Fill ‘Er Up

Founded two decades ago in the back of a minivan, Hillside Quickie,
Inc. is a Pacific Northwest vegetarian institution. This family
business made its name through the art of the vegan sandwich, producing a line of big, messy tofu/tempeh/seitan
inventions drawing on flavors from all over. (The classic Crazy
Jamaican Burger features jerk tofu with plantains, grilled sweet
onions, tomatoes, and vegan mayo.) Instantly adored by the vegan
faithful—who likely believed they’d forsaken such calorie-packed
extravagance forever—Hillside Quickie progressed from the minivan
to a chain of three shops: Hillside Quickie’s Vegan Sandwich Shop in
the U-District, Hillside Quickie’s Cafe on Capitol≠≠ Hill, and
the southern satellite Quickie Too in Tacoma.

And now there’s Plum, “Hillside Quickie’s New American Bistro.” In
place of the sandwich shops’ casual counter service, Plum offers menus
and servers and organic wine. Instead of the shops’ cramped coziness,
Plum gives diners room to breathe in the big, bright, stylishly spare
12th Avenue space previously occupied by Cafe Stellina. It’s a good
fit, with elegant wood-top tables placed at comfortable intervals along
the clean concrete floor and stark minimalist art cast along the vast
concrete wall. The front is floor-to-
ceiling garage-door-style
windows, openable in nice weather.

My first visit to Plum involved lunch with two carnivorous friends.
They had volunteered for the assignment but couldn’t help flinching at
the menu descriptions—apparently, “tofustrami” sounds as
appetizing to carnivores as baby back ribs do to vegans. Eventually,
decisions were made, with friendly, patient guidance from our server.
For Carnivore #1: the smoked Northwest portobello and tempeh crepes
($11). For Carnivore #2: the apple-pecan salad ($11 lunch/$13 dinner).
For me: the vegan sliders ($11). For the table: the pizza of the day
($14), a margherita-
ish pie equipped with lightly spicy sauce, a
delicious, double thin-layer crust, and vegan mozzarella that was the
first vegan cheese I’ve ever had that didn’t make me want to sue. (The
carnivores were satisfied by it, if not impressed.)

Even for a lifelong vegetarian, a visit to Plum can feel like a
taste-test in a laboratory on the cutting edge of vegan science, but
lucky for all, Plum’s experiments are more successful than not. The
apple-pecan salad was a gorgeous, gigantic affair, loaded with spring
greens, fresh romaine, pecans, apples, cranberries, segments of navel
orange, green grapes, and quinoa, all arranged with painstaking radial
symmetry and served with a champagne vinaigrette. It’s a salad built
for two or three, and it could stand to lose a couple ingredients to
tighten up the flavor contrasts. (Front-runner for expulsion: the
oranges, which take things to an almost cartoonish level.) Still, it’s
a salad to like a lot, if not to love.

The portobello-and-tempeh crepes also looked exceptionally pretty,
finished with a drizzle of vegan crème fraîche that
shocked us all with its palatability. Achieving creaminess through
vegan means has long been a challenge, but this crème
fraîche—somehow made with tempeh—showcased the
strides being made in the field. The crepes were praised by (fussy)
Carnivore #1 for their properly light-and-lacey outer crispiness, but
had a slightly gummy texture underneath. As far as the insides,
Carnivore #1 could’ve done without the “too smoky” tempeh, saying the
portobellos alone would’ve been better.

My sliders, meanwhile, were a classic Hillside Quickie creation.
Described as a sloppy-joe-style millet-and-quinoa blend served with
grilled onions, chopped jalapeños, and a jalapeño aioli,
the plate arrived bearing what looked like three full-size sandwiches,
each on a small bun of a structural integrity that soon destroyed all
claims to sandwichness. Biting through the bun required applying a
pressure that sent the goopy insides squishing out in all directions,
with the resulting food less a sandwich than a flavorful casserole
topped and bottomed with the world’s sturdiest crouton. Did I mention
there were three of them? Seemingly determined to destroy the
lore that vegan food can’t be filling, Plum stuffs its customers, with
the 10-bucks-and-up menu prices earned through both the quality and
quantity of the food.

For dinner, I brought a fellow vegetarian-not-vegan, who promptly
dove into the lush, fruit-laden jungle of the apple-pecan salad and
came out happy, while conceding that the fruit-salad topping was a bit
of vegan overkill. My starter was the sautéed tofu rolls ($8),
thoroughly spicy concoctions packed with jalapeños, baby
tomatoes, and an orange-avocado salsa I enjoyed so much I’d consider
the full-size entrée version ($16).

Things got complicated with the entrée course. My companion
ordered the grilled teriyaki tofu kebabs ($15) and an organic cabernet
sauvignon from California ($7); I ordered the Spicy Cajun Mac ‘n’ Yease
($18) with a vino verde from Portugal ($7). My choices thrilled: the
vino verde had the perfect sparkly kick, and despite the winceworthy
name, the macaroni delivered, its vegan-cheese approximation once again
perfectly palatable (with abundant spice offering an assist). The sides
were deeply satisfying: The southern-fried seitan patties provided a
protein-rich counter-substance to the goopy macaroni, while the
fresh-roasted new potatoes were simply astounding, accompanied by
nothing but traces of thyme, each bite a perfectly contained world of
near-mashed potato held together by the thinnest, crispiest skin.
Judging from the evidence, roasted potatoes are the world’s most
satisfying vegan food. A similarly simple delight lit up my companion’s
teriyaki tofu kebabs plate: spears of asparagus, sautéed and
swoonworthy in their goodness. As with the potatoes, Plum knew when to
get out of the way of a natural wonder. Not so impressive: everything
else my companion had, from the nothing-special grilled tofu to the
bland, lukewarm mashed yams to the too-sweet cab sav. Thankfully, my
totally smashing entrée—a perfect example of Plum’s
comfort-food decadence—was enough to feed us both.

For now, the vibe is light and airy, but that will alter
considerably once the months of 4:30 p.m. darkness descend. Still, Plum
offers the most satisfying—and only upscale—all-vegan
experience in town (Tobey Maguire reportedly became a regular during
his recent Seattle film shoot), and the tables are already set with
candles.