A few weeks ago, my neighbor told me that she heard there was a vegan restaurant in Rockford, but she didn’t know the name. I was skeptical, especially when I googled “vegan restaurant Rockford” and got a hit for a “vegan/vegetarian” sushi restaurant that also serves seafood…and steak. I didn’t believe her because how could a vegan restaurant survive in Northern Illinois? But it’s real and its existence gives me hope for humanity. H and I finally got a chance to try Pig Minds Brewing last night.
We tried some of their beers, of course. H had the Blue Collar (I think); I had the Southy Bitch Slap. I’m not a beer connoisseur, but they were good.
I was starving (saving all my calories for vegan pub food), so we started with stuffed mushrooms and hot seitanic wings. Both were delicious. The wings were spicy and the mushrooms were garlicky. 
For our entrees, I ordered the The Greek (a gyro with thin sliced seitan, cucumber sauce, onion and tomato served on a warm pita sweet) with sweet potato fries and H had the Rueben Kincaid (a Seitan Rueben served on marble rye with sauerkraut, 1000 Island and Italian style cheese) with freedom fries. I got some wasabi cream sauce for the sweet potato fries, which was a great combination.
Overall, I give it a B. The appetizers and fries were the best part of the meal. It’s hard not to compare it to Chicago Diner and Native Foods. Chicago Diner has an incredible gyro and this one doesn’t even come close to that high standard. The wings were tasty, but more seitan-y than Native Foods, which has wings with a more chicken-y texture. We will definitely be back. It’s a bit of a trek, but it makes me so happy that something like this is in Northern Illinois. I’m sure it’s hard for them to deal with the ignorance of local meat eaters (I advise against reading the comments on their Facebook page. And vegans are the annoying ones?), but I wish them the best!
