The Quiet Storm/Pittsburgh’s East End/Vegan & Vegetarian

by Imogen V. Shahrazad

The Quiet Storm is a sanctuary for Pittsburgh’s anti-meat crowd. Vegetarians are largely accustomed to walking into a restaurant with friends or family and having roughly three choices: salad, French fries, maybe even provolone sticks. Upon entering The Quiet Storm, veggies sigh with relief and take their time perusing a menu built just for them.

The interior of The Quiet Storm is fun: thrift store furniture and dishes, eclectic local art, and a staff of tattooed hipsters adding further visual interest. Chaynes and I recently visited for a late breakfast, starting with the house coffee, which is a little strong for my taste; however, I also like my coffee fucking pathetic and thick with non-dairy creamer. I think what I had at The Quiet Storm was what we might call Real Coffee. We ordered the same entrée, deceptively listed as the “Home Fries.” At any other restaurant, home fries would be chunks of fried potatoes with (maybe) a few onions or peppers mixed in. At The Quiet Storm, the Home Fries includes “smashed” red potatoes, caramelized onions, “soysage,” scrambled eggs or tofu (we both got the tofu), cheddar cheese, and aioli—all of it mixed in a nice big pile of food.

Why this is The Most Amazing Breakfast of All Time: 1) the scrambled tofu and 2) the aioli. The scrambled tofu is important because it’s easy to fuck up tofu. Anyone who has ever eaten poorly cooked tofu knows what I’m talking about. It can be tasteless and/or very squishy—and sometimes both simultaneously. Carnivores sometimes assume that vegetarians don’t have taste buds anyway and so they don’t bother to make tofu dishes taste like food. Not so at The Quiet Storm—the tofu is perfectly flavored and cooked to the point of being perfectly chewy, matching the “soysage” in texture. In addition, the aioli is probably a sin. Garlic mayonnaise? Seriously, I’m sure God is troubled by its very existence. In past trips to The Quiet Storm, I have asked for a side of aioli to add to dishes that don’t normally include it.

All in all, The Quiet Storm fucking rocks. If you want non-meats done right, visit the restaurant at the corner of Penn Ave and S. Graham in the Garfield/Friendship area of Pittsburgh. Admire the beards and weird tattoos on the very hip staff and clientele. Delight in the coffee. Chew enthusiastically on the soy-based faux meat products.