Jeff’s sister alerted him to the fact that there is a vegan cheese shop in Los Angeles, and as luck would have it, Vromage is across the street from the West Hollywood Veggie Grill where we happened to be eating lunch.
From our questions, it seems like proprietor Youssef Fakhouri makes cheese intuitively, and makes whatever he feels like that day. When we walked in he placed sample papers in front of us and had us try everything. We had mozzarella-basil, cheddar, cranberry-goat, manchego … I’m forgetting the rest, but that is just a fraction. And it was all extraordinary.
The waiter at Veggie Grill told us to ask Fakhouri how he started the cheese shop. “For a beautiful woman,” Fakhouri said. “I made the cheese better and better, but she was not interested in me. She ended up with her girlfriend, and I ended up with this cheese shop.”
Toward the end of our visit we were able to sample a peppery foie gras. Needless to say, we left with several dollars’ worth of cheese and some house-made crackers.
And then I went back to Salt Lake City and rescued my car from the airport’s economy parking lot. Overall it was an excellent Thanksgiving break.