Earlier this week, all of the dozen or so Burritovilles left in the city abruptly closed. Yesterday, The New York Times' Tina Kelley quotes an owner of a jewelry store next to the Burritoville on Water Street: "A couple of days ago the workers, the chefs and delivery boys showed up around 10 in the morning and were waiting on the stoop out front. Eventually they went home because no one showed up to open the store.”

If you think you've heard of something similar happening at another veg-friendly establishment, you're right.

Burritoville was founded and later sold by Steve Lynn and David LaPointe (who, now with his wife, Jean LaPointe owns Curly's Vegetarian Lunch). They (and another partner Bob Salamack) also started Veg-City Diner which had a 14th Street and Sixth Ave location and another at Third Ave off 9th Street.

The Third Ave location opened just days before the 9/11 attacks and shuttered weeks after. The remaining Veg-City Diner on 14th Street remained open for another couple years and had quite a following before it abruptly closed due to a reported kitchen fire. (It was Veg-City Diner, with its incredible revolving vegan cakes display, that made Danielle Konya's VeganTreats famous.)

Strangely enough, some waiters and chefs who worked at the Veg-City Diner reported that they had not been paid for weeks before that fire.

This is the seventh blog post in the series documenting the February to March 2008 leg of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling Antarctic campaign. Previous posts in the series are here. The following post was an email I sent three weeks into the voyage. The next update will come Tuesday, July 22nd.

(A donations page, if anyone wants to help me pay for plane tickets to my next Sea Shepherd campaign)

From: Steve Irwin Vessel
Sent on: 3/7/08 10:51:57 +0000

Hey, quick update as I'm in a rush. We just had another clash with the
Japanese soldiers and this time they shot us to hell.

This is the fifth blog post in the series documenting the February to March 2008 leg of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling Antarctic campaign. Previous posts in the series are here. The following post was an email I sent just over two weeks into the voyage. The next update will come Wednesday, July 16th.

(A donations page, if anyone wants to help me pay for plane tickets to my next Sea Shepherd campaign)

From: Steve Irwin Vessel
Sent on: 3/2/08 23:30:24 +0000

We just engaged the factory ship just now. As long as we're on their tail,
they can't do any more whaling. They had a group of soldiers on deck and ready for the engagement, but they're in Australian waters breaking Australian law so what can they do? Shoot a boat full of Australians to prove they rule Australian territory?

This is the third blog post in the series documenting the February to March 2008 leg of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling Antarctic campaign. Previous posts in the series are here. The following post was an email I sent on the ninth day at sea.

(A donations page, if anyone wants to help me pay for plane tickets to my next Sea Shepherd campaign)

From: Steve Irwin Vessel
Sent on: 2/23/08 5:31 PM

Meow. So we're in the Antarctic officially chasing the whaling fleet. It's been tiring but I've been wired during most of it.

Last night I got no sleep. I got woken up around 2am to go to the bridge because we found a suspicious long-lining vessel. Suspicious as in, after I got up to the bridge, they radioed us to threaten us, saying they were armed and would repel us by force, even though we told them we're just a conservation vessel. And frankly, if I drove alongside a bus in the Midwest who suddenly radioed me saying they have guns and would shoot me, I'd find them suspicious too. We communicated with them for a while, and they kept asking us to identify ourselves over and over again, and we're not sure why they did that. But we think the chatter may have attracted the attention of the Japanese, because about an hour later, we found a Japanese vessel, which came near us but then lead us on a chase leading East.

• SuperVegan's 2nd birthday party is tonight!! Come on out to 'sNice Brooklyn, 315 5th Avenue at 3rd Street in Park Slope, 6:30pm-10pm. Complimentary cake and keg (feel free to bring supplementary alcohol, too), plus an all-vegan menu of other goodies (that you'll have to pay for) from 'sNice.


• I know you all think Vegan Treats cakes are great (unless you're one of those who ate too much and ODed), so maybe you'd like to read this profile of VT and proprietor Danielle Konya. Also, check out our best attempt at an up-to-date list of NYC restaurants that carry Vegan Treats.


• PETA has annoyed KFC Canda enough that the fried-chicken giant is actually making some changes! Says KFC Canada president Steve Langford, "(PETA) can be unpleasant to deal with, and from a business point of view, it's nice to put that behind you." General welfare upgrades will happen to how they (mis)treat their chickens, and they'll be introducing some kind of vegan faux-chicken to the menu. Sounds nasty to me, but I guess if I'm on a lonely highway in the wilds of Canada, I'd be glad to have it.


• I was going to write a whole blog post about Polyglot Vegetarian's phenomenal article on historical Branded Meat Substitutes, but I simply haven't had time to read the damn thing yet. If you're into the history of veg food, or simply into history, go read it. And you must check out the included poem from 1904, "To a Health-Food Girl." Hail to thee, Granola Maid!

I'd encourage you to do something vegan to celebrate World Vegan Day, but you do everything vegan everyday anyway. However, while its not officially part of the philosophy, we all know that what vegans are really good at is arguing. So, it being right after Halloween: dogs in costumes. Cute, cruel, exploitative, charming, inappropriate, demeaning? What do you think?

If you just want to see more dogs in costumes, check out Gothamist's coverage of Pups on Parade at Tompkins Square Park. If you have other favorite pics, post links in the comments.

The only dog I saw dressed up this year was at the Library (not actually a library) at 2am last night. A chihuahua dressed in leather to go with his leather daddy human. So not vegan. (If you can't see the poll below, click here to vote.)

Today is the 13th annual World Vegan Day, which celebrates the foundation of the Vegan Society in 1944 and the coining of the word "vegan."

Activists in Britain are campaigning for legal definitions of the words "vegan" and "vegetarian" and for more vegan pizza (they're totally jealous of us New Yorkers).

Plenty of celebrations are happening around the world; check out ActiVeg or the Vegan Society for event listings. (New Yorkers: the American Vegan Society will be celebrating on Saturday, November 17, from 1pm – 4pm at Candle 79.)

Today's a good day to get your non-veg friends a Vegetarian Starter Kit or a Why Vegan. Just remember to soften them up with some good food first.

Oh yeah, and happy All Saints Day, Day of the Dead, and Halloween-hangover-recovery day! (Maybe we should've chosen a less crowded date for our holiday...?)

Happy Halloween and Day of the Dead from all of us at Team SuperVegan! We've been busy in our lairs and dungeons and mad science labs, and we're thrilled to announce the launch of the New York City Vegan Restaurant Graveyard. This is a special section of our site providing an eternal resting place for all the restaurants in our database that have closed. Old reviews remain visible, and you can still leave new ones-- eulogize your martyred heroes and curse your vanquished foes in the war for decent eats.

Some notable recent additions include Zen Palate's Union Square location (they just closed, citing an "unreasonable rent increase") and Brooklyn Heights mainstay The Green's.

The Graveyard is currently populated with places that have closed since we started SuperVegan in early 2006. Over time, we may add older places that live on in our hearts. (O Bachué! O Helianthus! How I miss thee!) Where do restaurants go when they die? Now you know.

Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

Jordana Rothman at Time Out New York has a fun story tracing the "clone rangers" and spin-offs of various popular NYC institutions. For example, alums of the tourist deathspot Magnolia Bakery spawned Buttercup Bake Shop, Billy's Bakery, Sugar Sweet Sunshine, and Little Cupcake Bakeshop. (None are vegan-friendly, so check out Babycakes for your sugar fix instead.) Surely we have something just like this in the veggie world.

Vegetarian's Paradise 2 went through the trouble (and expense) of trademarking their "World Famous Crispy Soul Chicken" after a former chef left to open Vegetarian Palate in Park Slope, Brooklyn and ripped-off the West Village mainstay's signature dishes such as Peking Spareribs and Mango Chicken.

A former chef at Gobo ripped-off not only the fancy restaurant's recipes and menu, but also a part of its decor - the collages of dried ingredients - when he opened Wild Ginger on the border of Chinatown and Wild Ginger Brooklyn in Williamsburg.

In Philly, Gianna's Grille rips off Danielle Konya's VeganTreats and tries to peddle their knock-offs with an air of authenticity with words such as "original," "signature," and get this: "Gianna's vegan treats are available exclusively at Gianna's! Accept no substitute!" (The lovely Danielle used to supply her cakes to Gianna's.) Even more scandalous though: after telling their customers for years that they used a secret formula for their unbelievably meltable and stretchable soy cheese, Gianna's Grille was exposed to have maliciously lied about their soy cheese being vegan. Though they now claim that everything labeled vegan on their menu is really indeed vegan, many vegans in the know still avoid and boycott the restaurant like the plague.

Veg Greenpointers and American History buffs have reason to celebrate in the recently opened William Taft Vegetarian Diner. It's the only all-vegetarian eatery in the 'hood, and the first Greenpoint restaurant we've added to our restaurant guide. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner food simultaneously from 8am til Midnight, and bake their own muffins, cakes and pies on premises.

Though the WTVD was named after the 27th president on a whim, the Taft theme runs throughout. Upon walking in the place, diners are confronted by a huge freestanding bathtub full of the jelly beans--an ironic meeting of the girthy president's favorite food and mortal enemy. (Taft was trapped in the White House tub several times before a huge custom one was installed.) The menu features cheeky dish names like "Fantaftic sandwich" and the "Whoa, Nellie Taft!" salad (named after the first lady). The diner also has a mustachioed logo, as Taft was the last prez to sport porntaftic facial hair.

The atmosphere at the WTVD is pretty low-key (fluorescent lights, linoleum tiles, the restroom in a curtained-off back room full of "mess" which a sign says was blessed by God), but the friendly punk biker kids working there and the old-time Greenpoint locals who drop by add flavor and distinction.

Check out their myspace page to find out about their upcoming back-room movie screenings which start next week. Apparently you can BYOB, thought Taft might not have approved. Go eat there, then leave a review on SuperVegan!