Astoria's Latest Global Food Hall Opening: Urban Vegan Roots

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The latest eatery to open in Astoria's sprawling, globally-minded restaurant complex is a vegan spot with a creative bent.

Urban Vegan Roots opened its doors late last month within the World Artisan Market — a seven-restaurant complex that has slowly taken shape in a converted warehouse on 31st Street and 35th Avenue.

Its owners are no strangers to the city's plant-based restaurant scene. David Tianga, a co-owner alongside his wife, Tara Oles, is also one of the minds behind Urban Vegan Kitchen — a popular comfort food spot in the West Village.

But those cramped Manhattan confines left little room for other programming, like live music. With its large, airy interior, Urban Vegan Roots will feature much of the same food — but with a "classier" atmosphere and a small stage for performances.

"The West Village is that rapper on the street who’s hot and everybody loves him," Tianga told Patch. "Roots is gonna be a little bit like, let’s clean him up a bit so we can get a little more elevated."

Menu highlights include some of the most popular items from the West Village location — mac and cheese foremost among them — as well as new creations, like a jackfruit pizza that Tianga said has been "a hit" so far.

Urban Vegan Roots is still offering a limited menu while it awaits a gas hookup, which Tianga hopes will happen within days. Its arrival was more than a year in the making, with an originally-planned February opening getting pushed back by bureaucratic delays.

The promised performances have already begun: a "Brazilian night" conceived by one of Urban Vegan's bartenders began Thursday and will continue every other week, featuring $10 caipirinhas, Brazilian music and "veganized Brazilian treats."

This week, meanwhile, will host the first iteration of "Culture Thursdays," featuring old-school hip-hop and $10 Long Island iced teas, with classic films in the background.

The "roots" moniker has a few alternate meanings. Like Tianga's other restaurant, it adheres to a strict policy of playing no music recorded after the 1990s — whether that means jazz, hip-hop or rock.

And the restaurant itself is something of a return to Tianga's own roots, having grown up in Jackson Heights. (Now a Manhattan resident, Tianga is plotting a move back to his native borough.)

Tianga's ultimate goal is an ambitious one: to "create a new American culture" rooted in food and music.

Vegan food, with its unconventional ingredients and creative flavors, is the perfect vehicle for that kind of quiet rebellion, he said.

"Veganism is hip-hop," Tianga said. "It’s the last F-you to the establishment."

Urban Vegan Roots is now open at 34-37 31st St., from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Friday, noon to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, and noon to 10 p.m. on Sundays.

More openings planned

Urban Vegan Roots is the fifth restaurant to open in the World Artisan Market, following the Italian spot Sotto La Luna, the bakery-cafe Elevenses, the Spanish restaurant Sala Astoria, and the pan-Asian ghost kitchen Potlux.

Another eagerly anticipated arrival is coming soon: the Arepa Lady, a famed Colombian restaurant founded in Jackson Heights, could open up later this month, according to Steve Lysohir, a real estate broker who has spearheaded the complex.

The seventh storefront was supposed to belong to the Yamato Noodle Company, a Japanese brand that had plans to open a cooking school on the site. But Yamato has been "tweaking" that concept in the wake of the pandemic, and say they will begin construction soon, Lysohir said.

"If they don’t move forward very soon we have organized a waiting list of great concepts behind them raring to jump into that space," Lysohir told Patch.

Related coverage:

• Sprawling Spanish Restaurant, Asian Kitchen Open In Astoria Complex
• New Astoria Bakery, Cafe Combines Food And Fables
• Long-Awaited Astoria Food Hall Will Open More Restaurants Soon