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Vegan Restaurant Ground Control Opens With Variations of Global Dishes

By Victoria Johnson | November 12, 2012 4:20pm | Updated on December 6, 2012 6:40pm

LOGAN SQUARE — Adventurous diners now have a new option to explore global cuisine, as vegetarian and vegan restaurant Ground Control opened for dinner Tuesday.

Owner Carrie Haase said the restaurant at 3315 Armitage Ave. will be serving up weekend brunches in no time.

Ground Control's menu is small, but spans the globe with items like seitan jibaritos, tofu spring rolls and pasta.

Then they bring it all home with hometown favorites like tofu hot wings, a seitan Italian beef and a po' boy sandwich made with baby Portobello mushrooms "breaded in a flavorful crispy batter."

"We're kind of all over the board as far as our cuisine goes," Haase said. "Latin-inspired dishes, Italian, Indian, you know, just like, comfort food — like American — all that stuff."

 New vegetarian and vegan restaurant Ground Control opened for business on Tuesday, Dec. 4.
New vegetarian and vegan restaurant Ground Control opened for business on Tuesday, Dec. 4.
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Ground Control

All the menu items can be made vegan if they aren't already, and diners can round it all out with a slice of vegan carrot cake or, yes, vegan chocolate mousse pie.

Haase said she and her husband, Dan Hanaway, spent 15 years in the food service industry and had always hoped to open their own place. So, they spent the last year converting a vacant retail space along a busy strip of Armitage between Kedzie and Kimball avenues.

Asked if she was worried about opening so soon after the Chicago Diner opened a Logan Square location, Haase said she wasn't sweating it too much.

"We're completely different. We have a different vibe," she said, adding "I don't think we have enough vegetarian restaurants in the city."