A Vegan Meal at Mater's Pizza & Pasta Emporium in Gadsden, AL

I went to Gadsden AL for the First Friday street festival. Afterwards, I met with family at Mater's Pizza & Pasta Emporium. As an herbivore, I wasn't expecting much from this place. People in Gadsden don't even know what the V word means.  So, here's how it went.

The service was friendly, but I had weird questions like "are the noodles made fresh or are they dry" [fresh noodles always contain eggs] and "is the pizza sauce just a tomato-based sauce or is it seasoned with meat" [some small town places have a "marinara sauce" with meatballs already in it but serve just the sauce without meatballs if ordered without meatballs] and the lady who took our order was acting impatient with such questions during what is probably their busiest hours of the month. I totally understand. So I tried to keep it very friendly and simple. The male server who came by later was a bit friendlier, but the service was slow and disorganized. It's First Friday. I totally understand. No problem. The restaurant was grimy and looked like it needed a deep cleaning. This is in a building that's over 100 years old, like most of downtown Gadsden, so I expected that and ordered with that in mind.

This is what I came up with based on the information the lady was willing to give me. I ordered the Spaghetti Marinara with no cheese. It came with a tossed salad. I ordered a side of oil and vinegar instead of dressing

Tossed Salad

Tossed Salad at Mater's Pizza in Gadsden AL

This was a generic salad blend with cherry tomatoes and cucumber. They gave me more oil and vinegar than I would ever need. Those came in take-out cups, so I took some home for later. This salad was actually very good. It was all pretty fresh. Nothing special, but very good. Better than I expected.

Spaghetti Marinara Without Cheese

Spaghetti Marinara without cheese at Mater's Pizza in Gadsden AL

This was also pretty good. The sauce tasted fresh with ripe tomatoes and light spices. It was chunky and slightly sweet. I didn't taste any meat flavoring. I didn't find meat in it. I'm sure this would have been excellent with the cheese. Mater's Pizza is generous with the cheese. I didn't know but it came with a garlic butter hoagie bun. I couldn't eat that because it was probably real butter, and the bread looked like it was made with eggs.. I gave it away.

Overall, this was good food. I do believe it was overpriced for what I got, but that's because I ordered it with no cheese. I do prefer cleaner establishments, but the grime didn't surprise me because it's Gadsden, and most of Gadsden is a bit rough. Mater's is really made for omnivores, and I believe omnivores will enjoy this place very much. It's not great for a plant-eater, but I would return if invited to join others for a meal. It's good that they do have something a vegan can eat. And what I had was  pretty good.