Maciel’s Herbed Turkey and Bacon Californian Sandwich, made with plant-based meat, sprouts and vegetables.
Photo by Merrill Shindler for the Eastsider
Highland Park—You may assume that meatless meat (or if you wish, vegan meat, faux meat, alternative meat or trompe l’oeil meat) is a newfangled creation of the anti-carnivores of our dietarily-obsessed age. And you would be wildly wrong.
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Non-meat products date back around two millennia to the invention of soybean-based tofu in China during the Han Dynasty, which was then described as “small mutton.” And over the centuries, it’s developed into a cuisine all its own – including the “mock turnips” of the Ancient Romans; the wheat gluten of the earliest Buddhists; the nut-based mincemeats of the Middle Ages…and beginning in the 1870s, the grain-heavy meals served by John Harvey Kellogg to the patients at his Battle Creek Sanitarium. Which, in time, led to Kellogg’s Corn Flakes… and ultimately Froot Loops.
Jars of kale chips on display at Maciel’s Plant-Based Butcher Shop.
Photo by Merrill Shindler for the Eastsider
Still, not until recently that food technology has gone so far with meatless meats – pushing them to a point where it takes some serious contemplation to tell the animal from the non-animal. The meatless Impossible Burger is amazingly like a hunk o’ ground sirloin – down to the bloody center of a medium-rare prep. You can find plant-based dishes at Burger King (the Impossible Whopper!), Carl’s Jr, and even KFC. But their options are finite, for the dietarily committed fast-fooders among us. By contrast, at Maciel’s Plant-Based Butcher Shop in Highland Park, the menu is long, with meatless meats for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is Vegan Heaven on York.
I have to admit that I don’t entirely understand the desire to eat “meat” made out of vegetables pretending not to be vegetables. I grew up in a family that ate lots of vegetables. They were usually boiled and overcooked. They had neither taste nor texture. Still, I love my broccoli, my cauliflower, my carrots, my green peas and my beets. But I like them being vegetables, not meat lookalikes. And so, I am properly befuddled by Maciel’s ability to make a breakfast burrito packed with lookalike eggs, bacon and cheddar. A “Messy Biscuit” with pigless sausage crumble. A cheeseburger built around marinated tempeh and cheeseless gouda that still melts, with caramelized red onions, romaine, tomatoes, pickles and a Thousand Island Dressing made with eggless mayo.
Maciel’s Caesar salad topped with plant-based cheese and crunchy seasoned bites.
Photo by Merrill Shindler for the Eastsider
There’s critter-free ribs and pastrami, chicken and tuna, steak and chicharrones. The would-be meats taste good…but only meatish if you haven’t spent your life eating the real thing. If you haven’t had the legendary pastrami and Swiss in the #19 Sandwich at Langer’s Deli, then it may not be a dish you can’t live without. But for me, it is. Occasionally.
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The sign for Maciel’s Plant-Based Butcher Shop in Highland Park.
Photo by Merrill Shindler for the Eastsider
As a lifelong meat eater, with a love of vegetables, I have a quibble. It’s with the texture of some of the meat alternatives. When I eat bacon, I eat it partly for the taste – and partly for the crunch. The bacon in the mesquite turkey based Smokey Sandwich just didn’t crackle. It was a good standby for those who prefer to pass on crunchy pork. But for those committed to chewing and biting, this is a butcher shop with wannabe butchery. Maciel’s may be a taste of the future. But until steak is replaced by law with soy…and tuna with tempeh…I’ll stick with my life of culinary sins.
Rating: ⭐⭐1/2
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beyond Sublime⭐⭐⭐ Worth Every Penny⭐⭐A Good Neighborhood Destination⭐ Might As Well Stay At HomeMaciel’s Plant-Based Butcher Shop & Deli
Merrill Shindler has spent his life eating for a living in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He’s endlessly intrigued by the worlds of vegan Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Indian cooking. And befuddled by the boundaries pushed by a vegan BLT and a vegan Pastrami French Dip.
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Maciel’s macaroni salad, a creamy side dish with pasta, vegetables and herbs.
Photo by Merrill Shindler for the Eastsider
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