Editor’s Note: Where the Wild Ones Are

Where The Wild Ones Are is the deepest issue we have produced so far, but not in terms of page count, which has stayed consistent with the editorial discipline we have held since the beginning. It’s in the range and in the quality of attention each piece required. The stories in this issue are the ones we have been wanting to tell for some time, and the quarterly rhythm gave us the space to tell them properly.

With this issue we’re taking you to the shore. Our piece on beaches around the world is not necessarily a travel listicle or a destination roundup. We wrote it as an examination of what different beach cultures actually look like, from the social theatre of Ipanema in Rio to the productive solitude of the Alentejo coast in Portugal to the specifically Australian conviction that the beach is simply the end of the street and therefore available to everyone at all times. As we know, summer brings people to water with a consistency that no other season can match, and this piece tries to understand why.

We move indoors, or rather outdoors, because our feature on summer hosting is really a feature about what the season permits that other seasons do not. Summer offers gatherings that don’t have any true formality because, the warmth makes leaving feel a little unreasonable. We tried to write about hosting in the way it’s actually experienced rather than in the aspirational register that most coverage of the subject usually defaults to.

The issue also carries two pieces that sit closer to the centre of what Lost & Vegan has always been about. The first is our exploration of slow travel and the plant-based food scene in Paris, written partly from the experience of the location scouting trip that preceded the release of the Lost & Vegan app. Paris is coming to the app, and what we found there during that trip changed how we thought about what a city guide should be. The second is a harder piece, but I think a necessary one. The recent closure of PLANTA’s Toronto locations prompted a question that the plant-based dining community tends to avoid: what does it mean when a beloved and apparently successful plant-based restaurant closes, and what does it tell us about how plant-based dining has positioned itself
more broadly. The answer we arrived at requires honesty about some things the community has not
always been willing to say out loud.

Elsewhere in this issue you will find our celebration of the wedding in a quieter, more intentional current form. The rise of the micro wedding, the courthouse ceremony, the backyard gathering with fifteen people who truly matter to the couple, is one of the more interesting cultural shifts of the last several years. There’s a guide to approaching vegan and plant-based catering for these occasions that works for couples navigating different dietary preferences among their guests, in addition to profiles of some of the cake studios and pastry makers doing the most interesting work in plant-based celebration baking.

For those in London or watching from afar, our Wimbledon edit covers the restaurants worth visiting during the tournament, which runs from June 29 to July 12. We have approached this the same way we approach all of our city content. This is an edit of the places worth going to specifically, with each one chosen because it belongs in the Lost & Vegan world, as opposed to adding it because it ’s nearby.

There is also an ice cream edit, pieces on vegan wine country from Tuscany to the Okanagan, and on the unexpected plant-based food scenes flourishing in places that have no obvious business being interesting on this front: Austin, Texas, Morocco, and the coastal cities of Australia, which have been building some of the most serious plant-based restaurant cultures in the world.

On the app: we are genuinely excited about what is coming. Paris, and more US cities are being added in response to the growing interest we are seeing from American readers and users, and a
significant app update is in development that we will have more to say about soon.

The app has always been the most direct expression of what Lost & Vegan is trying to do in practice, taking the editorial curation of the magazine and making it useful in the real world, in the specific moment when you are standing in a city and need to know where to go. The new cities and the coming update are the next chapter of that.

The next issue arrives in September. The final issue of the year in December. We have always believed that something worth reading deserves the time it takes to make it worth reading, and the
quarterly model has given us that time. What you are holding is the result of it.

Until September.

Editor’s Note: The Hills Are Alive

I have to admit, this is my favourite issue yet. It might be the fact that spring is in the air and the sun is finally coming out more here in Toronto, lifting the mood in the way that only the first real warmth of the year can. But if I’m being fully honest, it is really because of what is inside the pages of this month's issue. This issue feels like a true reflection of everything Lost & Vegan was built to be: considered, wide-ranging, and rooted in the belief that plant-based culture deserves the same depth of attention as fashion, art, and design.   

From the start, Lost & Vegan has existed to document and celebrate modern plant-based living in a way that goes beyond the typical framing and viewpoint. It is about culture: how we travel, how we dress, how we think about the world around us, and how all of those things can be shaped by a plant-based perspective that is thoughtful rather than prescriptive. This issue, captures that ambition across every page.

We are looking at the health benefits of a plant-based diet in a way that feels more practical and grounded, Rather than a checklist of statistics, it’s a deeper look at what eating this way can do for how you feel and how you live. Our summer travel essentials guide is exactly what it sounds like: the thoughtfully curated edit of what to pack, and bring with you as the season opens up and the desire to travel comes back. And for anyone who has ever wondered about the environmental calculus of electric vehicles, our feature on the benefits of electric cars is taking that conversation seriously, looking deeper at what the evidence actually says.

There is also a feature I found myself genuinely moved by during the editing process: our piece on mountain ecosystems. Mountains cover a quarter of the Earth’s land surface, supply freshwater to more than half the world’s population, and shelter a biodiversity that the lowlands can’t replicate. Reading through it reminded me that plant-based living, at its best, is about a relationship with the natural world that takes the totality of it seriously. 

On a lighter note, we also have a beautiful new spring recipe landing just in time for the season’s best brunches and baking moments. If you make it, please share it with us.

Lost & Vegan has been early in its journey, but I love the momentum we’re carrying. The magazine, the app, the community growing around both: all of it is still finding its shape, and that is precisely what makes this moment feel so full of possibility. The Lost & Vegan app continues to grow its curated directory of vegan-friendly restaurants across cities around the world, making it easier than ever to eat well wherever you happen to be. And with the magazine, each issue, gets a little closer to the thing we imagined when we started: a collectible, considered object that reflects plant-based culture at its most elevated.

We are so grateful to each of you for reading, for sharing, and for being part of this community. We’re only just getting started.