I always doubt lasagna at vegan restaurants. No meat between the layers is fine, but if my fork doesn't hit melted mozzarella cheese and stretch it the length of Italy herself on the way to my mouth, why bother?
Nevertheless, I ordered lasagna at Indianapolis' new vegan restaurant 10th Street Diner. The Near Eastside place, 330110th St., opened May 11 in what was the battered shell of an old pawn shop. There's not an ounce of mozzarella, ricotta or parmesan cheese on the premises.
Ten pasta layers that the chef said took four days to prepare made a promising landing at my table. What resembled ricotta cheese peeked between bright, chunky tomato sauce and tender zucchini slices.
That cheese had the fine texture of top-quality, whole milk ricotta, and is one reason why chefs need so many days to make the lasagna. Will Holmes, who owns the restaurant with his mother, Karen Holmes, crafts all of 10th Street's dairy-free cheese. He blends and cooks cashews and tofu for ricotta, then seasons it with basil.
Spread thinly on the lasagna, the cheese provides the marrying kind of creaminess that brings lasagna's tart tomato sauce and, in this case, soft sliced zucchini layers together.
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"It really does take me about a whole day just to make the cheese," Holmes said.
He also prepares seitan that goes into pot pie, meatballs and a submarine sandwich with grilled bell peppers and pickled onions. Holmes and his mother are constantly in the open kitchen, either cooking themselves or working closely with staff. Just about everything at the 52-seat restaurant is made from scratch, even the soy milk and meat-free burgers.
"We try to do staples. Basically, we're trying to make it easier for people to be vegan or even be vegan for a day," Holmes said of the small lunch and dinner menu offering appetizers, sandwiches, salads and entrees, 20 selections in all Monday-Saturday, plus a couple daily specials and big, lemon-frosted banana cookies with the texture of light cake.
Karen Holmes, who ran Indy's Fancy Pans catering before she and her son opened 10th Street Diner May 11, gave up meat in the 1970s for all the reasons: better health, to save the planet, to spare animals factory farming's horrors. Over time, she went vegan. Sacrificing cheese was the worst. "It's just tough, but it was easy in reality," she said. "With what we use, we haven't given up cheese."
"That's the whole point of what we're trying to do," Will Holmes said. "We're trying to show people you don't really have to give anything up...if you do it right."
Follow IndyStar food writer Liz Biro on Twitter: @lizbiro, Instagram: @lizbiro, and on Facebook. Call her at 317-444-6264.
https://www.indystar.com/story/entertainment/dining/restaurants/2019/05/14/indianapolis-restaurants-vegan-restaurant-10th-street-diner/1189940001/ 2019-05-14 12:38:00Z
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