Philly Vegan Restaurant Week 2026: the recap

Philly Vegan Restaurant Week has wrapped its 2026 run, and it was a concentrated one. Rather than a citywide scramble, the whole thing lived under one roof: Tattooed Mom, the South Street bar that goes by TMoms, which hosted two back-to-back rounds of plant-based pop-ups. Round One ran from October 10 to 13, and Round Two took over from October 14 through the early hours of the 18th, so if you missed it, you missed the same room twice.

Round One leaned into the familiar. The star was the MomRib Sandwich, a housemade MomRib patty with sweet hickory BBQ, dill pickle and white onion on a Baker Street seeded roll, paired with a new addition: Pickleback Waffle Fries, salt-and-vinegar ranch fries topped with fried pickles and more dill pickle ranch. Round Two swapped the BBQ for something with more heat. Tutu Mary's brought in a Mochiko Chickn Sando — vegan Mochiko chickn, Hawaiian mac salad, gochujang aioli and su-miso sauce on a Merzbacher's sweet potato brioche bun — and a set of Dan Dan Waffle Fries topped with vegan ground pork, housemade dan dan sauce, toasted sesame seed and fresh green onion.

Knowing the two names behind that second round helps explain the flavor. Tutu Mary's is a Philadelphia plant-based brand that does Hawaiian soul food, and it has picked up nods from Philly Mag and Wooder Ice. Merzbacher's is a Germantown-rooted bakery that mills its own flour and keeps all its breads vegan and GMO-free, and that sweet potato bun is just one of its many loaves, alongside a Philly Muffin, citywide sourdough and a garlic-and-herb mashed potato dinner roll. The bakery is open to the public Sunday through Friday from 4 to 8 pm, so you can still get the bread even when the pop-up is gone.

Because the whole thing lived inside TMoms, the vegan food sat alongside the bar's usual lineup. The daily happy hour runs 4 to 6 pm with $4 drafts, and the weeknight specials carry on: Meatless Mondays with all vegan sammies for $7, Taco Tuesdays at $1.50 a taco, Smash Burger Wednesdays with two smashed, two furious and two classic or vegan patties plus all the fixings for $6 and a $3 PBR, and Pierogi Thursdays at 75 cents a piece. The bar also keeps a rotating cocktail list, and through the end of the month there is a Delia Deetz drink — raspberry vodka, Lo-Fi sweet vermouth, Aperol, strawberry jam and sparkling water, served with a red licorice straw.

One thing worth knowing for next time: TMoms is an old building and only partially accessible. The event space sits on the second floor, reachable only by a flight of 20 steps, three feet wide, with a railing on the left side only. And the whole upstairs is 21-plus, so you will need a valid ID to get past the bar and up to the food. With the 2026 rounds now in the books, the bar settles back into its regular hours — 4 to 11 pm Monday through Thursday, 12 pm to 2 am Friday and Saturday, and 12 to 11 pm on Sundays — and its usual mix of cheap eats and cold drinks.