Pizza for herbivores

Illustration by Maria Ratinova

VegNews reported last week that Pizza Hut permanently added vegan cheese to its menu in 262 United Kingdom locations. While we wait for vegan-cheese stuffed pizza crust stateside, newer chains Pieology, PizzaRev, Mod Pizza and Zpizza have Daiya vegan cheese to build custom pies with, and locally owned OneSpeed (4818 Folsom Boulevard) has a vegan pie on its regular menu—roasted broccoli, caramelized onion, capers, garlic-cauliflower puree, arugula—as does Hot Italian (1627 16th Street; 500 First Street in Davis), with seasonal vegetables, tomato sauce, arugula, optional Daiya. Most of those eateries don’t deliver, but California Gourmet Pizza at 1900 Fulton Avenue does—even to Roseville, they said—and the menu includes the “Cheese-less” vegan. Perhaps the quotation marks are to indicate the pie doesn’t have faux cheese, like Daiya. It’s an unfussy pie with artichoke, tomato, spinach, onion, zucchini and an excellent tomato-basil sauce, which ought to hit the spot for herbivores.