S+M VEGAN

Beginnings

SINCE 2013

S+M stands for Shane and C-Y (aka Marie), the duo behind it all.

Shane and C-Y met in NYC in 2012 and together, decided to move to the Bay, where Shane had been living and working in restaurants for over half a decade.

They soon started hosting informal dinners in their apartment in Oakland on their days off and popping up at bars after their kitchen shifts, and in December of 2013 made the jump to focus exclusively on their own project.

LA MIA MANIA

Cuisine

LION DANCE CAFE

When they first started cooking as S+M, vegan dining options in the Bay were few and far between and they found themselves cooking nearly any food that they craved and couldn’t find.

The strongest cravings were always the ones deeply associated with a meaningful memory. Shane’s uncles gathering to cook the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or his mom bringing in all kinds of produce for her coop, run out of the family home. The aroma of rice steaming in the Singaporean kitchen while C-Y’s aunties prepared dinner, or the texture of a curry puff burning the roof of their mouth after 听写 class. Before long their focus turned to dishes that were more personal, as they started to cultivate their own palates and married their distinctive sensibilities with influences from their location in the Bay Area. 

Offshoots La Mia Mania and Lion Dance Cafe were born to express S+M’s focus more on Shane’s Californian and Italian background (Rome and Sicily), and on C-Y’s Teochew Chinese and Singaporean roots (C-Y is also half French and was partially raised in France) respectively.

OAKLAND, CA

TODAY: OUR RESTAURANT

2020

Aided by their restaurant experience combining years of working nearly every position front and back of the house and in the kitchens of fine dining restaurants including Pure Food and Wine in NYC, Millennium in SF, and Michelin starred L’Arpège (Paris), S+M Vegan rapidly grew.

Over the years, they’ve hosted countless pop ups, suppers in conjunction with local drink makers (Blind Tiger 2014-2016), made cultured cashew cream cheese (Fromagerie Esseme), opened an acclaimed farm-to-table restaurant in Los Angeles, catered over 200 weddings and events, received multiple awards (best pop up 2019 and 2020, best savory dish for their General Tso’s Brussels sprouts at Vegan Street Fair), nominations, and accolades (Soleil Ho’s favorite sandwich in the Bay, also on SF Chronicle’s 1st annual “must eat” list), given cooking classes and demos locally as well as in Paris and Singapore.

Nowadays, S+M Vegan can be found at their multi-award-winning restaurant Lion Dance Cafe in downtown Oakland, where they continue to showcase the dishes and flavors their guests have come to look forward to.

Food photography by Jason Addy, Thomas Dang Vo, and Leslie Rodriguez.