Day 29: Souley Vegan

Katia, with Big Mama Thornton lookin' on

Holy vegan food, what a great night that was.

This was kind of an epic Meetup event in some ways. Seventy-five people signed up for a quiet evening out with the Berkeley Vegan Dinner Club. Why so many? Soul food. Come on.

The restaurant, Souley Vegan, has just returned from a long hiatus of renovation and other drama, which approximately matched the length of time we've lived here. So I'd heard about the place -- it's even on the list on the fridge of restaurants we want to try -- but hadn't had the pleasure.

The line to order snaked into the far recesses of the main room when we arrived. But what do you expect when 75 people all arrive at the exact same time? We grabbed our yellow paper menu and had some decisions to make. Until then we didn't: there was an Everything Plate. Case closed. Good thing Danny was with me, or I might have had to choose between barbecue or southern fried tofu, between lentils and black beans, between corn bread potato salad. Instead, I got it all, and more.

In line, we had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Ms. Katia, pictured above. She's a senior at UCB, majoring in something cool and interdisciplinary and oh so very Berkeley which I believe was called Development Studies (as in countries, not babies). Before we'd even gotten to the counter I'd explained the whole project thing, and I was back in the groove.

We placed our orders then made our way to one of the long banquet tables they had set up in the back room, many of which were already full. Soon a batch of other wonderful vegan food lovers joined us, and a lively dinner was had by all. The only bad part was that they ran out of peach cobbler, cheesecake, AND sweet potato pie, so we had to settle for apple cobbler for dessert.

Other highlights: I met a woman named Breanne who's going to tell me all the great places I should eat when I visit NYC next month. Katia mentioned she really wanted a bike, and Danny remembered we have one sitting in our garage looking for a good home, so that transaction will happen soon. On our walk back to the bus stop we saw this:

Katia ended up riding the bus with us until we got off to go home. As we pressed the button for our stop, she shared this gem from a human rights class professor: If the questions you're asking can be answered in this lifetime, maybe you're asking the wrong questions.

Nice thought.

I'm glad to have made some effort here tonight. One more day, one day more....