Monday, March 23, 2009

Astor Joins Growing DC Vegan Pizza Scene

Astor Mediterranean has joined several other DC pizza parlors by offering vegan cheese for their pizzas. Two Fridays ago the Adams Morgan eatery began serving the popular Teese vegan cheese on its vegetarian pizza. Astor was already a destination for me because of their other vegan offerings like falafel, which they do very well.

Astor (1829 Columbia Rd NW) joins several other DC pizza restaurants which offer a dairy free alternative to cheese pizza. Ella's Pizza in Penn Quarter has been serving vegan soy cheese for as long as I can remember. Pete's Apizza in Columbia Heights starting offering Teese only days after opening last year. Pizzeria Paradiso offers a soy based cheese alternative for its pizzas at both locations (Georgetown + Dupont). And both Red Rocks (Columbia Heights) and Moroni Brothers (Petworth) have dairy free cheese available for pizzas. I prefer my pizzas without any cheese--just sauce, tomatoes and veggies--but I love that these restaurants are recognizing the vegans and those who are dairy free for health/lactose intolerant/other reasons. I joined a packed house to congratulate Astor and buy pizzas two weeks ago and will continue to support similar efforts from other establishments.