Eco Columbia

Blair Mishleau is a Junior at Columbia and the webmaster of Chicago Noms, a blog that aims to review local restaurants from the student perspective. As part of an ongoing series within Eco Columbia, he will be reviewing restaurants that are vegan, vegetarian, or ones that use sustainable practices.

The country-fried steak was yummy, but not so warm.

“Meat free since ’83,” has a nice ring to it. So does a vegan country-fried steak. The Chicago Diner (3411 N Halsted St) has both. Having served their delicious non-meat items for 17 years, they make food that could make a carnivore go veg.

I’ve been several times, and have been consistently happy. On my latest trip, however, my buddy and I were a bit let down.

Venturing there on a slightly chilly September night, the wait was a good 30 minutes. We were eventually seated in the outdoor patio, which was a new experience for me. (more…)

This place is of the three & a half noms variety.

As I grew up in the thoroughly Midwestern state of Wisconsin, hamburgers were a pretty big staple of my childhood. Whether they were cooked stove top or on the grill, we had them a lot.

Epic Burger (525 S State St) provides hamburgers on the same caliber, yet are conveniently located in downtown Chicago (on Columbia’s South Loop campus), and don’t come with the nagging of my grandmother or the requirement of washing my hands before eating (kidding, kidding!).

Their motto, “A more mindful burger” is shown in every step of how they make their nomy food.

For starters, they use pretty legit all-natural stuff. Their meat is produced free-range, their bacon doesn’t contain nitrates (I didn’t know normal bacon did?!), and they never had trans fat. (more…)