Los Angeles is a vegan foodie’s heaven. From next-level meals vehicles to upscale candlelit eating, there’s one thing plant-based for everybody within the Metropolis of Angels. However in 2018, Brooklyn transplant Tara Punzone determined there was one thing lacking from the vegan meals scene—genuine Italian fare—and she or he was able to fill the area of interest. It was solely a matter of time till Punzone, a veteran chef and culinary director of a few of the greatest plant-based eating places in New York Metropolis and Los Angeles, opened an eatery of her personal, and she or he’s hit the nail on the top with West Hollywood’s Pura Vita.
The five-year-old restaurant focuses on traditional southern Italian dishes, and has already cemented its place as a favourite amongst locals, critics, and celebs. Positioned on glitzy Santa Monica Boulevard, the small, dimly lit house serves a full home virtually each night time, and the clientele is as various as it’s passionate concerning the meals. Outdated-school Italians, younger Angelenos with hip haircuts, {couples} on dates, queer folks, social media influencers, businessmen, drag queens, and households all huddle at tables, animated dialog filling the air whereas sharply dressed waitstaff buzz about with trays of meals. Earlier than even a plate of olives could be ordered, it’s obvious that this place is particular. “Pura Vita is an area the place folks come and sit on the bar and discuss to one another, snigger, benefit from the meals and the wine, take heed to nice music, and easily share the love and optimistic power,” Punzone says. “It’s all about group.”
Pura Vita/@roxyrockstv
How Pura Vita obtained began
Punzone dreamt of getting her personal plant-based restaurant since going vegan at age 12. With a household background in meals (her grandparents owned a neighborhood market and sandwich store serving hungry New Yorkers lined across the block), Punzone’s life has revolved round high quality, from-scratch meals for so long as she will be able to bear in mind. Large dinners have been the norm for each event, from birthdays to funerals to Sunday household get-togethers. However after watching a slaughterhouse video in grade college, she dropped animals from her food regimen for good. And regardless of belonging to a tradition so fearsomely protecting and pleased with its meals traditions, Punzone says her veganism was supported and even nurtured, together with her dad and mom encouraging her to get within the kitchen and study to prepare dinner her personal dishes at an early age.
From there, each a mission to veganize her household’s recipes and a ardour for plant-based meals was born. That zeal led her to positions at numerous vegan eating places and even a stint residing in Rome to study Italian taste profiles straight from the supply. “In Italy, I discovered authenticity, which gave me extra confidence to create my very own plant-based variations of these flavors,” she says. It’s this devotion to purity, customized, and heritage that has develop into the spine of the meals philosophy and stellar menu at Pura Vita.
Pura Vita
The makings of a vegan Italian menu
Italy is the place Punzone first obtained hands-on expertise with carbonara, a decadent pasta made with egg, cheese, and a bacon-like lower of meat referred to as guanciale. It was a dish her household by no means ready, and she or he was a longtime vegan by the point she discovered herself in Rome. However its recognition amongst Italians impressed her to tackle the problem of recreating it senza animali.
In her model, Punzone replaces the guanciale with a smoky bacon made out of shiitake mushrooms, and substitutes cheese with a housemade macadamia romano cream. However the stand-in for the signature fatty creaminess of egg got here to her from an sudden place.
“I had a dream I used to be cooking pasta with avocado,” she says. “And once I awoke and obtained to the kitchen that day, the carbonara was born—I study lots from my goals.”
Her instincts, spot-on even in her unconscious, paid off: the carbonara, with its layers of salty, creamy, silky, wealthy flavors, is definitely her hottest dish.
A number of antipasti and verdure does a effective job at introducing diners to Punzone’s talent. The polpettine—mushy mushroom-lentil meatballs smothered in heat marinara and macadamia parmigiano—satisfies any nostalgic meatball craving. The nutty, barely bitter taste of the Broccoli Rabe shines when sautéed with garlic, chili flakes, and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt. The Peppas (named after Punzone’s father’s pronunciation of “peppers”) are an addictive mixture of lengthy, scorching Italian peppers, pepitas, and almonds, all balanced with candy raisins. And the thick, cashew-based Baked Cashew Ricotta, served with ethereal, olive oil-brushed ciabatta, may have you preventing off your eating firm for what’s left on the backside of the ramekin.
This quartet of starters, although spanning two completely different menu sections, is designed to be ordered collectively, Punzone explains. You’ll want to add the Peppas and a meatball atop your ricotta-slathered ciabatta for the proper chew.
Salads and soups embrace hearty vegetable stews topped with grilled bread, bean and pasta medleys sprinkled with cheese, traditional caprese salads with thick slabs of housemade cashew mozzarella, and the Pura Vita—a mixture of Tuscan kale and arugula tossed in a smoked almond dressing, dolloped with almond ricotta, and balanced with tangy pickled carrots. Nonetheless, it’s the numerous perfected pasta dishes that steal the present.
Oliver Barth
Plant-based pasta? Excellent.
Alongside the top-notch carbonara, the Black Magic Lasagna is one other intriguing menu star. Sheets of delicate pasta are layered with cashew ricotta, bechamel, spinach, mushrooms, and black truffle cream, then given a beneficiant end of saucy, fragrant pesto. For seafood lovers, the Linguine di Mare is a straightforward resolution, with its succulent, tender king oyster mushroom “scallops” nestled on a mattress of linguine and garlic-white wine sauce, then topped with buttery, toasted breadcrumbs. Traditionalists can go for pomodoro—spaghetti, tomato, basil, and cashew ricotta—and will likely be simply as impressed with its pure, easy flavors.
No pasta dinner is full and not using a glass of vegan wine, and America’s first vegan Italian restaurant and wine bar delivers. The sprawling choice—displayed prominently in a red-lit wall spanning the size of Pura Vita’s 12-seat bar—is natural, biodynamic, and largely Italian, with a number of California gems and important French varietals offering some variety. Champagne, cocktails, beer, and exhausting kombucha spherical out the menu of libations, whereas scorching tea, espresso, imported mineral water, and a lip-smacking mint lemonade can be found for non-drinkers.
Oliver Barth
Desserts to die for at Pura Vita
To spherical out the night, dessert is necessary. Dense and custardy, the vegan gelato is available in flavors like chocolate, pistachio or hazelnut. Get any scoop as an Affogato—“drowned” in a freshly pulled shot of espresso. The sunshine-as-air Tiramisu—with its layers of vanilla bean-infused cashew mascarpone, cocoa, and extra espresso—is essentially the most genuine vegan reproduction exterior of Italy. However the crown jewel of the dolci menu is the Chocolate Fudge Cake. Even essentially the most ardent dessert-lovers will likely be hard-pressed to recollect the final time they tasted chocolate so pure and intense. Thick swirls of fudgy frosting and a zippy raspberry coulis take the expertise over the sting. How did essentially the most delectable slice of vegan chocolate cake come to discover a dwelling on Pura Vita’s menu, and who’s the star baker accountable? Punzone crosses her arms, shrugs, and says with a smile, “I gotta man.”
A Friday night time at Pura Vita is revelrous and romantic. It’s stuffed with heat smiles, distinctive service, and even higher meals. And fortunately, so is its brunch. The weekend morning service sees diners pour in for Punzone’s spin on breakfast, together with the Queen Cornetto (a “very New York” sandwich of shiitake bacon, tofu egg, and cashew mozzarella on a buttery croissant) and the Nutella Pancakes, crammed with melted, housemade chocolate-hazelnut unfold and topped with juicy strawberries.
Linda Pianigiani Pictures
Nonetheless craving extra of Punzone’s culinary deftness? You needn’t go far. Proper subsequent door, Punzone opened Pura Vita Pizzeria, a wholly separate pizza enterprise that serves Neapolitan-style pizza, calzones, and different Italian consolation dishes. It was a dream Punzone held near her coronary heart, however couldn’t totally understand with the house constraints of Pura Vita upon opening initially. However after a emptiness opened up subsequent door—and a profitable crowdfunding marketing campaign that pulled in additional than $18,000 got here rolling within the first few days—Punzone was in a position to her dream pizzeria, now slinging every part from perfected classics to a pizza model of her well-known Black Magic Lasagna.
Pura Vita is larger than the sum of its elements. As quickly as you stroll in, you’re transported to an intimate New York Metropolis wine bar. As quickly as you’re greeted, you’re reminded of the heat of coming again dwelling. And as quickly as you’re taking your first chew, you immediately really feel all the fervour and care that goes into Italian cooking. All collectively, and it’s clear that is greater than only a meal. That is pure love.
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Richard Bowie (@wichiebowie) is VegNews’ editorial director primarily based in Los Angeles, CA.
