When one thinks of an exquisite dining experience, the words raw, vegan, and gluten-free don’t often come to mind. Even as a vegetarian, I had my doubts, but since Pure Food and Wine has such a lovely outdoor garden space adorned with twinkle lights, I pushed them aside and decided to give it a whirl. And boy was I glad. Besides the truly delightful ambiance of the space (make a reservation for the garden!), the menu held a delightful array of options unlike anything I had seen at other veggie places in the city. The four of us dining together all ordered different dishes to graze a bit of everything. Note: there’s no tofu to be found anywhere! Let the raw vegan food porn begin.
{main courses}
Besides myself, none of the rest of the folks at the table were vegetarians, and ya know what? They couldn’t stop raving about the food. My favorites (and suggestions, should you go) are to start with the cheese plate. Seriously guys, you would never even know this isn’t real cheese, it’s phenomenal. For your main course, go the way of the zucchini lasagna (in lieu of noodles, you have super thin slices of zucchini. Heavenly.) For dessert, the decision is tough. I’d say it’s a tossup between the ice cream sundae and key lime cheesecake.
{desserts}
And of course, with a restaurant name that includes “wine” in the title, their selection of vino is quite impressive. Keeping with the “pure” theme, all the wine on the menu is biodynamic, organic, or simply sustainable, meaning they originate from vineyards that practice purely organic methods. In layman’s terms: this is a hangover you can feel good about.
Jessica Tiare Bowen lives in the juicy Big Apple with her adorable pink-nosed chihuahua, Gillman. He’s the inspiration for her first published children’s book, “Park Avenue Pound Puppy.” The book is the combined result of her two greatest passions: pooches and penning stories.
Her passions include art, urban hikes through Manhattan, drinking coffee with 3 creams and 6 sugars, making extremely detailed itineraries and traveling to far away places, singing along to Broadway shows, Netflix movie nights, discovering incredible treasures at Goodwill and thrift stores, and listening to stories from little people under 7 and big people over 70.
She started her career as New York City Teaching Fellow, teaching elementary school and theater arts at a special education school in the South Bronx for 6 years. She is now a Special Education School Improvement Specialist working in public schools throughout New York City. She is the Editor-In-Chief of the online New York City travel magazine, Used York City. The magazine focuses on finding the best of New York…as used by New Yorkers. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and an ASPCA Ambassador.
