A vegan restaurant across from the Old North End Variety? By fall, there could be a soy-smoothie source in the space formerly occupied by the Greener Pastures vintage clothing shop. The owner of China Express – on Shelburne Road and North Street – plans to serve a healthier crowd at the New Ethic Café.

Actually, one of Sam Lai’s workers, Owen Hoppe, will run the place. The 23-year-old vegan promises sandwiches, veggie burgers and “a lot of raw stuff” in a counter-service setting he envisions as “something ’50s meets something sort of lounge-ish.” He’s also developing a recipe for vegan soft-serve ice cream. “I won’t have anything non-vegan in the building,” Hoppe assures.

There’s plenty of demand for animal-product-free food, as Lai has discovered running a restaurant down the street. You can create your own tofu dish – and substitute brown for white rice – at the Old North End’s China Express.

This article appears in May 2-8, 2007.

Paula Routly is publisher, editor-in-chief and cofounder of Seven Days. Her first glimpse of Vermont from the Adirondacks led her to Middlebury College for a closer look. After graduation, in 1983 she moved to Burlington and worked for the Flynn, the Vanguard Press, the Burlington Free Press and Vermont Times – in that order. In 1995, she and Pamela Polston started Seven Days newspaper. Routly ran the business and built the news side of the operation, which she edited for years. She has spearheaded...