New lifestyle, new eatery

Atania Gilmore figured she’d give it 30 days.

It was an experiment at that point: go vegan for a month, then celebrate with her favorite meal. But by her target end date – Thanksgiving 2012 – she was feeling so great that she skipped the turkey and made vegan lasagna.

Instead of concluding the project, that holiday dinner commemorated her first four weeks as a vegan. Gilmore hasn’t gone back to meat, dairy or any other animal products, such as eggs or honey.

In mid-March, Gilmore opened Allie’s Vegan Pizzeria in the Nevada Lidgerwood neighborhood in northeast Spokane. The restaurant, open for lunch and dinner, offers a dozen different vegan pizzas.

“What I’m trying to do with this place is to encourage people to eat more healthily and see that it’s not difficult to do,” Gilmore said.

The 57-year-old was inspired to try veganism after reading the New York Times best-seller “Eat & Run” by Scott Jurek, an ultramarathoner.

“He attributes his abilities to his vegan diet,” said Gilmore, a trail runner who logs 25 to 30 miles per week. “I’m a turtle. I love to run, but I’m (slow).”

Gilmore was hoping her new vegan diet would help her become a faster runner.

“It took me a couple of weeks to figure out what to eat, but I felt great,” she said. “My 30 days were up, and I decided I wasn’t going to go back. It was for selfish reasons that I wanted to do it. But the blinders came off that month, and I started seeing the impact of my choices.”

Her blood pressure is down. Her cholesterol is low. Last year, she was one of seven nationwide finalists for “Sexiest Vegan Over 50” from PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

“But,” she said, “I don’t run any faster.”

Still, her experiment led to the dream of opening a vegan eatery. In January, Gilmore leased the former Moose Crossing Café and got to work giving the space a facelift. Today, it seats 34 and is done in earthen tones, with a cork floor in the entry way, wooden floors and vintage bamboo chairs from Vietnam. Walnut-colored walls feature rotating works from local artists. Gilmore also sells books on veganism, including the “Eat & Run” one that inspired her.

“It’s not only the food; I want the whole environment to be thoughtful,” said Gilmore, who previously worked as a program manager at KeyTronicEMS, a local contract manufacturer specializing in commercial and industrial electromechanical products.

Opening a restaurant is a career change. “But it’s not a personal change,” Gilmore said. “I’ve always liked cooking.”

She spent eight years working in restaurants – “front of the house and some cooking” – during college and graduate school in Philadelphia and Boston.

Born in Hong Kong, Gilmore grew up throughout Asia and moved to the U.S. as a teenager. She has a black belt in taekwondo and is a member of InVeg, or Inland Northwest Vegans, a Spokane nonprofit. She’s lived in Spokane for 20 years and has three children. The restaurant is named for her oldest, a student at the University of Washington.

Her middle child, a senior at Shadle Park High School, suggested the name end in a vowel for better flow. So, “it was either Allie or Atania, because my other two are Grant and Lauren. It was Lauren’s idea. The only one that got a little miffed was Grant,” a freshman at Shadle Park, Gilmore said.

She’s planning to name a line of vegan ice cream after her son this summer, so hopefully that will settle the score. For now, he’s one of the 12 employees at the pizza place, where dairy-free cheeses and sauces are made in house. Gilmore uses organic, non-GMO soy milk to make vegan cheese for pizzas. For her vegan cheesecakes, she uses ground cashews and fruit.

She makes the restaurant’s almond milk using two ingredients: almonds and water. She also offers coconut, rice, soy and hemp milk.

“I love hemp milk. It foams up almost like a dairy milk does,” Gilmore said.

Espresso beans come from Doma Coffee Roasting Co. in Post Falls. There are six craft beers on tap as well as two kinds of freshly pressed juices, made to order for $5.25.

Sides include hummus and a potato salad in which tofu serves as the egg substitute.

For dessert, there are vegan chocolate-chip cookies and individual apple-pie pizzas topped with an orange-rosemary glaze and a mixture of shredded almonds and cinnamon.

Pizzas are 12 inches and range $10.25 to $14.50. The top sellers so far are Spinach Artichoke, Thai Peanut, Wild Mushroom and Buffalo Chicken.

The “meats” – pepperoni, chicken, sausage – are all meatless. “You’re just changing the protein source,” Gilmore said.

There’s also a mac ’n’ cheese pizza and a pizza with walnut-kale pesto and balsamic reduction.

Gilmore uses organic produce and coconut, grapeseed or olive oils. Pizza dough is made in house using flour from Shepherd’s Grain and a cold fermentation process.

“Our dough ferments for 48 hours before we use it,” Gilmore said. “It gives it a New York-style pizza crust. I’m proud of our crust. It’s very good.”