In honor of my birthday this week and also the Vida Vegan Con Bazaar & Conference, I’m publishing three posts instead of my usual two. I know, stop the presses. But I’m pretty excited, I feel like Vida Vegan Con purposely scheduled their conference this weekend because they knew it was my birthday. Okay, probably not. Seriously though, Vida Vegan Con is going to have some awesome speakers like Gene Baur, founder of Farm Sanctuary, and 40+ classes, panels, and workshops. Annnnd to kick it all off they are throwing a Vegan Bazaar with tons of local vendors giving out swag (did I tell you how much I love swag?), a Decadent Dessert Demo with Fran Costigan, and more! If you don’t live in Austin and can’t attend – don’t worry! – I’ll be there taking pictures until I have to drive down to the Texas coast for my b-day shenanigans.
Rabbit Food Grocery ties into my speech about Vida Vegan Con because they will be there in all their shining glory. They are Austin’s first all vegan & cruelty-free grocery store and I’m thrilled. I literally want to buy everything in their store. Rabbit Food was founded back in 2008 by Jessica Morris and Gabriel Figueroa, both longtime vegans; they would set up pop-up shops around town during events. Jump forward to January 2015, thanks to Kickstarter donations and lots of hard work, they’ve opened up their first physical store. Yeaaaah!
Need to stock up on snacks? No problem. Rabbit Food carries several varieties of chips, popcorn, crackers, power bars, cookies, and candies. If you need something heartier, they have delicious soups to choose from, veggie burgers, and tons of faux meat products.
I bought a can of this black pepper Vegan Toona to see what it was about and I was pleasantly surprised (Side note: if you have some leftover quinoa in your fridge, pile a handful of kale massaged with avocado on top, 1/2 a can of Vegan Toona mixed with vegan mayo, S&P, nutritional yeast, sliced avocado, lemon juice, and diced red onion and you’ve got an amaaaaaazing meal).
Rabbit Food also carries many different brands of egg replacer, granola, bacon bits, mayo, vegan jerky, and non-dairy milks. If you have a sweet tooth, there’s chocolate bars, fudge, ice cream, Sweet Ritual Salted Caramel Sauce, Bee Free vegan honey (which I’ve used in some of my latest recipes), marshmallows, and pralines.
Basically, you’re not going to go hungry in this store or suffer from a lack of choices. The only thing they don’t carry is produce, but it sounds like something that may be in the works for the future. If you’re already stocked up on vegan food, then you can browse Rabbit Food’s selection of greeting cards, perfumes, soaps, t-shirts, purses, and other handmade items. They also carry vegan pet products!
After you’ve finished ooohing and ahhhing throughout the store, head to the register where you’ll find flyers & postcards about upcoming events, Hurraw! lipbalm (I got the coconut flavor), the Vegan Survival Guide to Austin, and donation jars to help local animal rescue groups.
So basically, this store is rockin’ and they’ll be at Vida Vegan Con this weekend. If you live in Austin or plan on stopping through, check out Rabbit Food Grocery at 2210 S. 1st Street #M, Austin, Texas 78704. Or you can always visit rabbitfoodgrocery.com to get more info and order online!
This is the stuff vegan dreams are made of….
Jillian ♥
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