This past weekend I hopped on a little jet in Boston, flew to Buffalo and spent less than 48 hours at my parents house. It just wasn’t long enough. It’s easy to forget how much you want to do on your trips to your hometown until you are faced with no time to do it all. I’m mostly sad that I didn’t get to see my high school friends, but I wanted to give my parents all my attention.
That being said, Saturday morning I took my mom out for an hour long walk along the 12 mile creek path (a very nice trail).
After we stopped for lunch at Rise Above Bakery. From what I can tell, it’s St. Catharines’ only vegan restaurant. It’s located right on St. Paul Street in the Heart of downtown St. Catharines.
(A side note: My understanding is that St. Catharines has the most donut shops per capita. It’s not known for being a healthy city.)
Although this place also carried an extensive vegan donut collection.
It was my mom’s first vegan restaurant. She’s been trying to cut out cheese and she kept saying things like, “well I don’t want cheese because I’m trying to avoid foods that are inflamatory”. She had never heard of daiya cheese. We went out and bought her some afterwards.
While the store started as a vegan donut shop, they now have a full cafe menu.
My mom and I split the chipotle seitan wrap, the chick pea curry and the cucumber salad. We really enjoyed all of them.
My mom is allergic to lettuce, but eats it anyways. She was so blown away by the cucumber salad that I think she’s ready to listen to me when I tell her about zucchini ribbon salad as an alternative. The spiced nuts were wonderful. They had a sugary crust.
The chickpea curry was simple and had a great flavor profile. My mom was blown away that something so basic looking could be seasoned to be spectacular. It was a curry, so the flavors were very Indian inspired.
Then we headed to the American Southwest with the Chipolte seitan wrap. I had never actually tried seitan so I wanted this one. The texture could be compared to a chicken cutlet I suppose. And the flavor was overwhelmingly chipolte. I can’t understand why people season meat to the point of not being able to taste the meat anyways. Overall it was very good too.
Being a bakery, the dessert selection was spectacular. On top of the donuts shown above, there were brownies, haystacks, cookies and cakes.
My mom and I split the chocolate mint cake. The icing was light and fluffy.
It was a lovely end to a great lunch. My mom enjoyed her first vegan restaurant experience and can’t wait to go back.
I’m excited to see a vegan cafe popping up in my hometown. We don’t have one in New Hampshire. Makes me want to visit my parents more often so I can support the business.
Rise above bakery and Catering
120 St. Paul St.
St. Catharines, Ontario
If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend you try them out. You don’t have to be vegan to enjoy great vegan food.
Do you have a local vegan restaurant?
I'm an engineer, an animal lover, a runner and an ex-rower. I like medical devices, big ships and mountains. This is my journey teaching myself to make healthy foods and explore the world of vegan and vegetarian cuisine.
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