Love & Vegetables Vegan Pop-up Cafe

Having attended a few more pop up dinners in late 2012 and early 2013, a quick update before they kick off again after a summer break.
The amount of food served has been somewhat inconsistent. While the dishes are always healthful, exciting and delicious, I have left some dinners stuffed and others still quite hungry. Depending on where you’re sitting, they might forget to serve you a course or run out of an item. At the last event, some shady diners took two desserts and we didn’t get any.
There is now a suggested donation of $ 35, which is fine and not unreasonable. I do believe they need to get better organized. It can feel quite chaotic with all the volunteers running around and there is usually a good number of noisy kids on a carb rush.
If you don’t have an expectation of leaving «stuffed» and are open to simply experience amazing vegan creations, by all means, try to get a spot. They fill up quickly.

This place gets FIVE BIG STARS simply based on the concept — and the love and passion that goes into this project. One can’t help but be moved when dinning at Love & Vegetables Vegan Pop-​Up. Local chefs, community hero (Ray– the owner of the farm whom I have only met via Youtube) and the Farmilia volunteers selflessly execute a 5 – 6 course service transforming and already magical place into a family style restaurant. If I were to grade the food it would be between a 4 and a 4.5. It’s important to note that the food served off a fixed menu which changes with each pop-​up.
The Vegan Pop UP is a once a month non-​profit pop up restaurant hosted on the acre plus farm located in the heart of Little Haiti, the afore mentioned magical place. This isn’t Disney Land but it really is an oasis of sorts and certainly has magical qualities.
This started as one man’s mission to not so smiply carve out a home and place for his family in a drug infested area of Little Haiti. It reads like a movie script and that’s not my intent– I don’t want that to sound like a cheesy promo. There is nothing cheesy about this place or this grass roots movement (no cheese on the menu either — it’s vegan). This is one of the warmest friendliest places I’ve dined at while living in Miami.
If you read my other posts you’ll not I am not a vegan and I love wings and beer as much as the next guy therfore I am clearly not a Vegan. So how did I wind up here? I acutally found this place via another Unilocal elite member Ute L. (big «Your Awesome“shout out to Ute for finding this diamond in the rough).
The food served at the restaurant is all locally grown, harvested, and prepared by some of the best locally celebrated chefs (that means the food is clean and tasty). The night I went Keith (of Michael’s) and (Chantell of the Royal) led a brigade of volunteers serving up tasty vegan dishes, my favorite was the mushroom gravy. We also has avocado rubbed Swiss chard, lentil meat loaf (a little dry and bland for my liking), stuffing, some sort of soup which had a very nice kick to it, and an incredible couscous dessert. Sorry but there was too much food to remember how it was all prepared. You’ll just have to go yourself if you want a more detailed account. It was all very tasty. That mushroom gravy was ridiculously good!
Perhaps more impressive than the food was the over all operation itself. Everyone was friendly and the volunteers were generally interested in assuring we were all informed, full, and satisfied. In Miami, a city I believe we can all agree can be hyper superficial at times, it was humbling to see the Farmilia volunteers happily working away and chipping in to make the night a success. No pursed lips and big egos here, just good people serving good locally grown food, family style. The volunteers also included a number of well behaved children who helped serve the food.
If your looking for a different and unique dining experience in Miami the Vegan-​Pop up fits the bill. Oh– speaking of bills you determine what yours is. You give according to what you can afford and what it’s worth. Give generously as an experience and movement like this is priceless.
Hope to see you there.

So at first I was rather hesitant to review my experience here out of fear that it’d quickly cause others to jump on the hippy-​dippy Earth-​loving bandwagon, but it seems Ute L beat me to the punch. Love & Vegetables is indeed a pop-​up vegan experience, but it’s so much more.
Simply put, this third-​Saturday event takes place on the northern end of the Little Haiti boundary at a quaint, urban farm known as Earth-​n-​Us. It’s a veritable hodgepodge of characters you’re bound to meet and the mishmash décor suits the occasion quite perfectly. You walk in through the modest house to be greeted with homemade kombucha (for a mere $ 2) and bless balls ($ 1). With your appetite piqued, you can wander out to the deck area to find an assemblage of chairs and tables. Whether it’s communal seating or with your group, there are options for all.
Once we claimed our seats at the communal table, my date and I wandered through what seemed like never never land. The dense plant life throughout created jungle-​like conditions and as we followed the sounds of the tribal drums, we found mini cottages peeking out of random corners. That ramp? It takes you up to an elaborate and fully-​functional tree house. There was even an outdoor kitchen hidden within a wide-​open hut. And yes, above that hut, another tree house.
The 4 chefs on vegan rotation were all from Michael Schwartz’s culinary camp. Yes, you read correctly. Some of the most expertly trained chefs in Miami are behind this progressive back-​to-​basics concept.
After 12 courses, my date and I paid what we felt appropriate (there’s no suggested amount) and laid back to take in the coos from the female vocalist. The light breeze pushed the palms around, the beads of sweat forming on my brow made me feel god-​like and the magical surroundings placed me somewhere far, far outside Miami. This experience was something utterly utopic.