Meatless

After 18 years of being Winnipeg’s “anarchist icon,” cooperatively managed vegan café Mondragon closed its doors for good last Sunday.

You can read the Winnipeg Free Press`s story about it’s closure here.

Not into that? Then don’t click it.

Four years ago, I wouldn’t have.

“Vegan?” I’d ask. “No thanks.”

“No meat, no way. Just not my thing.”

One day I decided to brave the meatless meal. I went to Mondragon and ordered a BLT, in which the ‘B’ was actually fried tofu made to look like bacon.

Turns out fried tofu made to look like bacon can taste a lot like bacon.

The sandwich was incredible.

Mondragon had changed my mind.

I mean, I wasn’t about to give up steaks just yet, but I was willing to try some other vegan food.

And that’s Mondragon’s specialty: opening people up to different points of view.

The colorful cafe in the Exchange District was not only a place to sit down for fried tofu made to look like bacon that tasted a lot like bacon. It was also an alternative bookstore and a venue for politically-charged organization and discussion. It exemplified the value of a non-hierarchical workplace in which all staff were equal.

It made a habit of opening people up to new things, new ways of thinking, new ways of living.

It was a remarkable local café.