Vegan Divas Bakery Serves Excellent Sweets on the Upper East Side
Frequent readers of the Glenwood blog will know we love bakeries. And so we approached with some trepidation the notion of an all-vegan bakery. If you're thinking, like we did, "Vegan doughnuts? Why bother?" then you've probably never tried the little beauties now being served in the cute new bakery/coffee-spot, Vegan Divas. Founded by the ebullient Brazilian baker Fernanda Capobianco (who is married to French master baker Francois Payard), Vegan Divas has been selling its first-rate goodies at various specialty grocers for a couple of years now. You'll find them at Citarella, Garden of Eden, Westside Markets, and more. But only last month, Capobianco opened a storefront and, fortunately for us, it's right in the heart of Glenwood Upper East Side territory on 75th and First. All of which is very good, very healthy news indeed.
Vegan Bakery Proves Healthy Indulgences Can Be Fun
For us, the baseline for great vegan goods in this town is Babycakes, headquartered on the Lower East Side. Vegan Divas is squarely in that realm. And here's the thing you should know about Vegan Divas Bakery… even though Capobianco takes her eating habits seriously–her dad died of diabetes when she was 20–this place is totally friendly and fun, with a cool, comfortable, contemporary design. The front opens to the street and a walls are adorned with pithy quotes by famous vegans. "Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you anymore" –Franz Kafka and "We all love animals. Why do we call some 'pets' and others 'dinner'" — K. D. Lang, among some of them.
Vegan Donuts, Macaroons and So Much More
Anyway, we popped in the other day to sample some of the goodies, and came away total converts. Not to veganism, but to Vegan Divas-ism. We tried three of Capobianco's mini-donuts, a Cinnamon, a Chocolate, and a Toasted Coconut (hey, they're only like 15 calories each!), and all three were big winners: moist, sweet, satisfying. Equally excellent was the decadent Double Dark Chocolate Brownie, which makes us confident that Capobianco's Dark Chocolate Cake would also be a hit. The Coconut Macaroon wasn't quite as good–not as juicy as we like them–but that shouldn't deter you. Really, our only disappointment was that the Vegan Divas Soft-Serve machine was down, so we couldn't try Capobianco's ice cream. Next time. Bonus: the baked goods at Vegan Divas are, in addition to being vegan (obviously), also wheat-free, low-calories, kosher and parve. But even if you don't care about any of those things, they're pretty awesomely tasty, too.
Vegan Divas Bakery details
Vegan Divas is located on First Avenue just north of 75th Street and is open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and on Sunday from 10:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m. For more information and a look at some of Capobianco's creations, please see the Vegan Divas website, here. What do you think? Will you give vegan baked goods a try? Let us know how it goes!
Posted in NYC Dining, Upper East Side | Tagged vegan baked goods • vegan bakeries • vegan bakeries nyc • vegan bakery nyc • vegan divas • vegan donuts nyc
