S + M Vegan puts down roots
At their 6yearold popup, S + M Vegan, Marie Chia and Shane Stanbridge have recently earned a following with their weekly dinners at Eli’s Mile High Club in North Oakland. Now they’re expanding into a fullservice restaurant, called Lion Dance Cafe, with a plan to open in Oakland’s Dimond district next summer.
For the uninitiated, one of S + M Vegan’s more popular items is its shaobing sandwich, made with a breaded and fried piece of Hodo tofu, red cabbage slaw and an eggless mayonnaise. Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho gave the dish high praise earlier this month, calling it the best sandwich in the Bay Area.
And, yes, the sandwich will be on the menu at Lion Dance Cafe (3525 Fruitvale Ave.).
The S + M team is moving away from the name of their popup because that venture was based on a culinary blend of the duo’s Singaporean and ItalianCalifornian roots, evident in past dishes like panfried panelle pizzas and fried Brussels sprouts. Lion Dance Cafe will lean more on Singaporean flavors, they said.
“The kind of meatless cooking we’re doing combines my family’s
Singaporean recipes handed down to me over the years, along with those nostalgic hawker center recipes I grew up eating,” Chia said, referring to food halls in Singapore. “We’re trying to create our own food language.”
In developing the concept for the new menu, Chia said she has been exploring the Chinese American diaspora, with a focus on local culinary traditions. Byproducts of the research, she said, are playful ideas for dishes for the Lion Dance Cafe menu like Kung Pao mushrooms and General Tso’s fried vegetables. Also in the works are noodle dishes, a smattering of small bites, coffee drinks and even milkshakes. Dinner will be available most nights and eventually a brunch service will be folded into the mix, they said.
S + M Vegan was founded in 2013. Over the years, it became a regular presence at local breweries and wineries in the Bay Area through a monthly dinner series. Success spurred the pair to briefly open a restaurant in Los Angeles a few years ago. Ultimately, they decided to come back to the Bay Area to open a new shop. In the time since, the popup became a fixture at Eli’s Mile High Club, a neighborhood bar and music venue on Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
Lion Dance Cafe will join a bustling Oakland vegan food scene that’s young, hip and overflowing with talented chefs, something both Chia and Stanbridge gush over.
“Look, I grew up being vegan in the 1990s,” said Stanbridge. “Everything is more than just alfalfa sprouts and bad hummus now. It’s been amazing to see just how veganism has grown and evolved.”
Vegan Mob, a blackowned vegan restaurant, debuted in Oakland earlier this month. Thousands attended the restaurant’s grand opening event. Souley Vegan in Oakland is a staple of the East Bay vegan food scene with its Southern and soul food creations. Meanwhile, the defunct Hella Vegan Eats is seen by Chia and Stanbridge as a pioneer in the region’s vegan popup movement.
“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Hella Vegan Eats. They paved the way not only for popups, but for people of color in this business and trans folks and everyone else,” Stanbridge said. “They made it OK for us to do what we’re doing.”
Lion Dance Cafe. Opening 2020. 3525 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland. www.liondancecafe.com