Yesterday I tried out a new vegan restaurant in Syracuse called Strong Hearts. My roommate strongly recommended their “milk”shakes.

As soon as we walked into the restaurant, I was immediately reminded of Austin, TX. It was a small shop with a hipster vibe. A few of patrons had ear gauges and full sleeves of tattoos.

I stepped up to the counter and burst out laughing at the names of the milkshakes. They were combinations with titles like “Nelson Mandela”, “Elizabeth Cady Stanton”, “Cesar Chavez”

I ended up getting the “West Memphis Three”, which is a chocolate mint shake. It’s made with vegan ice cream but I couldn’t tell. My last encounter with vegan desserts was a vegan chocolate chip cookie from the cafeteria in undergrad that tasted like dirt and dark chocolate.

I was pleasantly surprised with this vegan shake. It was thick and surprisingly filling. The shakes came in biodegradable cups and straws.

So that was the good. Now for the ugly.
The pizza…was horrendous. I was feeling adventurous so my friend Mirakol and I split a vegan pizza. We had a pesto, tomato and spinach pizza.

Sounds delicious, right? Wrong. Something just didn’t sit right. It’s not the fact that there was no meat, because even my carnivorous self can get over that. It may have been that there was pesto where I expected tomato sauce. I decided to scrape off all the toppings and eat the pizza bare. The crust tasted fine. I could tolerate it but I couldn’t eat more than two slices.

Overall, I’d give the shakes at Strong Hearts a thumbs up. Everything else was a meh. If I’m ever brave enough to come try the food again, I may try their breakfast.