atlanta vegfest

Atlanta has no shortage of festivals of all kinds. There are festivals of all sorts, for all tastes, year round in Atlanta. My favorite category has to be the food festivals! Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Atlanta Vegfest. It's been going on for several years, but this was my first time going. It is a gathering of various businesses (mostly food related) that share a general foundation of being vegan-friendly, plant based and environmentally conscious. RIght up my alley!

There were restaurants, bakeries, chocolatiers, kombucha makers, tea shops, catering services, beauty products, clothing vendors and more! The majority of those there were local companies and there were several that came from out of state as well. Many of the food and drink vendors offered samples and all had their items for sale as well. In addition to that, there were presenters there as well to speak on everything from the importance of our food choices to live cooking demos. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to see any of the speakers but I will try to catch some next year.


Below I’ll share some of my favorite eats that I enjoyed while there.

I have heard a lot about the Soul Vegetarian restaurant, but hadn’t been yet. So I was excited to see them there and they did not disappoint! I had the mac ‘n cheese (so creamy and melts in your mouth), collard greens ( flavorful and not too salty) and BBQ tofu (tender with a nice BBQ sauce). They also had veggie fried rice and Philly cheesesteak sandwiches that people seemed to really be enjoying as well.

Cafe Sunflower was there and I have been to their restaurant a few times and I love it. I sampled two items from them that I hadn’t had before and that was their sesame “chicken” (perfect balance of a sweet and tangy sauce) and classic veggie spring rolls. While these were small bites, the were so packed with flavor and I really enjoyed them.

Next up, it was time for some dessert! Cinnaholic (featured on Shark Tank) has also been on my list of places to visit so this was the perfect chance to try them out. They make gourmet cinnamon rolls and have a plethora of toppings you can add on top to customize it. At first, I was just going to go with a classic roll, sans the extras, thinking it might be too much. Fortunately, I changed my mind because what’s the point of a gourmet roll with no toppings? So I went with the vanilla frosting, pie crumbles, blueberries and chocolate syrup. Sounds like a random mix, but that’s what spoke to me and I regret nothing! It tasted even more amazing than it looked and I’ll definitely be visiting them in the near future. If you’re in Atlanta, they can be found near Little Five Points.

lMy sweet tooth was going strong that day and it was hard to resist all the goodies available. Another dessert that piqued my interest were the fruit cobblers from Brie’s Bake Shop. They had peach, cherry, blueberry, apple and pumpkin spice cobblers. I got the chance to sample all flavors and not a single one let me down. I’m usually not big on cherry anything but it was delicious. My favorite though was the peach which I decided to take home with me. Now of course fruit in a cobbler is great, but for me it’s all about the crust. Brie’s crust had the perfect crumble and taste that you would want from any homemade cobbler made with love. So good! From speaking with these nice ladies, they mentioned that they are taking orders for Thanksgiving (or any time) and I know even non-vegans would enjoy their cobblers.

Overall I had a great time at VegFest! It was a great way for me to learn about some more local businesses that are vegan-friendly for when I'm out and around town. I definitely plan to go again next year and I suggest you do as well. Even if you're not vegan, I'm sure you'll still find plenty of food you you'd enjoy. My tips would be to get there early to score one of their free tote bags full of samples (this year it was available to the first 300 people), bring your own tote bag for other samples and purchases, and eat a light breakfast to leave room for all the delicious food!