Harpoon Louie's

Friday night, my parents watched the wee one while Newman and I went out to dinner. This is something that doesn't happen all that often, and this was the first time we've been out to a restaurant since the veganism began. I told him that we were going to my parents' house for dinner, so he was completely surprised when he found out we got to go out together. Yay!

Now the issue was where to go. I had been researching all day, trying to have a couple of places in mind in case he wasn't in the mood for Mexican (which he wasn't), etc. I found that Happy Cow was pretty helpful. Have you ever used it? It has restaurant listings and reviews and is searchable by location. It gave me a few ideas, so I was armed with options.

We ended up at Harpoon Louie's. I'd been there a few times years ago, and he had been there once a long time ago as well. I knew they had some vegan options, and I figured it was worth a shot. To be sure, I did call ahead and was assured that they were vegan friendly. As a side note, I had seen several reviews stating that they had a separate vegan menu, and I did not experience this. However, their regular menu has all vegetarian and vegan items noted, which Newman noticed and thought was really helpful.

Grabbing a seat outside, we saw we were there in time for happy hour, which is Monday through Friday from 3-7 p.m. They have drink specials, but they also have some of their apps marked down. Chips and a fresh salsa was $1. Chips were yellow corn and fresh, and the salsa was chunky and definitely not from a bottle. Spring Roll Bites (I'm guessing a smaller portion of their app Spring Rolls), were six halves of spring rolls with a tasty sweet and spicy sauce ($2.25). They are fried, but they are also vegan! Newman really liked them, which completely surprised me as he despises anything cruciferous, and these were filled with cabbage. The filling also included clear noodles and carrots, and they were awesome! He offered me the last one, and I fought the moral dilemma of letting him have it because, let's face it, any time I can get him to eat cabbage I'm happy, but my mouth won out, and I ate it instead. Oh well. Next time we're getting the whole order.

He had wanted a burger going in, and that's what he got. I had a couple of options including a few salads (minus the cheese) and a vegan bbq sandwich, but I decided to go with the veggie burger minus the yogurt sauce ($7.50). They both came with a choice of sides, but we both got the fries, and we were happy we did. Hot and crunchy on the outside, soft and potato-y on the inside, these were what fries should be. When the waitress sat down my burger open-faced, I took my fork to it and tried a bite first. Awesome!! I had Newman try a bite, and he agreed (although I'm sure he was happy to have his beef). Toppings included a nice slice of tomato, plenty of pickles, a large leaf of lettuce, and a thick slice of red onion. I promptly removed the onion and lettuce, added a large squirt of ketchup and a smaller one of yellow mustard, and I was in heaven.

I think I mentioned that I've never been a big burger fan. Meatloaf and meatballs were about the extent of my interest in ground meat. And even those had to be really good for me to be interested. But I could eat that burger every day. It was so great. Newman kept laughing at me because I looked so content.

 

 We agreed that we will most definitely be back. I'm thinking sooner rather than later. I could totally go for one of those burgers right now. In fact, I'm going to go work on researching a good burger recipe. Wish me luck.