) 454-8965)
Back in 2008, there were no places in Austin with vegan cheese pizza. I had heard a rumor about pizza with *Actual Vegan Cheese*, so I decided to visit The Parlor to investigate. Imagine my joy and surprise when I read on their MySpace Blog - "We also have weekly VEGAN TOPPING SPECIALS when AVAILABLE (Ask us what is available that week: Vegan Pepperoni, Vegan Sausage or Vegan Chicken). All VEGAN TOPPINGS are made from scratch by THE PARLOR!! YAY! THEY ARE ALL VEGAN FOR REAL, and our SOY CHEESE is "VEGAN GOURMET" brand (really Vegan)".
Wow.....
So, I simply had to go. When I walked in, I was greeted with a very dark, cave-like atmosphere - dark burgundy walls, black ceiling and floor, gothy/moody artwork, and a few strategically-placed white spotlights breaking up a bunch of fixtures with red lightbulbs, candles in red holders, and red Christmas lights around the menu. I also spotted a two-person table-style arcade game, two pool tables, and a jukebox. They have free wi-fi as well.
I ordered a 14" pizza with vegan cheese, vegan "chicken" (handmade from scratch at The Parlor), avocado, pineapple, fresh spinach, and artichoke hearts. My dining companion and I played a game of pool while we waited for the food, and bought a song on the jukebox (the selection of which was mostly punk with some heavy metal, and random other things thrown in just to break it up, like Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, and some Irish drinking songs). My pizza arrived loaded down with a huge amount of toppings. My omnivorous dining companion deemed that the vegan "chicken" didn't really taste like chicken at all, but I thought it had a nice flavor and added an interesting texture to the pizza. The rest of the toppings were fresh and flavorful, though the soy cheese didn't melt. There was so much substance to the pizza that I was only able to comfortably eat two slices, which actually worked out in my favor, since it left me with tasty lunch for the rest of the week. *smile*
(The above pictures are different pizzas from the one described above, from later visits to The Parlor.)
In conclusion, The Parlor has yummy pizza and their toppings are delicious, plentiful, and extremely varied. I will certainly go there again.
I love the parlour! They are still the only pizza place with vegan meat!
ReplyDeletelazysmurf - I *love* their vegan sausage - so tasty! Now, the last time I checked, Mellow Mushroom had tofu and tempeh for their pizzas, though I think they started putting some kind of dairy flavoring on their tempeh. So, yeah...actual vegan "meat" is pretty much just at Parlor.
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