I recently got to visit the lovely city of Sydney, Nova Scotia for a couple of days. With a population of about 32,000, Sydney is Nova Scotia’s second biggest city, and by far the largest on Cape Breton Island. It’s a scenic place with a nice harbor, a walkable downtown with interesting shops, and friendly people.
While visiting, I was fortunate to meet two local vegan movers and shakers, Amy Lane and Joey Matheson. Both hold down fulltime culinary day jobs while also running a vegan biz on the side. Both are newish vegans with a passion to make plant-based eating accessible to others. Amy stopped eating meat after earning the prestigious Red Seal chef certification–the requirement to watch animal butchery videos sent her over the veg precipice. Joey was already mostly vegetarian, but switched to vegan to help cure a health condition. Now Amy owns Nourish, a weekly vegan and vegetarian meal service. Joey runs a monthly event called River Filly Plant Based Dinners where folks get together for a multi-course vegan meal.
I spent a couple of days in Sydney in July and didn’t even make a dent in the good places to eat. “It’s booming now,” Amy told me as we sat in the lobby of Spanish Bay Inn, which I highly recommend. “Now is a really good time to be a vegan in Sydney because there’s so many options for people.”
Between my experience plus Amy and Joey’s recommendations, here are five good places for vegans to eat while visiting Sydney, plus the top spot to get your coffee.
Nourish
“Hands down, my favorite place for vegan food right now is Amy Lane’s Nourish, it’s always incredible and she’s just a sweetheart,” Joey told me. I can attest to this. When I met Amy, she generously brought me two plates of that week’s offerings: a mac and cheese with cornbread and barbecued tofu, and a plate featuring jackfruit and Korean green onion pancakes. I can see why she’s winning the hearts and stomachs of Cape Bretoners.
Amy does her meal prep once a week at the West Mount Fire Hall kitchen, then her customers come pick up their meals. She estimates that 30 percent of her customers are vegetarian, 10 vegan, and the rest are omnivores. If you’re visiting Cape Breton, make sure to check out her Facebook page and see if you can snag some takeout meals.
River Filly
Joey created the River Filly Plant Based Dinners last year so that Cape Bretoners could enjoy a good vegan sit down meal with an appetizer, main course and dessert. He advertised it on social media. “Our first dinner we did, we sold out in less than one hour. It was incredible.” And so the River Filly became a monthly event. For visitors, this takes a bit of timing to get right—I was bummed I missed it by a few days.
Bite of Asia
I visited Sydney after a week of bland food and was dying for some chili peppers. So my first stop was Bite of Asia, at 11:03 am, three minutes after they opened. Bite has an enormous menu and is happy to veganize standard Thai and Chinese dishes. I got a huge plate of eggplant and tofu with tons of red chili flecks.
Neat & Potatoes
Both Joey and Amy recommended vegan meal delivery service Neat & Potatoes. Locals can order cauliflower tacos, perogie pasta or other delicacies for pickup or delivery. While this might not be common tourist behavior, it looks easy enough to order your vegan meal the day before and have it delivered to your hotel.
Nicky’s Tiny Café
Joan Macneil-Jones of the Cape Breton Vegetarian Association recommended this new breakfast and lunch café to me. It’s run by a couple who are into tiny houses, raw chocolate, promoting local artisans and making organic, healthy food. Plus, Nicky’s Tiny Café has a dog-friendly patio! Nicky also teaches cooking classes, specializing in raw and vegan.
Doktor Luke’s a respectable coffeehouse
This is the place for vegan caffeine junkies. When I asked for nondairy milk, they offered four choices! Don’t let your fear of not being able to get an oat milk cappuccino sway you from visiting Cape Breton Island. “They always take pride in what they do and carefully take care of your plant based orders,” Joey said of Doktor Luke’s.
“The best thing I can say here is, come see for yourself,” Joey said. “We’re constantly evolving into a vegan’s food dream and there’s just so many options. I would suggest anyone who is looking for vegan/plant based options in Cape Breton, to join the Cape Breton Plant Based Eats group on Facebook to see an ever growing list of options to eat vegan in Cape Breton.”
Teresa Bergen owns the Veg Travel & Fitness site. Vegetarian since childhood, she’s an expert in traveling while vegetarian or vegan. Teresa’s the author of Vegetarian Asia Travel Guide, is the vegetarian editor for Real Food Traveler, and regularly contributes to Chic Vegan.
