Rare finds at the Fair Grinds Coffeehouse

Kami Ownbey and Ashley Rose serving up the vegan snacks at Fair Grinds Coffeehouse

photo by derek goodwin

One of the biggest buzzkills for vegans in the Big Easy is going to a cafe to get some coffee and finding no options offered for snacks. No muffins. No cookies. Not even a freaking banana! Some of these places even coat their bagels in egg wash. WTF? Thanks for charging us extra for soymilk and leaving us hungry!

One of the notable exceptions is the Fair Grinds Coffeehouse at 3133 Ponce deLeon (off of Esplanade near City Park and the Fair Grounds). Fair Grinds currently has five vendors providing them with vegan food that occupies about 1/3 of the space in their bakery case with mouth watering cruelty-free goodness.

Fair Grinds was opened by owners Robert & Elizabeth Thompson in 2002, and besides a 20-month hiatus after Katrina has been going strong ever since. They began offering vegan nosh in 2003; cinnamon rolls that customers would choose over the conventional ones. The baker of those mythical delicacies disappeared after the hurricane, but the trend of vegan snack food being more popular than the conventional continues. Elizabeth says that the "employees get one free snack per day, and lots of them who aren’t vegan choose the vegan stuff." Robert adds that "in our little microcosm if the food is good enough for the conventional crowd and is vegan too it is a win-win."

Robert says that "there is a vacuum of services to support the vegan community. You wouldn’t believe how many phone calls and web hits we get from Happy Cow (an online vegan restaurant guide) and tourists looking for vegan food." It seems that Fair Grinds is tapping into a sizable market that almost every other cafe in New Orleans seems to be ignorant of.

Fair Grinds is conscientious in other ways. Their coffee is all fair trade and organic. They recycle as much as possible and choose green products where available. Robert relates that his "late life philosophy about businesses is that they should not be profit driven but should supply meaningful and sustainable products." Eating vegan is of course one of the best things that a person can do to lower their carbon footprint and eat sustainably.

Fair Grinds has an upstairs meeting room that hosts many community events. Starting April 13th there will be a raw food potluck there every second Tuesday of the month at 7:00pm. This potluck is being organized by local trumpeting virtuoso Charlie Miller, who used to host raw food potlucks at Fair Grinds pre-Katrina. Charlie claims that raw foods cured him from chronic amnesia that he was suffering at the time. His forced migration due to the hurricane contributed to his falling off the diet, and he hopes that starting the potluck up again will inspire him to get back to his healthy ways. If you are attending please bring a dish to share and your own plates and utensils (paper and plastic will be available, but is not the green thing to do).

Fair Grinds will also be hosting the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale on Friday April 30th from 9am to 11am. The NOLA Vegan Bakers (many of the Fair Grinds bakers are in this group) will be supplying the baked goods, and proceeds will go to Food For Life, an international disaster relief organization. This event will be coinciding with Jazzfest, so parking will be tough, but the bakers hope to capitalize on pedestrian traffic from the hungry concert goers. To satisfy those who want to support the event but don't want to deal with parking a second bake sale will be held at the Elysian Flea Market on Saturday May 1st from 11am to 2pm. Details for both events can be found here.

The current lineup of local vegan food suppliers for Fair Grinds is:

• Aviva Rabins - savory rice dishes, gumbos, and pasta salads
• Cristina Noel Smith - sweet vegan breads (pumpkin, banana chocolate chip)
• Jackie Barnes - vegan molasses and oatmeal raisin cookies
• Hillary (last name unavailable at time of publication) - Tibetan dumpling stew
• Ty Siddiqui - vegan pie (not all of Ty's offerings are vegan)

Vegan cookie supplier Jackie Barnes gives high praises to the coffeehouse. "I honestly love Fair Grinds. Although they aren't exactly located in my neighborhood, I still feel it has become a part of my community; I meet there with my interfaith, Pagan group, Lamplight Circle, my weekly knitting group, and also just with friends. Baking for them has been a pleasure and I love how supportive they are of their vegan customers; very few establishments go to so much effort to provide their vegan customers with such a large selection of breads, hot and cold dishes, and desserts!"

New Orleans could definitely use a few more cafes like Fair Grinds. With indoor and outdoor seating, a great atmosphere, friendly counter service, vegan food, and a community meeting space, what more could we ask for? A Ray Nagin coloring book? Oh... they have that too! While we wait for the rest of the city to catch up to the times, vegans will do well to stop by and support this sweet little coffeehouse.