Pura Vita

In 2018, Brooklyn-born Chef Tara Punzone opened Pura Vita on Santa Monica Boulevard and made history as the first 100% plant-based Italian restaurant and wine bar in the United States. Punzone has been vegan since age 12, grew up in a family where food was the center of every occasion, and spent time living in Rome to learn Italian flavor profiles from the source. The mission was specific: prove that the full richness of Southern Italian cuisine, from handmade pasta to Neapolitan pizza to classic antipasti, could be achieved without any animal products, and without compromise.

Pura Vita has won the VegNews Best Vegan Italian Restaurant award three years running, 2023, 2024, and 2025, and the VegOut Chef of the Year award. But the accolades tell only part of the story. Chef Tara Punzone built a restaurant where old-school Italian families, young Angelenos, and everyone in between fill the room almost every night, drawn by food that is genuinely delicious before it is anything else. By proving that authentic Southern Italian cuisine can be executed entirely without animal products, Pura Vita makes the case that plant-based eating is not a sacrifice. For Tinġo, it is a landmark example of how cultural food traditions and deep sustainability values can reinforce rather than contradict each other.