NYC travel: Vegan in downtown New York City

NYC travel highlights: Vegan dining at Peacefood Cafe, lunch at the acclaimed Cinnamon Snail food truck, a walk around Little Italy, and a respectful visit to the 9/11 Memorial and One World Trade Center.

After a Statue of Liberty visit, Dun-Well Doughnuts in Brooklyn, a walk around Central Park, and shopping in Greenwich Village, we capped off our NYC travels downtown.

Peacefood Café

The downtown location of Peacefood Café is in the same neighborhood as Strand Book Store and Forbidden Planet. The clean and brightly lit space was decorated beautifully. And the dessert case beckoned.

(Heads up: Peacefood Cafe has a second location in Uptown.)

I ordered a dish that must have been a special, because it’s not listed on their online menu.

It was a parsnip puree with fried chickpeas, oyster mushrooms, and sautéed kale. It was topped with crisp slices of lotus root.

NYC travel had put David in a pizza state of mind.

He ordered the roasted potatoes pizza, which was topped with mushrooms, oil cured black olives, pesto, and then a healthy helping of arugula.

Cinnamon Snail food truck

Another must when I was in NYC was visiting the Cinnamon Snail truck.

It has won a ton of food truck awards and seems to be universally loved by vegans and non-vegans alike. Everyone has absolutely raved about going there, and so I could hardly wait to visit.

(Update: Cinnamon Snail will be closing shop at the end of March 2020. Get there while you can!)

I hopped on the subway to the location where they were parked that day in the Flatiron neighborhood. 

By the time I arrived, I was famished. Luckily, the line wasn’t terribly long. I only waited about 10 or 15 minutes.

I was conflicted about what to get. But when I saw that they had a pretzel-crusted tempeh reuben special with fried capers, I knew what I had to order. I also ordered a couple of pastries to share later with David.

I thought the sandwich was tasty. But next time I’d probably order one of the seitan options instead.

Eataly

Eataly, the large Italian shopping/food court, wasn’t far away from there. So I walked over afterwards to peruse the pastas, sauces, and cookware for sale. There were also several eateries inside selling pizzas, coffee, wine, and more.

Since I’d just eaten, I didn’t have any food, but it would be fun to do on a future visit.

Little Italy

On our last full day of NYC travel, my friend, Katrina, joined us. We walked around Little Italy and stopped at the Christmas in New York shop for sorbet. (All of the fruit flavors were dairy-free.)

I like to buy Christmas ornaments on my travels. It’s one of my favorite souvenirs, because then once a year I get to take my ornaments out of their boxes, enjoy them again, and remember the trip where I purchased them.

David and I started the tradition on our honeymoon. We’ve been collecting ornaments on our trips ever since.

Adrienne’s Pizzabar

We went for pizza in the Financial District at a restaurant called Adrienne’s Pizzabar. It’s not a vegan restaurant. But their pizza sauce and crust is vegan if ordered without cheese.

There was an outdoor eating area that reminded me of restaurant alleyways in Italy. Very quaint. However, on this hot day, we decided to eat inside.

We ordered one of the large rectangular pizzas that was more than enough for three. We picked our own toppings and chose mushrooms, basil, garlic, and kalamata olives.

The pizza was absolutely fabulous and popping with flavor.

9/11 Memorial & One World Trade Center

Finally, we went to the 9/11 Memorial nearby.

The water from the memorial blocked out the sound from the city. It is a huge open square that flows into another square. The concept of emptiness flowing into emptiness is a powerful one. The names of the victims were written all around the sides.

There was a guard walking around the outside of the memorial. She reminded anyone with drinks not to put cups on the memorial. I appreciated that she was there to maintain respect for the space.

There was one woman who was doing a rubbing of a name, and the guard asked if she knew that person. The woman said, “This is my daughter,” and the guard reached out and hugged her.

The last time I had been to New York wasn’t too long after 9/11 happened. So to be back and see the memorial and the new Freedom Tower (One World Trade Center) was powerful – both remembering and moving forward to create something new.

For more NYC travels, check out my New York travel page.