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Destination: Good Health
It sounds strange, we know, that "Good Health" can be a destination, but it's a damn delicious one. We have a thing for decent veggie burgers, and Good Health's got 'em. Laden with portobello mushrooms and mixed with a spicy pepper chop, they're also topped with yummy vegan mayo and guac. They're so delicious that we often forget they're meatless.
Crammed into a teensy tiny storefront on the UES, Good Health is strangely serene, with just a few tables and an orange hue. Burgers are served with tasty whole grain tortillas, and other menu items don't disappoint, like sweet edamame dumplings and BBQ Tofu Teriyaki.
The prices are also reasonable, so if you're in town visiting friends, treat them. You can also rely on Good Health's delivery, which always turns up in eco-kind brown paper bags.
Related Stories:
· Good Health [MenuPages]
Tags: Green Travel / Transportation / Taxis / WiFi / Hippies / → All Tags
Ride Green to SFO
PlanetTran, the once Boston-exclusive all-hybrid car service, has launched its San Francisco Bay Area operations. The SF office operates a fleet of Toyota Priuses and serves San Francisco International, Oakland, and San Jose Airports. They do most of their business as an airport car service, but can accommodate most trips around town with a reservation.
An online quote shows a sample base fare of $71 from the Savoy Hotel at 580 Geary Street to SFO, and $88 to OAK. That's a billion times more expensive than the BART, but ask yourself this: does the BART have WiFi? It sure doesn't, but PlanetTran's cars do! That's right: WiFi in the cars. Could it get more geeky or amazing? Are there black-out windows so no one has to know what we're overpaying for?
PlanetTran accepts reservations online for departure times that are at least two hours away. After that, you'll have to call 'em.
Related Stories:
· PlanetTran - Eco-Friendly Airport Shuttle Service [Official Site]
· Rent Green, Trail Mix Surcharge Optional [Jaunted]
· Avid Bringing High-Speed to the Highway [Jaunted]
Tags: Restaurants / Food / New York City / Health / Hippies / → All Tags
Now Open: Quantum Leap East in NYC
Quantum Leap, the natural foods/vegetarian-friendly restaurant whose West Village location has inspired a wave of positive MenuPages and Citysearch reviews, has opened an East Village outpost. The new joint is located on First Avenue, just around the corner from Angelica Kitchen. That's a bold move for a hippie restaurant--Angelica is tough competition, though sticklers will tell you it's an apples and oranges thing (Angelica is vegan and fully organic; Quantum Leap serves fish and is only partly organic.) Quantum Leap is indeed a bit more like Souen than Angelica, but it's the only one of the tree that delivers to the far east, so it should do brisk business.
A large percentage of Quantum Leap's fans head there for the burger selection, and the new location serves up plenty of bun-hugged treats. A baked lentil-walnut burger goes for $6.95, a "ranch soy chik'n sandwich" also for $6.95, and a grilled mahi-mahi burger for $7.50 (that's real fish, by the way.) Quantum Leap also does a weekend brunch from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., which means you can add it to your East Village rock star stalking list, because the mid-hangover "whole deal" breakfast combo is sure to be popular.
Related Stories:
· Quantum Leap (West Village) reviews & menu [MenuPages]
· Quantum Leap Natural Food (West Village) reviews [Citysearch]
Tags: Car Rentals / Driving / Hippies / Green Travel / → All Tags
Rent Green, Trail Mix Surcharge Optional
There's no car like the Prius. Short of a wheelbarrow, it's the ultimate granola mobile, loved by hippies and yippies alike. Some drive it to be green, some drive it to be "green," and some don't give a shit and just want the gas savings.
Whatever your motivation, if you don't own a Prius but have always wanted to take one for a spin, EV Rental Cars has got your back on the West Coast. The company is partnered with Fox Rent a Car and has eight locations out left, including one in Las Vegas, where they're rapidly expanding their fleet. EV rents only hybrid vehicles, including Priuses, which provides an amount of assurance rare in the rental industry--you know how "or similar" basically means you run the risk of ending up with a Barbie Power Wheels.
Prius driver jokes aside, hybrids really are a great choice for road trips, when gas prices are of special concern. A sample price check for Oakland Airport turned up rates better than Avis' for a Saturday rental ($39.87 at EV for a Civic Hybrid and $46.77 for a Chevy Cobalt or similar at Avis).
[Photo: 77Bird.com]
Tags: Restaurants / Food / New York City / Health / Hippies / → All Tags
Now Open: Josie's Kitchen in NYC
One of the great ironies of the Upper East Side is that some people who would never consider living there may currently be inclined to make the switch, now that they've driven up rents downtown. As the uptown granola contingent grows, so must the downtown-style health food restaurant count. There are a few hippie joints up east, but the general UES idea of "health food" is Tasti-D, which is not really food.
Now open at 84th Street & Second Avenue is an outpost of Josie's, a sleek restaurant that serves wholesome, whole foods. It's neither vegan nor vegetarian, but emphasizes simple, natural dishes and many organic ingredients. Dishes at the new Josie's Kitchen include steamed organic Belgian potato & broccoli dumplings, organic macaroni & cheese with wild mushrooms and peas, a "veggie plate deluxe," and air-baked organic fries.
Entrees are priced in the $15-20 range, a fair but not rock-bottom charge for the delicious eats.
Tags: Travel Hell / Travel Gear / Travel Tech / Travel Gadgets / Continental / Hippies / → All Tags
Welcome to Travel Gear Hell
Ok, so you had rats on a plane the other day. Some nut flying Saudi Airlines decided to stuff 80 of them into his carry-on luggage. Once they escaped, all hell broke loose. But what's scarier: rats on a plane, or flames on a plane? You can thank some hippie with an air purifier for the latter incident.
A Continental Airlines flight was diverted to Colorado Springs on Friday when a passenger's Fresh Air Buddy caught fire. The device is a mini air purifier that can be worn around your neck. Apparently the guy was powering it with regular batteries that he had stuck in a re-charger, which is not recommended.
Now, who would really want to be caught with one of those things around their neck? Not you, right? Well, just in case, you should know that EcoQuest is recalling all of its Fresh Air Buddy systems. Since no dinky doodad is going to completely sterilize nasty airplane air anyway, we're still recommending one of those USB-powered aroma fans. The flowery aroma will fool you into thinking the air's clean, and they'll almost look hip when plugged into a MacBook.
Related Stories:
· Fire on aircraft spurs the recall of air purifier [Houston Chronicle]
· Airline Report: In Heaven and in Hell [Jaunted]
Tags: Travel Gear / Travel Tech / Travel Gadgets / Hippies / Environment / Green Travel / Camping / → All Tags
Cumbersome Solar Box Will Power Your iPod
Gizmodo tips us off to this device that's perfect for environmentally-conscious travel: a "portable" solar power box. By "portable," they mean about 75 pounds. That's not going to fly for your easyJet baggage limit, but we suppose you could stuff it in your Prius. The unit costs about $566.
It's powerful enough to wind up your small travel essentials: cell phones, iPods, etc. The company says the unit is designed for ease of use--good luck with that. We recommend this device for campers and Peace Corps transplants.
Related Stories:
· Portable Plug and Play Solar Kit [Red Ferret via Gizmodo]
Tags: WiFi / Free WiFi / New York City / Hippies / Restaurants / Food / Bookstores / Books / → All Tags
More WiFi For East Village at Rapture
Some place called Rapture Cafe & Books has been on a flyering campaign around the East Village recently. As we shuffled through the door this morning, clutching or first coffee of the day for dear life, we finally peeled one of their ads off our building's elevator and decided to investigate. Turns out we're intrigued and it's not just the 500th place on our block that wants to sell us General Tso's chicken.
Rapture opens tonight at 200 Avenue A, so we're assuming tomorrow will mark its first full day of operation. It bills its atmosphere as "literate" and decor as "Native American/Southwestern," so you can probably picture the vibe they're going for. Its cafe will serve food and drinks and its book section will sell only the most stimulating works.
Now here's the kicker: they've also got free wifi. We'll tentatively accept the "Get Smart" slogan on their handbills if that stuff works. We'll be dropping by tomorrow morning to see what, if anything, is up and running.
Tags: Hippies / Yoga / Drugs / → All Tags
Why the Beatles Quit the Ashram
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced Transcendental Meditation to the west 50 years ago. Now about 89, he's never talked directly about what caused the rift between him and the Beatles. It was their touting of him and his northern India ashram that helped make him into an international celebrity. By 1968, though, all the Beatles but George Harrison had rejected him and his teachings. The usual reasons given for this are that the Beatles found out that he was much more concerned with money and making passes at their female friends than with spiritual matters.
But according to new claims by Deepak Chopra, it was the Maharishi that did the rejecting, and he did it because the Beatles and their friends were taking drugs. Shocking, we know. The full quote, from today's Times of India, after the jump.
