On one of my recent posts, there was a request to hear more about the
vegetarian and vegan hotspots that New Haven has to offer. Because most
of my family is leaning towards vegan diets (though currently more
accurately classified as vegetarian), and I try to eat as healthy and
clean as possible, I am actually very familiar with a few great
restaurants in the area!
Of course, if you live on campus and have already purchased the meal
plan all you have to do is communicate with the chefs in the Dining
Hall. They are so great about accommodating to everyone’s individual
meal preferences, so as long as you let them know you are a vegan or
vegetarian, they will always make an option for you at every meal.
However, if you feel like having a night out with your friends and
want to dine somewhere strictly vegetarian I have a few great places to
recommend! Two spots that I have gone and enjoyed immensely are Claire’s Corner Copia in the downtown area near the Green, and Fuel Coffee Shop on Chapel Street near Wooster Square.
Both of these places offer a wide variety of meals and are strictly
vegetarian (read: no meat offered at all in any dish). In addition, they
can substitute ingredients so your meal is completely vegan. I love
both of these places and always feel satisfyingly full after. Do note:
if you’re driving to Clarie’s Corner Copia, it is in the heart of
downtown so you may need to bring change for parking depending on when
you plan on dining.
Though the above two restaurants are strictly vegetarian and mostly
American-esque foods, if you’re interested in meat- and dairy-free
options you may want to try some other, more ethnic foods. The cultures
that are best known for amazing vegetarian options are Indian,
Vietnamese, and Thai.
Though I have not explored the Vietnamese and Thai
options in New Haven (yet!) I have Yelp‘ed
a few restaurants that have very good reviews. Here are a few places I
came up with (all of which are in the greater New Haven area): Lean’s Vietnamese Food Cart, Jeera Thai, and Thai Awesome.
I am, however, very familiar with the Indian cuisine available here in New Haven and have to say that Kamal is hands-down the best Indian
food you will find in this city. The best part about Kamal, aside from
their delicious menu and incredibly friendly staff, is that they have
free delivery to Albertus. They have an entire vegetarian section of
their menu, so do make sure to check it out!
Thank you, Erica, for that great feedback and question! This is by
far my favorite blog that I have written so far – I am such a foodie!
Those are the vegetarian and vegan options that I would suggest; it’s a
good start – but I’m sure there are many, many more!
Question for all of you: Which vegetarian/vegan
restaurants in New Haven (or surrounding areas) are your favorite? Do
tell, I’m always looking for new places to try 
Yesterday I finally became an official Tour Guide for Albertus! I am
so excited for this new opportunity to show prospective students
everything that I love about being a student at Albertus.
The final part of my training was to conduct a practice tour for our
Admissions Office Intern, Alicia. Alicia was really nice and it was
actually pretty fun showing her around campus. Even though she had been
through a few of these practice tours before with other Tour Guides, I
liked giving her my spin on the campus and I had a ton of fun doing
it.
In addition to becoming an official Tour Guide, I got my first tour
guide appointments! My first shift as a Tour Guide will be this Saturday
from 11 am – 1 pm.
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I suppose the real reason I’m so excited about this position as an
Albertus Tour Guide is because of how much my tour on campus really
impacted my own college decision. The day I came to visit Albertus, I
had also scheduled a whole day of tours with different colleges in New
Haven. I had scheduled my private tour with Albertus in the morning and
planned to go to group tours both at Southern Connecticut State
University and University of New Haven. That was the plan, however,
after my private tour with Kristy-Lee at Albertus I was so impressed
that I decided to skip both of the other tours I had scheduled for the
day! I knew Albertus was the place for me due to the small size,
friendly people, and beautiful campus, so going to the other tours
would have just be a waste of time. I credit my decision to come to
Albertus to my tour guide; she was such a friendly person, answered all
of my questions, and really showed me how wonderful Albertus truly is.
I am so glad that I decided to come to Albertus and have the
opportunity to share my love for Albertus with others! Have you ever
been on a campus tour at Albertus or another college? If so, what was
your experience like?
My cousin, Emily, flew in from Florida this week for a family wedding
and decided to spend the weekend here in New Haven with me! I love when I
have visitors, because New Haven is such a fun city and I love showing
it off.
Because we are both over 21, we decided to grab a few drinks with my
boyfriend, and another friend who was in town, Jenna. We started the
night off at Pacifico
which is a tapas bar in downtown New Haven. Pacifico is somewhat pricey
for the typical college student budget, but is a fun place to meet with
friends. I hear the food is amazing (it smells delicious), though I
have never gone to eat. Pacifico is also neat because they play lots of
Hispanic music and have a small dance space in case you get the urge to
boogey!
After some good conversation and delicious drinks, we decided to make our way across the street to Bar. Bar is a pizza restaurant during the day that turns into a club/bar during the evening. The pizza here is legendary,
especially the mashed potato pizza. Make sure if you go to Bar during
the evening that you order your pizza early; by the time I got around to
thinking about ordering pizza they only had cheese and peperoni left.
After more conversation, and some seriously awesome dancing on our part
(or at least we think so…) we went to another nearby bar, Black Bear.
All in all, Friday evening was a huge success and I was able to show
Emily a great time in New Haven! New Haven is known for the happening
night life, so make sure to hit up these three awesome spots. There are
plenty of 18+ places as well in case your or your friends are not 21
just yet. Some of the 18+ clubs I know of are Empire, Elevate, and Toad’s Place.
If you are having a few drinks with your friends, make sure to plan
how you are going to get home/back to campus. If you live on campus,
there are many ways to get downtown safely: you can take the Yale
Transit for free when you show your Albertus Student ID card or you can
call a cab. Typically a taxi cab ride to the downtown area from Albertus
is $12 each way. An easy number to remember for a cab is: (203)
777-7777.
The next morning even though it looked like it was going to storm,
and New Haven was under a tornado watch, I decided to show Emily the
breath-taking view from the East Rock Summit.
Most of the time, when I take people to the top of East Rock I like to
hike up, so they get the full experience. However, because we were short
on time, and the weather was not predictable, we decided to drive up.
From the Summit you can see the city of New Haven and the ocean. If
you look carefully into the distance on a clear day, you can even see
New York City! Emily loved the view and we took quite a few pictures
before heading back down the mountain.
Not only is the view incredible, but East Rock Summit also offers a
wonderful field area with picnic tables and grills. On nice days you can
usually find families having barbeques and picnics and students
studying, enjoying the beautiful weather. It’s also a very dog-friendly
area, so if you have a pup it’s definitely worth the trip!
Showing Emily around New Haven was a ton of fun! We made a bunch of
new memories and I know she fell in love with New Haven, just as I did
when I first visited.
