Herrell’s Renaissance Café
Restaurant, Coffee/Tea/Juice, Grocery/Bakery/Deli
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$ - inexpensive
Deli
Vegan-friendly ice cream, sandwiches, coffee and baked goods
Herrell's serves up sandwiches, coffee (soy available), baked goods (including clearly-marked vegan options) and peanut butter “No Moo” dairy-free ice cream, along with sorbets and numerous non-vegan homemade ice creams.
Herrell's sells tofu cream cheese for their bagels and supplies most of the vegan products you'll find at Bagel Rising and Espresso Royale Cafe.
Between the free wifi, the funky vibe and the relaxed seating, Herrell's is a vegan-friendly hang-out.
Corner of Brighton and Harvard Ave. in Allston Village, just North of the B line Harvard stop, and right along bus route 66.
- Wireless (free)
Added by ananimalfriendlylife.com on Sep 24 07 (updated Sep 24 07)
Sure it would be nice if Herrell's was totally vegan, but they are very vegan-aware and cater well to our kind, with all the numerous options described above, and then some. It's icing on the cake that they provide their vegan goodies to other establishments around town, so they get bonus points for helping us veganize menus in Boston!
Antaris, Amanda and I met Paige during the Allston Bicentennial celebration, and she was very cool, taking the time to chat with us, allow us to set out our BVA brochures and even sending us off with a vegan mini carrot cake and mini banana nut bread loaf. I'm already a big fan of the banana bread, which I've had several times at Bagel Rising, as well as twice before at Herrell's, and the carrot cake was pretty good, too, though a little overdone.
I haven't seen vegan cookies the last two times I was there, but the first time I visited they had chocolate chip cookies, and the one I had was excellent, though a little floppy. It was big, so it kind of buckled when I held it up to eat it! It was so good, though.
I haven't tried anything else yet, nor have I hung out to work on my computer. Bagel Rising is about half the distance to my apartment, so I end up going there most times instead, but I would like to give the overall experience a try soon, especially since they are open far later.
Cool place. Big thumbs up.