Rethink Vegan with Veggie Campus

Of course, you’re not quite out of the holiday hump just yet and won’t be for another couple of days. Hopefully, you’re happily enjoying the lion’s share of your leftovers if your horde of friends and relatives were kind enough to leave something behind for the home team or you were able to sneak away with Tupperware filled to the brim and then some. Well, when the holidays have come to their inevitable close, Food has found a way for you to kick your meatless Mondays up a notch with delicious vegan ­soul food from Veggie Campus.

We spoke to owner Brent Blair, who recently moved the five-year-old vegan hotspot to 74 Lady Musgrave Road for a much-needed upgrade of space to accommodate its growing client base. It’s no wonder they needed the space upgrade as the restaurant acts as a hangout serving loyal customers who come for the food and stay for the vibes. The food itself is rich in flavour and carries with it a sort of heft people don’t typically associate with vegan food. Blair wants people to think differently about vegan food It’s not all lettuce leaves and shaved carrots over at Veggie Campus they are serving up delicious soul food that just happens to be plant-based. “When people think vegan food, they think it’s expensive, it’s tasteless, that it lacks protein ... , so I just call it food,” Blair said. He and his team are the right people for rehabilitation of the vegan image as well, happily joking among each other and with incomers, killing instantly the notion that vegans are the humourless stiffs we see in media.

This Kingston-based vegan spot caters to more than just your taste buds, it also caters to your wallets! Veggie Campus stays affordable because Blair and his team personally source produce and research the best ways to bring good food at a good price, making the necessary relationships with local farmers. This helps Veggie Campus introduce its customers to new foods they would probably have never tried if it wasn’t for the creative work of Blair and his team. Of course, you can always get your traditional vegan recipes, but Veggie Campus is dedicated to ‘serving food fun’. It’s not so far removed from the Everyman, so to speak. The food is accessible, and the experience isn’t reserved for some obscure niche market. Like Blair says, “it’s just food,” good food.