Excellent vegan pizza is no longer pie in the sky

"VEGAN PIZZA? Isn't that an oxymoron?"

That's the most common response that the phrase "vegan pizza" generated just a few years ago, and now that we're approaching the first annual Vegan Pizza Day (Jan. 29), that's still the thinking of many.

After all, what's pizza without cheese? And if there's one thing we know about vegans, it's that they don't eat cheese.

Actually, authentic Italian pizza doesn't require cheese (see sidebar). But, more importantly, here in the U.S., times are a-changing, and with them, plant-based cheeses.

In the 20 years since processed vegetarian foods started showing up in mainstream grocery stores, nondairy cheese has come a long way. The first attempts were, let's face it, pretty sad. It seemed that the particular chemistry that formed dairy cheese could never be credibly replicated in a plant-based product.

A halfway solution - still out there - was to make cheese from soy but to cheat on the texture (so that it would melt) by adding casein, a protein from cow milk.

This was fine for people who only wanted to avoid lactose, but a nonstarter for vegans. Tofutti made some strides with dairy-free sliced "American" cheese, and Vegan Gourmet came pretty close to melting, and tasting, like "real" cheese.

In the past year two new cheeses, Teese (soy-based) and Daiya (tapioca and arrowroot flour), have become widely available and have raised the bar significantly.

In fact, Daiya - a rich-tasting, gooey-stretchy faux cheese - played a decisive role in the opening of Blackbird Pizzeria, Philly's first all-vegan pizza joint, located at 6th and Lombard streets, where Gianna's Grille used to be.

"I wanted to do a vegan pizza place," explained former Horizons line cook (and former NYC chef) Mark Mebus, "because I love vegan pizza. But I didn't think it would be viable with soy cheese. The texture is still off the mark for a lot of people. But Daiya is something marketable to the general public - that made the idea more possible."

Mebus and partner Ryan Moylan opened Blackbird last fall, grabbing some of Gianna's old clientele and attracting new folks from far and wide. In just a few months they've garnered a lot of buzz, partially because of the unique hook and partially because their pizza is really good (they also do a kick-ass vegan cheesesteak).

Earlier this month, Blackbird expanded its hours to seven days a week. It will launch a self-serve counter in time for the big day Saturday.