Ellen Kassoff was bringing gourmet proteins like foie gras from New York to DC as a purveyor when a delivery of Muscovy duck went awry on a hot summer day. She remembers that day well even though it was 20 years ago because that's the day she became a vegetarian. You now know her as Ellen Gray—wife and partner of Todd Gray, from Equinox restaurant. The restaurant goes the extra mile to meet the needs of vegans and vegetarians by offering vegan brunch on Sundays and a vegan tasting menu seven nights a week. We snapped Todd shaving white truffles on his wife’s plate during a taste test of the vegan menu.
Since the vegan tasting menu is offered alongside the regular menu, it enables groups of friends to dine together regardless of dietary restrictions. In creating the menu, meat-loving Chef de Cuisine Colin McClimans tells us “you need to think of all the things you can use, instead of what you can’t.” Highlights from Chef Todd and Colin’s menu include a smoky Carolina Ruby Sweet Potato “Rosti,” and a Roasted Celeriac and Gala Apple Mousseline nesting on a log foraged from Rock Creek Park. Currently, each course comes dusted with white truffles for a surcharge of $20 at brunch and $25 at dinner.
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