Where to Eat For the Dark at Heart

see also: clubs & bars, travel, goth cooking, halloween

I happen to be vegetarian so I'm only listing vegetarian friendly places. Dark at heart doesn't mean you can't love animals(I'm mostly opposed to the horrid conditions the animals short lives are spent in at many meat producing farms). I'd eat people if they were on the menu. I hear we taste like pork. Wineries are big in eastern PA and some of NJ and NY so I will also list them.

Never go anywhere without a map. These sites allow you to enter a street address and they pop out a map and driving directions for you: Yahoo Maps, MapBlast, MapsOnUs, MapQuest. Of course don't rely solely on directions from there, they have gotten me quite lost before.

New Jersey

Veggie Heaven at 473 Cedar Lane, Teaneck N.J. 201-836-0887. Excellent chinese style food, good place to take your anti veggie friends cause the menu says meat all over it but it's all tofu meat, I wasn't sure about it myself the first time I ate there! I recommend anything but the Wheat Grass Juice. Tastes like the lawn. But if you like lawn taste go for it.

Veggie Heaven II 973-335-9876 1119 Route 46 East #8A, Parsippany N.J. Haven't been to this one yet.

Archetypus Cafe - It's quite close to the GWB actually, in Edgewater. I just got a menu so when I have a chance I'll list some hilites from it here, but there are several ice cream sundaes named after demons, coffee drinks, and even a small food menu that is all vegetarian! (pasta, salads, black bean veggie burger). The outside alone looks really cool, it's stone and cavelike. Inside it keeps the stone look, and the boothes are each a little cave of their own, incredible decor. There are some classical type statues, the one I could see directly from my booth was a white stone(maybe plastick, I didn't touch to see) goddess type naked woman lying down on a platform. The music: gregorian chants and other related. All the place needs to be perfect is a waterfall. Located at 266 Old River Road, Edgewater, NJ 201-941-0609 Look on mapquest or something for directions, or call them. Old hours: M-Th 7:30p to 11:30p F-Sat 7:30p to 1:30a Sun 5:30p to 11:30p. They have new hours, they involved opening at 4pm on some days.. call and ask.
Someone sent me a web page a long time ago, and someone else later told me this is the site of a former and disgruntled worker who was not treated so well by the owners.

Medieval Times - 149 Polito Avenue, Lyndhurst, NJ, 201-933-2220, near the Meadowlands. Dinner & tournament, get served by wenches (yes you can call them that) in an arena while watching knights battle it out and swordfight on horseback. They make you eat with your hands, if you tell them ahead of time they'll announce your friend's birthdays and anniversaries, and they have a shop with nice pricey swords and other trinkets. The usual meal is packed with meat, but you can request a vegetarian meal, expect to pay around $40 per person plus drinks. Located in NJ, CA, TX, IL, FL, SC and Ontario, and they have a shop in times square in NYC. They make everyone wear a paper crown in the color of their section and you gotta cheer for your knight and he throws flowers to pretty little girls when you cheer loud and he does well. I'm not the type to wear paper crowns but everyone does, last time I was there a small group of mohawk punks were also there and even they had the crowns on over their huge spiked mohawks.

Delicious Orchards - Route 34 South, Colts Neck, New Jersey 07722 (732) 462-1989. This place is really not goth at all but if you live anywhere near Monmouth county this is where you should buy your produce. Hours: Tuesday through Sunday 10:00 - 6:00 Closed Monday.

New York City

Vegetarian Dining in New York City, On a Budget - pretty good listing, but they left of Vetarian Paradise. (At last check Aug 2001, the home site claims it will be back soon)

Cuisinenet used to have a listing of vegetarian restaraunts in NYC, but they only have by type now.

If you go by St. Marks Street you should go get french fries at Pommes Frites. Yummy yummy, take it from Discord. 123 2nd Ave, NYC, between 7th and 8th Sts. 212-674-1234. They have other locations now around the city.

Haveli is excellent reasonably priced Indian cuisine located on 100 2nd Ave between 5th & 6th sts, NYC 10003, 212-982-0533. Really good if you can't stand the claustrophobic small places on 6th st, it's very spread out and roomy inside.

La Gould Finch - 93 Avenue B, at 6th st. This Cajun/Creole restaraunt is very non typical of any NYC restaurant, not packed to the gills with tables so you can hardly move, it's small, had live piano player, bass player, singer. NOLA tacky decor, huge red feathery thing on the ceiling, furniture is all different antique type chairs and sofas at the tables, feels like you're in NOLA, they even did the windows in french quater style and colors. The Crepes are divine, I have tried the Mushroom one and the Walnut one (I forget the rest of what's in it). I have a feeling the desserts are good but I wasn't hungry enough for it. They have wines of course.

La Maison de Sade, 206 W 23rd St (Between 7th and 8th Aves), New York, NY 10011, (212) 727-8642. S&M Supper Club, mediocre French cuisine, wine, coctails, and spankings with dessert. Open 7 days 4:00pm- 4:00am bar open at 4pm, happy hour 4-7, dinner served daily 5pm-12am, Fri & Sat till 1am, live show daily. Where else can you get a spanking with your fries?

La Nouvelle Justine - 101 E 2nd St. at 1st Ave, NYC. Fri -Sat 6:00pm- 4:00am Sun -Thu 6:00pm- 1:00am Tel: (212) 673-8908. Fetish themed restaraunt, see the web site for menu and more info.

Lips - 2 Bank St Between Greenwich Avenue and Waverly Place, NYC, 212-675-7710. Drag Queen waitstarff, leopard and zebra print upholstry, lyp sync performacnes, I think they have food and a bar.

Lucky Cheng's - Fabulous Drag Queen waitresses & shows, karaoke, asian food, drinks. 24 1st Ave New York, NY, 212-473-0516. Drag Queen Capitol of the world.

Jekyll & Hyde Club - cute trendy horror themed restaraunt/bar, they have a lot of drinks with cute laboratory type names. Located at 1499 6th Ave bet 57 & 58th sts, NYC, (212) 541-9517. Hours: Sun-Tues 11:30am-12am; Wed 11am-12am; Thu 11:30am-12pm; Fri 11:30am-1am; Sat 10:30am-1am.

Jekyll and Hyde - 91 Seventh Avenue South Between Barrow and West Sts, NYC. Hours: Sun-Thu 12pm-2am; Fri-Sat 12pm-4am. I'm not sure if this one is just a bar or also a restaraunt.

Slaughtered Lamb Pub - Run by the same people who do the Jekyll & Hyde bars, it's also sort of spooky. 182 W 4th St. between Jones & Barrow Sts, NYC, 10014 (212) 627-5262.

Yaffa Cafe - 97 St. Marks Place Between Avenue A and First Avenue, NYC, 212-674-9302. Open 24-7 this is a favorite after goth club eatery, tacky decor, herbal teas, great Mediterranean food, great vegetarian selection.

Mars 2112 - 1633 Broadway by W 50th St, NYC. Decor is awesome, like being on Mars, you're served by aliens & space soldiers, not real cheap, cute spacy names for drinks & dishes, food is decent but not amazing, you get to take this cool space elevator up. Hours: Mon -Thu 11:30am-10:00pm, Fri 11:30am-12:00am, Sat 11:00am-12:00am, Sun 11:00am-10:00pm. (212) 582-2112.

Long Island, NY

Witches Brew INC coffee house - 311 Hempstead Tpk., West Hempstead, NY. 516.489.WITCH. I was there sometime durning the winter of 96 with a friend who told me even then it was starting to grow less dark and more commercial/trendy in this place. At one time you wouldn't have seen cheery X-mas decor, but now you sure will. The drinks are great and the atmosphere's not too bad, dark lighting, couches, tables, chairs, juke box, jokes, college kids. It's not worth a trip to Lawn-guy-land by itself to see, but if you're in the area stop by for an immense menu of divine coffee and tea drinks with witchy names.

Pennsylvania

Cuisinenet's listing of restaraunts in Philladelphia, PA.

General Listings

Zagat - reviews on tons of restaurants all over the world.

Medieval Times - Dinner & tournament, get served by wenches (yes you can call them that) in an arena while watching knights battle it out and swordfight on horseback. They make you eat with your hands, if you tell them ahead of time they'll announce your friend's birthdays and anniversaries, and they have a shop with nice pricey swords and other trinkets. The usual meal is packed with meat, but you can request a vegetarian meal, expect to pay around $40 per person plus drinks. Located in NJ, CA, TX, IL, FL, SC and Ontario, and they have a shop in times square in NYC. They make everyone wear a paper crown in the color of their section and you gotta cheer for your knight and he throws flowers to pretty little girls when you cheer loud and he does well. I'm not the type to wear paper crowns but everyone does, last time I was there a small group of mohawk punks were also there and even they had the crowns on over their huge spiked mohawks.

World Guide to Vegetarianism - listing of vegetarian and vegetarian-friendly restaurants, stores, organizations, services, etc. I found most of this to be extremely out of date so make sure you call anyplace you find here first, they are supposedly updating veg.org and these are old pages.

Vegan Village - based in the UK, vegan animal care, books, gifts, businesses & services, entertainers, food & drink, restaraunts, gardening (yeah... vegan gardening's a tough one. Tee hee.), health, holidays, shoes, clothes, shops, and toiletries, message board and a recipe of the week.

Vegetarian Recipe Sites

VegWeb - Veggies Unite, searchable veg cookbook, over 2,700 vegan recipies, newsletter, membership, weekly meal planner, nutrition info, personals, and events.

Wine

Vampire Wine - not great quality, but it's a cute gimick, it's cheap, and the bottles are attractive, it's hard to find nowdays though.

Cream Ridge Winery, Cream Ridge, NJ - They have incredible Kiwi wine and Apricot wine.

Buckingham Valley Vineyards - small winery on Rt. 413 in Bucks County, PA. You can taste all the wines, I was there years ago and they had an excelleng Raspberry wine.

Other Links

Some of these aren't all that dark, but for the sake of organization I wanted to put all food related things together. One day I will have my favorite recipes in my goth cooking section too.

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream

Garlic Festival Foods - I love garlic and it's so darn good for you (try dosing up on it when you get a cold, it's almost an instant cure sometimes!). This site has garlic facts, postcards, recipes, health info, a listing of garlic festivals & events (they also have stands at fairs and craft shows around the country), and a gourmet garlic store.

World Guide to Vegetarianism - listing of vegetarian and vegetarian-friendly restaurants, stores, organizations, services, etc. I found most of this to be extremely out of date(last updated July 1997) so make sure you call anything you find here first. (the site is being redone, temporarily down but you can access old pages)