The extensive menu with clever sandwich names such as “The Sandwich Formerly Known as Vegan”, “Not Tonight Honey I Have a Headache” & “Hella Fat Bastard” cater not only to vegans and vegetarians but to meat eaters as well. After several minutes of stressful decision making, I ended up ordering the “Sometimes I’m Vegan” sandwich on a sourdough roll and snagging a few of mom’s onion rings. Mushrooms, marinated artichoke hearts and soy cheese with all the fixin’s… DE-LISH!!! Not only was the food fantastic but the youthful skater-style staff were absolutely charming. There were about 6 of them flinging condiments between slices of bread cheerfully while cracking jokes and mingling with customers.

Ike’s Place is located at 3506 16th St, SF and are open 7 days a week. Oh, and if you stop in for happy hour, they’ll include a free drink and bag of chips with your order!

After stuffing our faces, we waddled over to Book’s, Inc. A decent sized crowd had gathered leaving no seating room which was encouraging to see.

The two cookbooks that were featured that evening were ‘The Vegan Table‘ by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and ‘Vegan Soul Kitchen‘ by Bryant Terry. Both speakers had very different styles and presentations that were equally as interesting. Bryant’s introduction to “Vegan Soul Kitchen’ included a bit of history about the southern lifestyle and touched on music and poetry. The book itself actually incorporates a good amount of both.

Colleen (also the author of ‘The Joy of Vegan Baking‘) followed with her presentation of ‘The Vegan Table’ which was primarily more focused on entertaining, compassion and transitioning into veganism.

What I thought was particularly awesome was that even though the books were so different, they both seem to have stemmed from the most important topics like family, culture, health and bringing people of all walks of life together for a bigger, better purpose.

Bryant set a deeper, more soulful tone by reading a few poetry excerpts from his book and explained where they came from and how it tied into the making of the book. The recipes alone would make anyone want to become vegan. Colleen’s lighter approach, including jokes about “how humans instincts are not to pull out a fork when we pass a cow on the road” proved a lot of good points on the reasons why we should be vegan.

In fear of my BART train turning into a pumpkin and me feeling not-so-princess-like at work the next day, we packed it up as they finished and opened for questions. Like a stealthy ninja, I swooped up a copy of the books with the quickness, made my purchases and booked it the hell out of there before the rush hit. Unfortunately, leaving early meant that I would have to forego getting my books signed, but I figured my co-workers would thank me and my mood for it the next day.

As soon as I got on my BART train, I flipped through the pages wildly like a little kid on Christmas day. The first recipe that caught my eye? The Pumpkin Curry. Mmmm… even typing it excites me. I’m pretty sure I started salivating once I got to the Roasted Red Potato Salad with Parsley-Pine Nut Pesto. Thankfully, my mom was the only person within drool distance.

You can find a few of the drool-worthy recipes here.

To sum the evening up as one reviewer commented on Ike’s Place…

“The place has awesome sandwiches.
The place is tiny.
The place has long lines.
The place takes phone orders.
The place took over 40 minutes to make a sandwich for me and my other half.
The place is still worth the wait.”

As for the bookstore… super friendly staff, decently priced books, right next to a coffee shop… a perfect week night adventure. At least, for those practically on house arrest.