Pine Box Rock Shop

This is a large, chill bar with a limited food menu consisting of three types of vegan empanadas. If you want a good drink, a board game and maybe some difficult trivia, then Pine Box is a gem.

The drinks are great (they even have vegan white russians!) and not terribly priced ($5 for a mixed drink); they also have a goodly variety of bottled and draft beers.

On a whole, this is a cool bar. If they had more food options (how about nachos and chili cheese fries?) it would be even better and more on-par with the other vegan bars in the country like Bye and Bye in Portland and Highline in Seattle.

I don't drink so I can't comment about the plentiful vegan drinks, but I can, however, comment about the food. :) I also know Pine Box does a lot of trivia nights and fun sort of events, which is always welcome.

I went to Pine Box recently for their final vegan waffle brunch of the season; they say they may start it up again next spring. I went with the berry waffles, which were good and pretty reasonable. I'd say the taste was average and they were served on a paper plate, but it's a bar, for goodness sakes, so I'm happy with that. :)

My friends and I also shared some vegan empanadas which are made by V Spot in Park Slope. My favorite was the jerk seitan, which was nice and spicy. The sauce it came with was also really good and came in a huge plastic cup. I tried my friend's Philly Cheesesteak empanada, which would have been amazing if either 1) it didn't have mushrooms, or 2) I didn't hate mushrooms. The flavor and texture was right on, so if you're not opposed to fungus, I'd recommend that one.

Again, I don't drink so I don't care all that much that there's a vegan bar in my neighborhood (aside from obviously beinig happy that there's no meat/dairy on the menu), but in the event that I'm roped into "going for drinks", I'm happy to have a vegan establishment to suggest. :)