New Hungry Horse eatery features vegan fare

Meg and Tom Blakney have been caterers locally for years, but as they served big parties, they encountered more and more people with dietary restrictions and food allergies.

So they thought: What if there were a restaurant that served dishes full of such great flavor you wouldn't even notice they were free of meat, gluten and dairy?

And what if it was right on U.S. 2 in Hungry Horse, where more than a million people pass by every year?

So they opened the Dan d’Lion. Locals will recognize the building as the former Hungry Horse Corral. The hungry horse sculpture has been moved across the street and the Blakneys have planted a host of flowers in the yard.

Tom Blakney said they bought the building about four years ago and have been slowly remodeling it. They put in a commercial kitchen for their Earth Angel Organics catering business and then got the restaurant up and running this spring.

The menu features popular items such as Greek salad, plant-based pizzas made with a gluten-free crust that is indistinguishable from the wheat one, Middle Eastern-inspired quinoa tabbouleh, vegetable burgers that actually have flavor and a huckleberry shake that is dairy-free and yet somehow tastes richer than the milk-based standard.

Meg Blakney is an accomplished chef. She's been featured in Good Housekeeping and has decades of experience in food science.

"We're not here to make fake meat," she said. "We're here to give an amazing flavor profile to all our dishes."

The key is to source quality ingredients and use a host of different ingredients and flavors. She said she went to Seattle to attend a plant-based burger class, only to discover the instructors were years behind what she'd already been doing.

Both locals and tourists are finding the restaurant to their liking. Brandy Ramus was visiting from Iowa and had eaten at the restaurant every day of her trip.

"We were mind-blown there was a [vegan] place here," Ramus said. "This has been wonderful."

Ramus is a baker herself in Iowa. She said it's very difficult to find vegan restaurants even in large cities, never mind a small town like Hungry Horse.

"We think people with restricted diets deserve to eat just as well as anyone," Meg Blakney said.

The restaurant is open for dining in or takeout from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The full menu can be found at earthangelorganicsmt.com.