Doing The Horizontal with Vertical Diner

Buffalo Tigers

One Of The Best Vegan Buffalo Wings In The Country.

    I have a love/hate relationship with Vertical Diner. They have so much unrealized potential that they could be great like Chicago Diner or Spiral Dinner, but they fall short. It's not that they aren't good, but they could be great. The things they do well are the hand cut freedom fries, the tender and buffalo tigers (and the ranch),  biscuits and the best vegan gravy, sausage patties and awesome jerk and chicken flavored seitan.      

     For a real treat, try the American Diner, which is a plate of freedom fries (or hash browns as if you would choose them) topped with two deep fried tender tigers (like chicken fingers) smothered in an amazing gravy. Just don't eat anything before or after, I can only imagine how many calories this has. Things started to pick up when one of the chefs started to get creative with specials such as stuffed french toast, but he was fired, just as we started to get on the right track. Oh wells.

Jerk Chicken Sub

Tip: Sub The Sour Cream For Ranch AND Add Fries!

      Unfortunately, they're still stuck in the 90's with the nutritional yeast cheese for things like cheese fries and quesadillas. And the tofu scramble is one of the weakest, I've ever eaten. Oh, and instead of a homemade veggie burger they use Sunshine and Boca burgers. Yawn.

Jamaican Me Dream

Basically D.I.Y. Burritos: Jerk Seitan, Rice & Beans, Peppers & Onions

     Vertical Diner is the sister restaurant of Sage's Cafe (and part of Ian Brandt's vegan empire). It's a lower cost alternative with generally speedier service, but the menu is fairly identical to Sage's and hasn't changed much since opening in 2006. If you're headed to brunch on the weekend, Sage's food is much fresher since Vertical's sits in the line until your order, which if you get to there mid day or evening the food could be there for hours. I've had many old food experiences there. Regardless, it used to be my favorite restaurant in town, until Isa's Vegan Brunch came my way and showed me how good breakfast could be. Waffles. Tofu Benedicts. Omelets. Frittatas. Banana Rabanada. Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs. Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes. Crepes. Quiche. Seriously, brunch could be awesome. Still, it's cool to sleep in and order the Avalanche, two giant pancakes, tofu scramble, sausage patty and hash browns. It would take me until dinner to make all that. Oh, and skip dessert and head to Cakewalk instead, that's where the real desserts in this town are.

Shoo Fly Cake

Not Too Sweet, But No Sage's Tiramisu

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Sage's All-You-Can-Eat Pizza Night Paired With Red Rock's Paardebloom

Cheeseburger Pizza

 Since 2002, Sage's Cafe has won "Best Vegetarian" restaurant in City Weekly's Best Of Utah. That's nine years straight. Not much has changed on the menu since I moved here five years ago. The menu is fairly static, except for the lunch and dinner chef's special. However, Sage's shines on their Tuesday's All-You-Can-Eat pizza and salad night. Although they tend to use their own homemade nutritional yeast instead of the amazing Daiya, the pizzas they come up with are still awesome. This is demonstrated with the cheeseburger pizza pictured above. From Pad Thai to dessert pizzas, the pizzas are always inventive and unique. It's not something you would find in your local pizzeria.

 For $12.75, you get as much pizza and salad you can eat. Something I took literately on my last visit. I wrote down a list of the pizzas I ate, but I ended up losing the piece of paper so I'll try to do my best to recreate the names. Perhaps, it was the Paardebloem ( a collaboration beer between Red Rock and New Belgium) beer from Red Rock Brewery that I washed down the pizza with. Oh, and for more vegan pizza options check out my guide to vegan pizza in Salt Lake. One more secret that I'm willing to part with is try to get there around 5 p.m. when the pizzas start flying out of the oven. Not only will you most likely not have to wait, but the pizzas fly out of the oven faster than you can eat them. Just make sure you save room for the Tiramisu, one of the best deserts I've had from a restaurant.

UPDATE: ReDirect Guide's ISaveGreen is offering a coupon for a free dessert with the purchase of an entree. Get the coupon here.

Carrot Butter with Daikon and Spinach

     Carrot butter is one of the best appetizers that Sage's offers. The best is when they use it as a desert pizza since the carrot butter is fairly sweet. I've had a carrot butter pizza with strawberries that was awesome. I've also had a cinnamon roll pizza. One of these days, I'll get around to posting my carrot butter recipe.

Three Cheese Pizza

 

     I think this one had a nutritional yeast cheese, Daiya mozzarella and Parmesan.  This is one of the few times I've seen Sage's use Daiya. I hope this is a sign of things to come.

Pesto with Butternut Squash

Cheesesteak Pizza (left) and Portobello and Spinach Pizza

Taco Pizza

The I Can't Remember What It Was Pizza

Red Rock's Paardebloom Beer

     Red Rock might be one of the most under rated breweries in Utah. This beer showcases their talents. Instead of using hops, they use dandelions, which is what paardebloem means in Belgian. The result was a nice Belgian style ale with a peachy nose that packed a punch at 9.2% ABV. I'm pretty sure this is sold out, but Red Rock just released the Reve, which is a bottle-conditioned Belgian trippel aged one year on French Oak and inoculated with brettanomyces. Oh, and it packs a wallop at 10.3% ABV. My own complaint is that the brewery is lacking in vegan options so I can't eat there often AND sample their beers. The good thing is that Sage's recently changed their beer menu to feature locally brewed beers from Wasatch's finest from Epic, Squatters, Red Rock and Unita. As if you needed another reason to eat pizza and beer.

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