Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Bluff City Vegan Eats: Brother Juniper's (and Ani DiFranco!)

I've posted about my favorite breakfast joint before, but now I'm doing so in an official "Bluff City Vegan Eats" post. But first let's back up to Tuesday night.

My BFF Sheridan (we've been best friends since 8th grade ... that's been, gosh, about 18 years!) and I went to see Ani DiFranco at the New Daisy on Beale Street Tuesday night. We saw her back in 1996 (during the Not a Pretty Girl/Little Plastic Castle days), and we were sooooo excited to see our favorite folky righteous babe again.

Ani was just as amazing as we expected, and I'm pretty sure Sheridan cried a little bit. Check out the matching Ani tees we bought at the show (and my pooch Datsun in the background):

I took a vacation day from work on Wednesday to spend time with Sheridan. She lives in Little Rock, and we don't each other often enough. We enjoyed a post-Ani brunch at Brother Juniper's, a quaint little breakfast joint in the University of Memphis area.

They have three tofu scrambles, but I'm only certain that one is vegan. That's the Fahim's Special with Home Fries, Wheat Toast, and Spreadable Fruit:

Now I've eaten a crap-ton of tofu scrambles in my day, but this one is my fave (I like it even better than my own go-to recipe). Tender crumbles of tofu are swimming in this amazing tangy shitake dressing, along with red and green bell pepper, portabella mushrooms, and kalamata olives. The home fries are perfectly seasoned and fried to a crisp, and the no-sugar-added blueberry and raspberry fruit spreads are out of this world good. They even sell their spreads online and in the store.

The other tofu scrambles are Tofu Veggie and Veggie Sausage. But the Tofu Veggie contains pesto, so I assume it isn't vegan. I once inquired about the vegan-ness of the Veggie Sausage scramble, and though my server told me it was vegan, I'm not so sure. The sausage used in the scramble tastes and feels like the non-vegan Morningstar Farms patties.

Brother Juniper's also provides vanilla soymilk for your coffee, which is served in the shop's eclectic collection of mugs that appear to have been acquired from garage sales and thrift stores.

Brother Juniper's is located at 3519 Walker. Go here to see their website and read about the restaurant's fun history (or to order some spreadable fruit!).

15 comments:

vegiebug said...

I'm so jealous that you got to see Ani DiFranco! Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, I could eat it for every meal! I'll be certain to give your scramble a try :D

Robin said...

Serving vanilla soy milk or soy creamer for coffee makes a place great (in my opinion). I frequent a place in Pittsburgh called Quiet Storm, despite their lousy service, because of the great hot coffee and soy milk offering.

jessy said...

so awesome on getting to see Ani with your best friend, Bianca! so, so, so much fun! a delicious post-Ani brunch just adds on to the awesome! i hear ya on sticking with the scramble that sounds most vegan, sometimes servers aren't just up to date with what's vegan or sometimes even what vegan means. i went out for a bachelorette party last weekend and had this restaurant make me a veggie platter without butter or margarine and i specified olive oil after explaining that i don't eat eggs, dairy, meat, fish, or honey. the veggies seemed to be i olive oil, but when the server said "and we brought you a side of bearnaise sauce!" grrrrrrr! i thought "yeah, they didn't get the vegan thing." sure enough, it tasted buttery. supersadface. so i'm with you - better to go with your gut. there's a fun bakery/cafe here in richmond that also has quite the thrift store collection of coffee mugs - i just love it! man, i keep forgetting to try out your scramble. dan and i need to make brinner some day with your w.w. biscuits, tempeh bacon, scramble, and some hasbrowns. yum!

The Voracious Vegan said...

YAY for Ani DiFranco! Sounds like you had a blast and I love those t-shirts!

Oh my gawd...I want a tofu scramble NOW. That looks so delicious, I'm going to have to relocate to your neck of the woods because it seems you've got a lot of great restaurants where you live.

dreaminitvegan said...

How fun!!!! Made tofu scramble for dinner the other night.

Keri - I Eat Trees said...

Love the matching shirts!
Breakfast scrambles are one of my favorite things- I could probably eat one for 3 meals a day. :P

H. said...

I have to say, saw you at the Ani show. Seeing as I'm just a blog lurker, didn't want to startle you. Plus, we were all very in the awesome moment.

Your blog is one of our favorites. You've definitely made navigating the vegan world in Memphis much easier for us.

I want to de-lurk and say, Thanks for all you do!

Millie said...

Love the t shirts and the food. Another great meal. Congrats!!!!

Also Bianca I appreciate the willingness to try out my tortillas recipe but my patent attorney advised me not to disclose the recipe to anyone until the patent is completed. So for now no testing can be done on my tortillas. I plan to market my tortillas, they are very good... but I will like you to try other recipes for me after I complete them to perfection. Thanks my friend. Enjoy the sun...its 81 out here in Cleveland Ohio. Millie

http://nuestracena-vegancuisine.blogspot.com

misss_e said...

Man...wish that was nashville and not Memphis!

misss_e said...

Oh and I gave you the beautiful blogger award...Hip hip hooray! ::releasesballoons::

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

yummy that looks like a great breakfast.

River - The Crafty Kook said...

You girls are so cute in your matching Ani tees!

That is a lot of tofu scramble! Man, that's probably enough to make a zombie for an entire week, but it would probably be totally worth it. I'm working on my crunky post now, but I'm such a slowpoke...

Sheridan said...

Yayayyayayaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!! I want to do all of this all over again! I love and miss you!

Trinity (of haiku tofu) said...

Hooray for hanging out with good friends! And for getting matching shirts that you BOTH look fabulous in! The tofu scramble sounds delish- i'll take some shiitake sauce any day of the week!

Tasha - The Clean Eating Mama said...

So jealous you saw Ani! I absolutely love her!