{"id":2399,"date":"2013-12-08T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2013-12-08T15:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/?p=2399"},"modified":"2013-12-07T12:31:57","modified_gmt":"2013-12-07T17:31:57","slug":"roadtrip-vegan-brunch-at-merge-in-buffalo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/roadtrip-vegan-brunch-at-merge-in-buffalo\/","title":{"rendered":"Roadtrip – Vegan Brunch at Merge in Buffalo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend we drove down to the USA. Once we crossed the border it seemed like a good time to stop for brunch, as it was shortly before 11 am. When I typed “vegan” into Google maps, it directed us to Merge and we decided to go with it.<\/p>\n

\"Merge<\/a><\/p>\n

What we found was a beautiful space, tasty food, and friendly servers. Sometimes rolling the dice works out nicely. And we got there just in time, because after 15-30 minutes, the place was full.<\/p>\n

Merge isn’t an exclusively vegan place, as they do serve meat, dairy, and eggs, but they have several vegan options on the menu which are clearly marked with a V. If gluten free is your scene, they also have options marked with GF, but there is not always overlap. Ordering something that requires some modification, like with non-dairy cheese (or gluten-free) does involve getting charged an extra fee.<\/p>\n

\"Merge<\/a><\/p>\n

We started with veganized potato skins stuffed with fresh corn salad, tempeh, daiya, and a chipotle cream. Or rather, baked hollowed out baby potatoes, filled with a bit of daiya were sent out, with a bowl of the filling. A DIY potato skin experience – which was something we will have to try at home sometime soon because I really liked it.<\/p>\n

\"Veganized<\/a><\/p>\n

As another appetizer we ordered the seitan wings with hot sauce (they also coming in BBQ) along with a vegan ranch dressing and a couple of carrots\/celery sticks.<\/p>\n

Ordering this, I started wondering if what I ordered as hot sauce here, would be called “Buffalo Sauce” anywhere else. I know, really deep thoughts. (In case you’re wondering – it was.)<\/p>\n

\"Seitan<\/a><\/p>\n

This was very tasty, and I’d order it again for sure, except I’d have one order of the hot, and one order of the BBQ. Yumfest.<\/p>\n

\"Tofu<\/a><\/p>\n

And then finally, as our main we both got the Tofu Hash. A blend of diced spiced potatoes, fresh chopped tomato, lentils, daiya, and a delicious tofu scramble. JC was expecting more potato in his hash, but overall the dish what I was looking for. Initially, I though it was weird to have lentils in a tofu potato scramble, but this was actually a brilliant combo. This tofu hash answers that age old question… “Where do you get your protein?”<\/p>\n

We decided to skip even thinking about dessert, and get back on the road. Merge was a really positive experience, and a great way to start our visit to the USA.<\/p>\n

Merge<\/h2>\n

439 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY (map<\/a>)
\nWebsite<\/a> | Facebook<\/a> | Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend we drove down to the USA. Once we crossed the border it seemed like a good time to stop for brunch, as it was shortly before 11 am. When I typed “vegan” into Google maps, it directed us to Merge and we decided to go with it. What...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[293,328,24,242,4],"tags":[872],"class_list":["post-2399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buffalo","category-potatoes","category-travelling","category-vegan","category-vegan-food","tag-merge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}