Choices Vegan Café Arrives in Miami's Upper East Side

Good Afternoon, Yogis. Fancy meeting you here. We have ventured outside of our usual radius, known to locals as "The Beach", to bring you news of a vegan haven blossoming in Miami's Upper East Side.

Choices Vegan Café has been up and running just past the Shucker's Causeway for a few months and dare we say we like it better than the original locale in Brickell. Not just because it's closer to our stomping grounds, but because... well, yes. That is the reason we like it better. It's less of a pain in the ass to get to.

Plus, you know it's good because it's recently been featured on Deco Drive. 

If you're one of our real life friends, then you also know we have a second home in this hood so it's muy convenient.

Furthermore, it is convenient because we are on day nine of a 21-day vegan cleanse. (Hey, but who's counting?) Why a vegan cleanse you ask? For optimum health, of course!!

Haha!! Just kidding. We are doing it because we want to be skinny and hot.

Food = Delicious. We especially love the Geniroll Lentil ($15) and the No Seas Tuna Wrap ($15) turned into a salad or quinoa bowl. Explore the menu yourself and commence drooling on your keyboard.

Parking = not so great. Don't park in neighboring restaurant's lots or else you will be towed. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Sadly, the Brickell location is being forced to close later this summer. Find out why here.

¡BUEN PROVECHO, YOGIS!

Become Buddhist + Vegan at Books & Books

First of all, let's get one thing very clear: we love Books & Books.

From their amazing café that boasts some of the most delicious and healthy food in the 305 to their expertly curated selection of books... we just cannot say enough.

Cue their amazing lecture and event series. This week you can not only learn the 101 of becoming Buddhist, you can also get the 411 on making a vegan lifestyle do-able.

This Thursday (08/16) Master Chufei Tsai (of Zen Village) will be conducting a class on the basics of Buddhism. To put it bluntly,

"If you’re curious about Buddhism but feel intimidated by all the exotic jargon and strange trappings, this class is for you."

Places We Love: Choices Vegan Cafe in Brickell

After turning ourselves upside down at the feet of Funky Yoga yesterday (more to come on that later) we were pretty famished. So we decided to head to one of our favorite places to chow down in Brickell - Choices Vegan Cafe.

While we do show love to all of the vegan eateries in our sunny city, Choices is by far our favorite right now for quite a few reasons. First, they have a pretty big menu for such a small vegan restaurant.

The place is always packed - another indicator of a successful (and delicious) restaurant. The only drawback to that is that service isn't necessarily what we consider "fast" but it's definitely a sacrifice we're willing to make. So if you're in a hurry, maybe call in and order ahead.

The space is rather small so don't be surprised if you have to wait for a table. Parking is generally never an issue, there's plenty of street parking around the area. Moving onto more important things - the grub:

T.H.R.I.V.E. - Healthy. Raw. Vegan. Delicious.

About six months ago one of my good friends went 100% vegan, which means when we hang out together I'm 100% vegan, too.

Last week we went to lunch at T.H.R.I.V.E. - a (90%) raw vegan restaurant tucked away off Alton Road in Miami Beach.

It wasn't my first time here. I raided the raw desert section of this restaurant about a year ago after a killer class at MLC.

Pictured left is the raw pizza I ordered, my friend ordered the raw tacos. Both were super delicious. It has a very local feel, all of the employees were really nice. (I think they may have all been related. It seemed like a family behind the counter.)

You can read more in depth reviews of T.H.R.I.V.E. at Miami New Times and on Yelp.com, UrbanSpoon.com & HappyCow.net. Also, make sure to "like" them on Facebook.