The Second Half

What the?

So the fam and I (Lyza and D), head over to a bustling new phenomenon in south Scottsdale, AZ for dinner. A restaurant called "Green". I absolutely, positively had a vision of a trendy, indoor-outdoor restaurant that offered vegetarian and vegan food to a cross cultural smattering of customers a la the Mandalay Tea Room in Old Town Scottsdale - one of my favorite, yet overpriced restaurants in the state.

Nope.

"Green" was engulfed with 20-something whitebread college kids who were lined up like people trying to get into a bathroom at an Ohio State football game. "Green" offered 20 different samplings or so of fake meat dishes. Po' boy "steak" sandwiches, "chicken" wings, "pepperoni" pizzas - you name the fake meat, and it was clear and present on the menu. For a moment I thought, "hey - this is pretty cool that all these kids are trying to eat healthy", but then my 50 IQ lurched forth the realization that it's pretty trendy to not only ingest this stuff, but to also talk about it - and tell people how healthy you eat. "Green" has it dialed in because they have a low rent location, low overhead with vegan barfood items, no liquor liability, and they crank out the food quickly - at a cheap price. Call me crazy, but the best vegetarian/vegan food I have had involves - DING! - vegetables!

Remember a couple years back when you'd be getting gas at some random place, and a carload of wanna-be hippie kids would roll into the gas station.....dreadlocks, dirty, asking for change - yet - whipping out a debit card to fill up the Saab 9-3 that they were driving? "Green" had that same kind of poser atmosphere. I used to love telling those pseudo-hippies to "get a job" - and then I would get a lecture about how corporate America is ruining this nation and that they were trying to start a counterculture movement. Good luck with that.