Jonesy's Eat Bar: Cozy, Creative Vegan Eats

"I could bring my dad here" is praise I can lavish on a very select few restaurants. These restaurants must feature a variety of exceptionally delicious food, a cozy, unpretentious atmosphere and attentive service. The newest restaurant that meets this is Jonesy's Eat Bar, located near downtown Denver. The standard menu that you receive upon sitting down doesn't look super vegan friendly- it's full of classic American dishes, most with a twist, but the magic happens when you ask for the veg-friendly menu. You receive a page of delicious dishes, all clearly marked with their level of being vegan-friendly. We're talking quinoa loaf (tastes way less boring than it sounds), curry fries, Thai fries and a variety of things that will make it surprisingly difficult to order, thanks to an abundance of options. The dish pictured here is the Vietnamese salad with crispy tofu and seaweed salad and it was the perfect mix of refreshing, filling and delightful to the mouth. Complete with a daily happy hour, Jonesy's is also pretty easy on the wallet. Dad, I hope you're looking forward to eating there now.

Qrunch Burger Salad

You guys remember Local Burger? Probably not, if you don't live in Kansas. That's okay, the important thing is that they have a burger salad, where they cook a burger of your choice and place it on a salad. This seemed weird to me at first, but the idea wormed itself back into my head about a week ago, "what if I take a Qrunch Burger and put it on a salad?" I decided to make my dreams come true and headed to Nooch Vegan Market to procure the necessary ingredients. This is the result:

A quinoa-based Qrunch Burger, farmers' market fresh tomatoes and peppers, lemon-avocado dressing, all on a bed of spinach. The only bummer is that I forgot a cucumber. Next time. It turns out that burger salads are pretty delicious and an easy way to make your salad a bit heartier. I especially love the Qrunchs because the little bits that crumble up are great for mixing with that extra dressing at the bottom of the bowl for a final treat. In sum, burger salads are a much better, and delicious, idea than I could have ever anticipated.

Upstream Brewing Company: My second favorite salad in Omaha

My first love when it comes to salads in Omaha is McFoster's kind salad with their cucumber garlic ranch. Granted, I could smear that ranch on styrofoam and it would be good, but I digress. My second favorite salad (which is my overall favorite salad-as-a-meal salad) is served at Upstream Brewing Company, a local brewing company and restaurant. I always get the Thai Chicken Salad and sub out the chicken for portobello mushrooms. The result is a combination of warm portobellos, jalepenos, tomatoes, greens and onions, with a side of their house beer bread to mop up any leftover dressing, a slightly tangy creation that compliments the ingredients perfectly. While the picture is less than flattering, I can assure you it is a beautiful, filling salad.

Upstream also has a vegan black bean burger and a portobello sandwich, as well as other options that can be easily veganized with a few requests. Upstream is an excellent place to go with a picky meat eater (Hi Dad!), as they have excellent food in general. Upstream has locations in the Old Market, as well as out in west Omaha.