Friday, December 31, 2010

Vegan Pizzeria-3 Brothers in Long Island, NY

I've been meaning to try this place since I heard the buzz coming from Long Island Vegan Meetup Group and other places on the web.  I walk around Manhattan in my neighborhood and ask the local pizzerias why not just make a pie with Daiya cheese and put a sign in the window.  With all the lactose intolerant people out there I think it's a no brainer but apparently it's me that isn't thinking clearly.  Another story for another day though.  I may just ask Daiya for a case of cheese and walk around giving it out.

I just looked for their website and found plenty of reviews but no website.  It came up on my iPhone web app "Vegout" from Happy Cow so we drove up Long Beach Road.  Here's the info:

212 N Long Beach Rd, Rockville Centre New York 11570 

516-766-3939 



A single storefront pizzeria.

The counter and about 30 seats in the dining area are a bit more upscale than your average pizzeria. Cloth napkins and waitress service give 3 Brothers more of a small restaurant feel.
The restaurant has 2 menus so there's no mistaking what you're looking at.  One completely vegan menu offers more choices than many of the "Vegan" places I've visited.   I felt that we ordered a lot of things and made sure to repeat vegan/non vegan a few times.  Our waitress was efficient and delightful and by the time we made our way out of an almost full restaurant, overworked, even with help from 2 of the other people working there.  I still worry in a place that offers something for everyone that I want the vegan eggplant parm but end up with regular and still think it's an amazing vegan rendition being none the wiser.

Since this was our first foray we over ordered.  Little did we know by how much!

Vegan Calamari made with Oyster Mushrooms, a vegan tarter sauce and tomato sauce..
Bread is served before the meal and it's hot and crusty and served with a big nob of butter.  No, no, it's Earth Balance!  How nice to have a piece of perfect bread and butter before a meal.  The reason I didn't glutton down the whole loaf was that we ordered a pizza to sample.  My daughter wanted a plain cheese so we got a small personal pizza half and half, my half having the "works".  Vegan sausage, pepperoni, cheese olives and mushrooms.  I think it's all Yves Lightlife and Tofurkey but why should that be an issue?  Most mainstream places don't make their own sausage or pepperoni and I'm happy to get a pizza that looks like this.  (Warning, don't look at the cheese side!)

This is one pretty pizza.  I personally think there's a point where too much stuff is put on a pizza but apparently this isn't it.
The dough under so many ingredients did start to get a bit soft, as any pizza would under tons of ingredients but it still remained together and the crust was nice and crispy.
My entree was the Seitan Marsala and this dish was outstanding.  The seitan was light and fluffy and meaty and the sauce was a wonderful balance of marsala sweetness and mushroom savory heartiness.  It's served on a pile of mashed potatoes and spinach.  Everything came together so nicely on the fork.  (I did have one bite of spinach with some grit but I've come to excuse things like this.  It wasn't a gritty DISH and even the most careful prep chef can miss a few grains of something hiding in a nook or cranny.)
What you can't really see is the size of the plate.  
Because you can't really get a feel for how big a portion this is I went wild with the iPhone camera, flash on and flash off and even gave my daughter a chance to take a few shots.

I guess this is one without the flash.
The seitan is made in house as are many of the other ingredients on the menu.
This gives you an idea of the vertical development on the plate.
Believe me, there was a lot left on the plate.
Big thick pieces of seared seitan.  Some of the pieces had a nice crunchy crust surrounding the soft inside.
All of the entrees were of incredible super size portions and we took almost half each of the other two dishes home.

"Please Dad, I'll make a funny face if we can get a dessert!"
The desserts are all Vegan and we couldn't decide between the German Chocolate cake or the Peanut Butter Chocolate Mouse Bomb.  I'm not sure it's possible to make a wrong choice.  We certainly didn't.

Creamy fluffy PB mousse.
The cake was very moist and incredibly dense and chocolaty.
"Wanna bet my college tuition I can get this whole thing in my mouth?"
I shoulda bet!

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