(simple jingle) (heavy, fast music) (fades into upbeat rock music) - Hi, so for this edition of Cooking With Brontez, we are cruising the menu at a very, very near and dear spot of mine called Eli's Mile High.

My grandmother's brother was one of the band leaders here when this became the Home of the West Coast Blues.

Sometime after Eli got killed here, him and his band partner, Troyce Key, started playing music here and he would come back to Alabama and tell me about this place all the time, so it's really special to me.

And also my band plays here sometime and also they have really, really delicious food on the menu so we're going to go check it out.

I'm here with Nate, one of my favorite Oakland rappers.

This is his kitchen and we're going to cruise the menu and make some really yummy things for you today.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

We're going to start with a Mexican Pizza.

- Yeah, Mexican Pizza!

- Wait, can we actually say that legally?

It's based off of this famous thing, that's discontinued at a famous place, but... - Well, we got our homemade tostadas right here, in-house.

- In-house homemade tostadas, y'all.

- Here.

- Refried beans, okay cool.

- Give 'em a dollop of that.

- AAAooooowwww!

- Now we got ground beef.

- Okay, cool.

Ooh!

- And this is where it--get some right here.

You gotta give it shredded cheese.

- I'm lactose intolerant, but I don't care.

I'm going to eat it anyway.

(Nate laughs) Anyway!

- Ensalada sauce.

- Oh my god, yas!

What else?

- Green onion.

- And let's do a little of this authentic black olive.

(celebratory whooping) Yeah!

- Oww!

- Mhmm.

- Uh huh!

- MHMM!

- There we go!

Can we get a close up of this?

Oww!

How good, my man, how good it is!

Alright, we have a vegan corn dog here.

Did you ever work at Corn Dog 7 in the mall?

- No.

(laughter erupts) - I love corn dogs.

- And this one's 100% vegan.

- Yeah, like me!

Whee!

Oh, dippage!

#*gasp#* Yay, oh my god!

- Corn dog time!

- Corn dog time!

Oww!

No pigs were killed.

Okay?

No squeak, squeak.

No oink, oink.

- We got corn dogs going out right now.

- Corn dogs going out right now.

- Ope!

Sold!

Bye bye!

- What I love about Eli's is that there's, like, plenty of awesome, like, meat dishes but they have, like, an excellent vegan menu.

So we're making a soyrizo crustwrap.

There's cheese on it because I'm not afraid of the lactose today.

What's up, Nate!

What's up?

What we got?

- Here we go!

First up, start off with our tostada.

Add a little bit of cheese on it.

Put a nice layer of soyrizo.

- Like, how do y'all prepare the soyrizo?

- We fire it up every day with roasted onions and tater tots.

- Roasted onions and tater tots, okay, for the soyrizo recipe.

- Here's pico.

- Some pico.

Cool.

- Need a little bit of sour cream on there, and then this is the best part.

It's all about the fold, man.

- Ahhh!

Yes!

Oww!

Dang!

(Brontez singing happily) - That's right!

You bad crunchwrap!

You've been a bad crunchwrap, I'm gonna punish you!

- Crust done.

- Crust done, ow!

- Served with house-made salsa, and out the window she goes.

Ow!

- Nice.

So now we have the Ungrateful Bowl, which is, I think, a spoof of another famous gray-area dish that we're not gonna talk about.

- Start here, with some fresh rice.

- How are the beans prepared?

- We roast off onions... - Roast off onions.

- Garlic.

- Really?

- And just black beans, salt & pepper, baby.

- Okay.

Yeah.

- Let's give this kale a little massage.

And of course, the best, The Magic Sauce.

- The Magic Sauce.

So okay, what's in the sauce and like, how do y'all make it?

- So, it's got garlic, Tajin, it's got lemon juice, it's got miso paste, it's got sunflower seeds, and can't tell you the rest.

(laughter) Okay so, we got the menu here and we have my homie's Julian and Tom to help me eat this because A. it will be really intense if I ate it all by myself and food, borrowed food, is meant to be shared so, let's try the pizza first.

Let's go in.

What is it?

What is he saying?

What's it giving bro?

(chill rock music faintly playing) A+!

Everyone, mhmm!

Ahh!

Next, we're gonna do the vegan dish, the Ungrateful Bowl.

It's really just like rice, beans, kales, and like this magical, special sauce they don't talk about, but it's cheap and it's effective and it's one of my favorite things to eat here, so.

Wanna join in?

Alright!

Yeah!

Duh duh duh!

Lit!

Lit!

- The sauce!

- I'm friends with that.

Okay so, I sent everyone else away because this is just for me.

Vegan corn dog.

It's my personal favorite.

(chuckles) This is so fried.

It's so fried.

I love fried food!

Never going to beat that.

A+.

Last but not least, we have the vegan crunch wrap.

Oh my God.

Put a little homemade salsa on it.

Oh ho ho ho!

Yeah!

That's the spot.

Nothing beats nacho cheese in the can, I'm sorry.

I'm just, I-- You're either definitely eating that or you're definitely not eating that.

And today I'm definitely eating that.

I give everything at Eli's an A+.

Come by anytime.

It's one of my favorite places in Oakland.

Yes, I'm talking with my mouth full.

But, it's Cooking With Brontez, peace.

(Upbeat alternative rock) Thank you for watching Cooking With Brontez.

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PLEASE!

(laughter) Please!

Baby, please!