Somebody People

Somebody People builds vegan food without leaning on the usual crutch. No meat substitutes anywhere on the menu — the kitchen works straight from produce, grains, and technique, sourcing from local farms and letting a seasonal lineup of soups, salads, pastas, and desserts do the arguing. The result is pasta that doesn't taste like a substitution: cacio e pepe, gnocchi in mushroom sauce, porcini arancini that holds its own against any version made with butter and cheese.

The room backs up the confidence. Plants, beach-themed art, a David Bowie mural in the bathroom — it reads playful rather than precious, which matches food that's inventive without showing off. The black rice with seasonal vegetables in a coconut lime vinaigrette is a good test case: simple ingredients, sharp execution, nothing trying too hard to prove a point about being vegan.

Order the Feed Me option and let the kitchen set the pace. It's the clearest way to see what they're actually capable of course to course.

Local write-ups and a national list have taken notice, and the attention tracks. This is a vegan restaurant that wins on food first, ideology second — which is exactly the order that makes it work.