Vegan Fun in Palm Springs

Last weekend Mr VE&T set off for a week of sunshine and professional tennis down in Palm Springs. We brought along my two aunts, who are both super fun people AND big fans of tennis (and vegans!). Every year there is an important tennis tournament in Palm Springs, and all the top mens and womens players come from around the world to compete.

We got to see just about everyone! We spent our first day there watching Federer practice with Tommy Haas, and then Rafa practice with Stan Wawrinka. As you can see, we were right up close! I don't even own a zoom lens. It was so fun!

The tennis grounds where the matches are held is really beautiful and nicely maintained, and (if you're a tennis fan) it's a great place to spend the day. In fact, we spent 3 whole days there and had a great time. That said, there aren't many vegan options available for munching. One concessions stand was selling Lara Bars for $4. Uh, no thanks! There is a restaurant called Pizzavino in Stadium Two that offers all their pizzas with Daiya cheese... but that involves going to the restaurant and missing out on courtside time.

my aunt L likes lots of mustard!

So, every morning my aunts and I would make ourselves some little sandwiches. We went to Trader Joes and stocked up on all the sandwich fixin's. We've got the routine down, because this is how we make our lunches every year for our family trip to Yosemite. We had bread, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, hummus and baked tofu. Plus, lots of nuts and fresh fruit for non-stop nibbles.

Here's my sandwich, helping sustain me through a super fun Bopanni-Quereshi v Federer-Wawrinka doubles match. Mmmm, delicious!

The dessert is super hot, so, you'll always want to have lots of water with you. In fact, at various points around the grounds, they had Brita water filter "re-fill stations" so that you could refill your water bottle for free. I drank a TON of water.

Also, we stayed at such a great and funky spot in Palm Desert. There was a sunny courtyard with a pool and surrounded by citrus trees. Every morning the proprietors put out a huge bowl of chopped fruits and baked goods (not vegan), bread for toast (Dave's Killer Bread!), and grapefruits from their trees. Swoon. It was a pretty magical way to start the day. Just look at all those grapefruits on their tree!!

We were having so much fun at the tennis that dinner was sometimes an afterthought- and yet, we had some pretty great dinners:

Our first night out we went to LaQuinta Resort, which is where many of the players stay. We wanted to see if we'd spot any tennis celebs! (we did see a couple top 100 players). We had dinner at their "American Bistro," called Twenty6. Even though we got there *right* before closing, the service was super excellent and the server was really great about confirming that their veggie burger and avocado sauce was 100% vegan. He even read us the whole list of ingredients. I was so impressed - and that was a really yummy burger!

Our second night, we drove up to the city of Palm Springs to check out Native Foods. I've heard so much about Native Foods over the years and I really wanted to check it out. We got a serving of the polenta bites to share (super yums!), and I got the Greek Gyro Bowl. Mmmm. Now I see what all the fuss is about. All four of us got something different and we all really loved our food. That says a lot - because between the group of us we cover quite an array of dietary preferences. Now I've got my fingers crossed that Native Foods might come to Santa Cruz one day!

After watching Rafa squeeze out a late night victory over Radek Stepanek, we (and 16,000 other people) made our way out of the stadium in search of dinner. We got to Pizzavino in Palm Desert right before closing - but just in the knick of time.

I started with a baby kale salad, which was all-vegan as long as I asked for no cheese. It was super good, super fresh, and I was jazzed to have a big mountain of greens. Sometimes greens are hard to find when you're travelling.

I also got a pizza! I ordered with half-daiya and half-no cheese. I never get pizza with Daiya, and though I really like the idea, I think I actually liked the no-cheese pizza more. I thought there was a bit too much Daiya, so I removed about half of it, and enjoyed it that way. I ate the whole darn thing, so that's quite an endorsement! They also offer gluten-free crusts, and apparently Novak Djokovic had been in for dinner two nights earlier (he is famously gf).

In case you're headed to Palm Springs, here's a little more travel info:

Mamma Gina's in Palm Desert - you'd never know it from the outside, but this old-school Italian spot had lots of vegan options (clearly marked on the menu!!). I had a big bowl of minestrone and plate of sauteed broccoli rabe and both were very good.

Palm Greens in Palm Springs - we had a pretty good dinner here. Nothing bad about it for sure, but if I had that chance to do that night over, I'd probably just go back to Native Foods again. That said, they had a pretty great looking breakfast menu.

Clark's Nutrition - I'm not just plugging this spot because my awesome friend Mo works there. It's a super huge and fun locally-owned natural food store with epic selection.

 Our last day we went hiking in the Palm Canyons. So beautiful!

Mr VE&T loves dinos!