VeganMoFo #26: What Would the Community Think?

I have never been to Urban Rustic, the localvore sustainable cafe and grocer just a few steps from Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s splendorous McCarren Park. They’ve been around for many years now, with their well-designed menu and website looking all ideal and awesome. And I must say I am impressed. Their space is built from Adirondack wood they harvested and milled themselves! They’re bringing the farmer and producer into the picture, allowing customers to learn the story of their meal. And they buy their electricity from wind-powered sources. So where’ve I been? Well, as a critic of greenwashing years ago (before it became a term), businesses who claimed to be environmentally-friendly yet sold meat… a lot of meat… were on my no, thanks list. Since we all know that an animal-based diet is thee biggest contributor to environmental destruction (see here since the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization keeps changing the link of the report), how on Earth can a cafe be “green” when they perpetuate the dietary habits that cause so much damage? Their menu, laden with beef, chicken and salmon, not to mention cheese and eggs, caters to the omnivore, not the vegan. So I never went to Urban Rustic in the years it has been half-butting its mission, if I may be so bold. But… since they do offer a completely vegan club sandwich, I decided I’d give them a try… finally. Ordering online at Delivery.com, they brought me my double-decker Unclub sandwich in neat biodegradable packaging (i.e. paper) promptly by bicycle and it was very, very good. Three slices of still warm, toasted yet not mouth-scrapy bread layered with tofurkey, tomato and sprouts and smeared with Veganaise and Dijon mustard. Simple and delicious.