Live from Laurelton
If you aren’t sure what type of vegan restaurant A Live Kitchen is, exactly, Craig Thompson wouldn’t blame you. On a weekday afternoon, the 33-year-old co-owner sat in a booth and flipped through a menu. On the wall, a neon sign reading “LIVE” glowed dimly, evoking a recording studio.
There was Caribbean in the ital stew and rasta pasta, a touch of Latin America in the empanadas, Southern in the mushroom barbecue sandwich. The spaghetti and veggie balls—one of his own recipes— Italian.
“It’s kind of just, like, good food,” he said.
Thompson spoke slowly and deliberately, but constantly jumped up to take care of hiring questions or kitchen prep. When he grinned, often at customers or while joking with team members, 10 years dropped off his face.
Though veganism has become trendy, he remembers a time when the conventional meat-and-dairy diet wasn’t questioned at all. “It wasn’t a choice,” Thompson said. “You ate what everyone else ate.”
In Laurelton, where he and co-owner Steffen Alexander grew up, this meant Caribbean and soul food—flavor-packed, but not always accessible to herbivores. Local grocery stores have begun stocking more vegan and organic products, but restaurants in the area are still scarce. Thompson and Alexander found themselves traveling to Manhattan and Brooklyn, to vegan foodie meccas like By Chloe, VSpot and Terri.
Eventually, they asked themselves: Why not here? Why not us?
For the duo, bringing a vegan restaurant to their hometown wasn’t about prescribing a lifestyle. It was presenting their community with a viable option where there wasn’t one before.
That was the same spirit that appealed to their head chef, Eka de la Cruz, who had experience cooking at vegan spots around the city. Here was an opportunity to fill a demand and challenge preconceptions about plant-based diets.
“Many people have the idea that if you are vegetarian or vegan, you have nothing to eat,” said de la Cruz, “No! There’s tons of things to eat.”
Their eclectic menu proves exactly that, with a layer of comfort and soul. The ital stew is spicy and smoky, brimming with bright vegetables and spelt flour dumplings. The curry empanada, also made with spelt flour, is stuffed with jackfruit, potatoes and chickpeas. Baked instead of fried, it’s soft and has a sweet, cinnamon-y flavor almost akin to pumpkin pie.
And for dessert? Vegan cakes from New-Jersey-based How Delish HD.
“We’re about nourishment, for real,” said Thompson. “Like, tasty nourishment at the same time.”
For the team, this means more than just what you put into your body; it’s also about what you put out into the world. To leave a smaller footprint, the restaurant uses biodegradable cutlery, bags and takeout containers.
It all comes together in the name: A Live Kitchen. Thompson said it refers to their plant-based concept, and to the growing liveliness and energy of the space. There’s a small stage in the back where they plan to host live music, talks and karaoke.
He paused to wave goodbye to a group finishing up a celebratory graduation meal. One of them confessed, somewhat sheepishly, that none of them is vegan.
Thompson grinned. “That’s alright. A lot of people who come here aren’t.”
For the team, drawing in non-vegans is a victory. Even if it is just one meal, it might be the start of what Thompson called an “upwards spiral,” where one good-for-you decision leads to another and another.
The restaurant opened at the start of 2019, and has been so well-received that Thompson envisions a second location soon, in a different neighborhood in need of more vegan options. Upwards spiral, indeed.
A Live Kitchen
By Chloe | @eatbychloe
VSpot
Terri | @terrirestaurant
How Delish HD | @howdelishhd
