Unless you’re the type to venture downtown, you may only recognize the alliterative sound of Viva! Vegetarian Grill from the campus street fair. But Dave Wagenheim’s all-vegan and vegetarian food cart is set up daily down on the corner of 12th Avenue and Willamette Street, shelling out a very “Eugene” take on traditional American street fare.
“The simplest way to describe what I do is all-American food done vegan or vegetarian,” owner Wagenheim said. “We have a cheesesteak, we have a hot dog, ‘soysage’ and all these things you’d find at a ballpark or typical street food, but obviously not meat. A lot of vegetarian food can be intimidating for people because it’s like Indian food, spicy curry, or things that are not necessarily familiar.”
After moving to Eugene in 2005 — Wagenheim had been working a seasonal job on a fishing boat in Alaska — he came up with the idea of an American-style vegetarian cart after a strict vegan roommate of his let him have a bite of a Tofurky dog.
He had already been mulling the idea of a food cart and decided that slanging “soysages” and other veggie delights might just perfectly suit his new setting.
“I called up Tofurky, or Turtle Island Foods, in Hood River,” Wagenheim said, “and asked ‘Has anybody done a Tofurky hot dog cart?’ They were like ‘not really, but did you have something in mind?’”
Turtle Island Foods promptly lent him a cart and let him loose on the streets of Eugene.
Since then, Wagenheim has expanded from a mobile cart towed by a tricycle to a semi-mobile trailer that fills the adjacent 12th Avenue bike path with the healthily intoxicating scent of grilled cheesesteaks and hot dogs.
Even omnivores find Viva’s tofu and tempeh meat substitutes to be suitable to their palates. The cheesesteaks, a newer addition, are virtually indecipherable from traditional beef sandwiches and have received praise from many of Wagenheim’s customers.
“I’m not a vegan, and I’m not a vegetarian,” said Jon Reeves, one of Wagenheim’s three employees. “I do eat a little bit of meat, primarily heavy on the fish, but I think it’s a testament to the quality of the food here not being a vegan and I still enjoy it.”
Viva! also offers a reuben made with tempeh from Surata Soyfoods on West 3rd Avenue and Lincoln Street among other cheesesteak and hot dog varieties. Drink offerings include Wandering Goat coffee, organic chai and rooibos (African red) tea and Genesis Today juices.
Wagenheim also makes many of his own sauces, including a cashew-based vegan cheese sauce used atop some of the cheesesteaks. An addition that looks to be on the menu in the near future is tempeh hot wings.
Another facet of the cart that has just been added is its bike delivery service. Orders are taken between 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. and can be delivered within a 12-block radius from the cart extending east to west from Agate to Chambers streets and north to south from 1st to 24th avenues.
Wagenheim is comfortable with the idea of a food cart versus a full-on restaurant and says that his stay at the 12th Avenue and Willamette Street location is indefinite.
The greater community of Eugene can all vibe with that — along with the mouth-watering alternative cheesesteaks and “soysages” that Viva! has been innovating.
