Westchester's First All Vegan Pop-Up Shop

First Village Coffee Shop in Ossining, NY was the place to be for all things vegan including cheese, raviolis, empanadas, gluten-free desserts, doughnuts, gifts, pizza, charcuterie, etc.

A couple weeks ago, I saw a flyer advertising this event on Screamers Pizza's instagram page. (NYC's first vegan pizza slice shop-review under food blog). I cleared my already empty schedule and made it my mission to travel 1 hour from the BK to casually attend this event. The morning of this event, I causally woke up early, powered through a 2+ hour gym session, got in my car, blasted CARDI B (her new album is fire) and smiled for a whole hour in anticipation for all the foodie things. As I was getting closer, I was getting worried that I would not be able to find the event because it was my first time in that area and it was probably in the middle of nowhere (every New York city person thoughts for the surronding NY areas). But nope, google maps let me know that my destination was approaching and that was really unnecessary of google because the line could be seen about 4-5 blocks away.

I would first like to say: HOW FREAKING COOL THAT WAS TOO SEE. As much as I dreaded having to wait on the line, it was awesome to see how many people came out to support these small local businesses! I wasn't expecting a huge turnout or even a turn out for that matter. In my head, it was in the middle of a county that I thought no one heard of so I didn't even think twice to maybe add some hustle to my journey there.

I arrived at exactly 1:15 pm and was the LAST person in line for about 20 minutes which made me feel awesome. Within those first 20 minutes, we were told that Screamers Pizza had sold out within 30 minutes of opening and have left for the day! I wasn't too alarmed because I am #blessed to have Screamers Pizza a few blocks away from me. Peaceful Provisions (aka one of the only reasons why I traveled so far) had sold out of their yeast and cake doughnuts but were currently throwing down in the kitchen to dish out more cake doughnuts but the wait would be +45 minutes. Which could seem like a long time to most but I was about 2 hours away from stepping foot into the Coffee Shop so I wasn't phased.

Overheard on Line (this made the two hour wait so entertaining)

• We are Vegans, we are supposed to be peaceful people (when an argument almost broke out)

• Guy from his car shouts "GO VEGAN, but I am not waiting in that line"

• I gotta get away from all these crazy people like everything else.

• We here laid back, being peaceful and straight chillin. We all ain't crazy. Don't categorize ALL OF US.

• "We are giving out free coffee"...Let's not get excited because by the time they get to us they will be SOLD OUT like everything else.

I am now about 20 minutes from the entrance to find out that Gone Pie (100% Vegan and Gluten Free Bakery that uses ethically sourced ingredients and makes palm free baked goods) has TWO more pieces left of their goodies lef. The guy lets us know that you can go in but you risk your spot in line. This awesome chick behind me grabs my arm and was like "girl lets go!" and I was like woah I don't have a whole squad like you do to hold my place in line. Their whole squad goes "WE GOT YOU". We enter the pop-up to only find out that Gone Pie has sold out. So now, we have to go out of the store and wait on line again. As I finally approach the entrance to the coffee shop, the Freakin-Vegan known for their bomb empanadas and cheesy mac N Cheese is completely sold out. I am now batting 1000% here. I by-pass Cheeze Hound inc and move on to the free samples of ravioli by Eat Nice. For those in brooklyn, Eat Nice is known for collabing with Screamers Pizza for their radioli pizza (vegan pizza with vegan ravioli....as my nana says "what could be bad"). The dough and the contents inside had such a nice texture and taste that I ended up buying two bags of ravioli and it came out to only $8!

Everyone on the line is then made aware that a separate line is now forming for the doughnuts (greatttt). That line is about 40+ people long and they are only dishing out about 12 doughnuts so based on my math, my odds of getting doughnuts were extremely slim. I finally get to the front of the line and they had just SOLD OUT of the last doughnut. (This would be the fourth time Peaceful Provisions had "sold out" of their doughnuts). I waited around because I was so convinced that they would whip up more and thank god I did because the owner of first village mouthed to me "I think there will be more" and low and behold I GOT MY HANDS ON A PEACEFUL PROVISIONS DOUGHNUT!

The whole two hours waiting in the cold and hearing about all the food items that I had missed out on really should have killed my vibe but at the end of it all I got to take a HUGE bite into this HOT, FRESH and MARVELOUS cake doughnut with a really nice glaze and crunchy pistachios.

For this being their first ever Pop-Up, they really did an outstanding job of entertaining the line and having amazing vendors present! Note for next time: Make it outside so that theirs more room for way more vendors and less of line!