Review: At Strong Hearts Buffalo, a vegan everyday restaurant with a seat for all

Even meat lovers find satisfaction on plant-based menu - and stick around for the cupcake parade

Southwest chicken salad with jalapeno ranch dressing, vegan, like everything else at Strong Hearts Buffalo.

Not too long ago, vegan was a dirty word in the restaurant industry. Anthony Bourdain, patron saint of cooks, echoed prevailing sentiment when he wrote in 2000: “Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.”

Bourdain changed his tune later in life, acknowledging that vegan options have a place in the world. So did the restaurant industry, responding to a growing appetite for deliberately animal-free cuisine. Ambitious modern restaurants offer vegan choices, or lose tables to places that can please everyone. 

Places like Strong Hearts Buffalo. The vegan diner opened in 2022 after the Syracuse original started in 2008. Strong Hearts has subverted the dominant paradigm, by the power of seitan.