by Little Choc Apothecary
Little Choc Apothecary started as an idea, clouded with nothing specific – it was just supposed to be vegan eatery. But what does it mean to eat like a vegan? Is it eating lots of fruits and vegetables? Is it trying to find ways to cook with “fake chicken” or “fake cheese”? Or is it something else – something not-yet-defined? We started with trying to replace things in our diet with substituting dairy with plant-based ingredients in our desserts. It seemed great – for a while. We ate vegan cakes and vegan cookies, replaced the eggs with applesauce and used soymilk instead of regular milk. But it wasn’t enough. It didn’t feel like it was enough. Well, we thought, maybe if we took a dessert and made it look like we cooked it but really didn’t, that would do it! But it didn’t. We made some raw cheesecake and raw brownies and it was all great but it still didn’t really leave us feeling like we changed anything. So then we thought – maybe if you just don’t try to replace anything at all, if we just ate lots of salads and grains, then the amount of healthy we would feel would just overpower any desire for eating things that weren’t green. But then life became a little boring. We ate lots of whole grains and beans. It was a bit too bland, for our tastes.
Then, we thought, well maybe it’s not just one thing – maybe we need to change the way we’re thinking about food entirely. So we tried to understand what it is about being vegan that’s so foreign to omnivores. It’s true, that if we thought that all vegan food was fruits, vegetables, tofu, and nuts, we also wouldn’t be vegan. Our goal became not to make plant-based food taste like animal-based food, but to make vegan food just taste good, with balanced flavors and textures that physiologically, mentally, and emotionally fulfills you. It doesn’t have to taste healthy but it also didn’t have to taste like eating animals. It just had to taste like good food! And be pretty good for you!
We think we’ve done an okay job so far – we opened Little Choc in Brooklyn a few days ago and so far, the feedback has been largely positive from both neighbors and patrons. We’re just trying to do as little amount of harm to the environment as well as to our customers’ bodies while providing them with nourishment that doesn’t feel like punishment.
Little Choc Apothecary is NYC’s first vegancreperie located at 141 Havemayer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We offer a variety of sweet and savory crepes made with organic and homemade ingredients along with freshly baked and raw sweets on a daily basis.
We try to utilize food makers like using Brooklyn-made tempeh (Barry’s Tempeh) to lessen our carbon footprint and support local businesses.