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Punzone, who has been a vegan since she was 12 years old, has managed to marry her commitment to clean, ethical eating with her appreciation of her Italian heritage and culture. The result is a restaurant concept that now features three locations in Southern California. Punzone is adamant about curating a perfect service that goes beyond just the food, and with that being said, she is involved in every aspect of the operations to ensure that when you come to Pura Vita, it will be an unforgettable experience. 

The following interview is from the One Life One Chance podcast hosted by H2O frontman and outspoken champion of veganism Toby Morse. 

You went vegan when you were 11 or 12 years old, right? 

I turned vegetarian when I was 10, by my choice. It took me a few years to figure out the vegan part, which happened when I was 12 or so. When I was a little, I was that kid that would hold up the meat to the light and say, “Ma, you can see the veins in it. How can you eat that?” I was a huge animal lover and never ate anything on a bone. When you’re a kid, you don’t put together the process of a living, breathing animal that suddenly is on your plate and doesn’t look like how it is, so you dissociate everything you’re eating with reality.

In fifth grade, I had a teacher that showed the class a video of a slaughterhouse, which I think was the coolest thing ever, and she probably would have been fired if it was today, but she changed my life. I went home and sat my parents down and told them I didn’t want to have anything to do with this. My parents were confused, but they wanted to support me regardless. Everything in my family revolved around food. Everyone cooked, and my grandfather owned a sandwich shop in Brooklyn that was so popular that he had to hire security. That’s part of the reason why I wanted to start cooking because I thought he was the coolest guy on Earth. 

Did you start cooking at a young age too? 

My parents, in order to support me, wanted me to be in the kitchen with them, and that’s where I started learning about food. I would help them with little things, and something happens in a kitchen when cooking alongside people, and there’s this energy that is just the coolest thing. 

When did you start working at restaurants? 

I didn’t start working in restaurants until a little bit late. I had a career in photography, and I hated it. I wasn’t connected to it at all. I always knew I wanted to open a restaurant, but I had no experience, so I would have to start from the bottom. I graduated from the School of Visual Arts and got my master’s degree to teach and then went to go work in a prep kitchen. [Laughs.]

I started all over again at minimum wage at the bottom. I worked under chef Neal Harden at Pure Food and Wine in New York, and he taught me the management part of working in kitchens so that when he would leave, I would eventually take his place. I finally felt like I found the place where I belong. I very quickly moved up to a line cook and sous chef, and then in a couple of years, I was running the restaurant as the chef. 

What year did you move to LA? 

I started thinking about moving here in 2010. My landlord at the time was vegan and had this lumberyard and had the idea of us opening up a vegan restaurant in New York. We got the blueprints, drew up a whole plan, worked on a menu and the city approved it but said it would take five years to get the permits because it was built above a subway line. I decided I would maybe go to LA for a while and then come back, but I never ended up coming back. [Laughs.] I ended up working at Real Food Daily, which was a great experience to learn a lot of things.

When did you start opening Pura Vita?

I got really comfortable working at Real Food Daily, but I got comfortable and needed to face a new challenge and finally do the thing that I wanted to do my whole life. We did everything ourselves, me and my partners with our own hands opening the restaurant. We couldn’t afford a marketing company, so we used social media to promote the restaurant. 

One thing about the vegan community is that when something is new, we get hyped on it, and it’s a lot of word of mouth, especially when it’s a vegan Italian restaurant. Do you think it’s a supportive community? 

It was totally scary on our opening weekend, and we had no idea what to expect. I’m not some famous chef from TV, but I really mean it and live this every day, way before it was trendy. We did a friends and family night on a Thursday and opened to the public on Friday for dinner, and there was a line, two blocks long with a two-hour wait to sit down. I never in my wildest imagination thought this would happen in my life.

I love that there is the old-school Italian Brooklyn thing with your restaurants, and you also don’t fuck with the fake meat thing, right? 

I’m not into fake meat. We have meatballs that are made in-house, but they’re made out of lentils and mushrooms. I don’t do the packaged stuff. I want all the ingredients to be clean and actually plant-based.

We’ve talked about why there isn’t a Pura Vita where you grew up in New York, but I get it. You want to be around to see it.

For me, the restaurant is a very personal thing. It’s the food from my culture and upbringing. Part of having a restaurant is not just the food; it’s the experience. It’s about music, people and watching others have an experience with all of the elements, not just the food. If I wasn’t there physically and if opened one in New York, how would I make sure that it represents all of the things that are equally important to the experience?

[Photo by Naz Massaro] [Photo by Naz Massaro] [Photo by Naz Massaro] [Photo by Naz Massaro]

[Photo by Naz Massaro]

[Photo by Naz Massaro]

[Photo by Naz Massaro]

[Photo by Naz Massaro]

This story appeared in issue #407, available below.

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The phrase “One Life One Chance” has become synonymous with Morse and the legacy of H2O. The first time we saw the title was with their single of the same name on their 1999 record F.T.T.W., but the legacy of the song and message has evolved into something larger than just music. In 2018, Morse launched the One Life One Chance podcast as a means to tell the story of his life and career. That soon shifted to a different format when Morse began inviting prominent figures in the music scene he came up in, along with diverse guests from several industries, to engage in genuine, face-to-face conversations in the kitchen of his Los Angeles home. The result is a podcast that feels like a documentary of alternative culture.

When did the podcast start, and how has it evolved over the years? 

It started at the end of 2018. At first, I was doing the interviews over the phone because, originally, it was hard to get the guests that I wanted to come out. When I first started the podcast, I wanted to do it in chronological order of my life with my mom, my brothers and the people in my band so it would almost feel like chapters in my life. It got hard when the pandemic hit to get guests to meet up face to face, but I am proud that I never did the Zoom format because I feel like you get a much better conversation in person. Luckily, I had banked 30-40 episodes before the pandemic, and eventually, people started to take chances and came to my house to record the podcast. We would check temperatures, wear masks, but the timing was insane.

I feel like some of the most amazing episodes you have done were the ones that people wouldn’t necessarily expect such as Fat Mike from NOFX, Chad Muska and Juliette Lewis. Would you agree that’s the case?

I’ve learned so much about these people from doing the podcast because you think you may know [them] already from touring or crossing paths and having these pre-judgments. Then you actually sit down with them and see a totally different side. With Fat Mike, I’ve known the guy for over 25 years but had never sat with him and talked when he was sober. Then we had this real conversation that turned out to be one of the biggest episodes we have ever done with one of the best responses. Now we talk all the time, and he is planning to come back on the show to interview my wife and I, which should be really funny.

Mark Mcgrath from Sugar Ray was also a great example of an episode that was unexpected but turned out great. He has so much punk-rock history and roots, which I had no idea about. I also had not seen Chino Moreno from Deftones in years, but I had connected [with] him previously to be on Michael Rapaport’s podcast a few years back, and then I ran into him when they played with the Cure out here in L.A. Chino mentioned how he listened to every episode and wanted to be on the podcast the next time he was in L.A., and boom, the next time he was in town, he came to my house, and we recorded a podcast. It’s been so natural and super grassroots. You never know who may be listening.

I feel like your podcast could be seen as somewhat of a “sonic documentary,” where you do so much research on your guests and have these really informed conversations that almost feel scholarly and academic and thesis-driven. What is the process behind that? 

I take notes beforehand every time a guest is scheduled to come on the show. I’ve never done a thesis in my whole life. I barely even graduated high school because all I cared about was skateboarding, going to shows and skipping school, so it is crazy to think about how anal I am about it and how on top of it I actually am. As soon as I find out someone is coming in, I will have everything stapled, organized and all together. I really love doing deep dives and finding out more things about people.

Do you feel like all the years of fronting H2O and all of the tours you have been on prepared you to be able to talk to anyone? 

Yeah, it definitely helped, where I was able to make all of these relationships. From touring for over 26 years and meeting all of these diverse people in my life to working at a shoe store in SoHo to working in the mailroom at Roadrunner Records or being a roadie for Sick Of It All and Gorilla Biscuits, it definitely helped. It really is all because of H2O due to the hard work, touring and grassroots mentality behind us, and, in general, I just love meeting and talking with people.

What’s amazing about the podcast is that everything feels like it’s connected, no matter who the guest is, because of music and community. Would you agree? 

Yes, we’re all connected through music. Regardless if it’s a super-small hardcore band or a mainstream pop-punk band, we’re all connected. This podcast is like therapy for me. I am so proud of the brand I have built, and the conversations are what fill my heart. 

What was the process behind creating your book One Life One Chance – Life Lessons From Toby Morse Of H2O in collaboration with HE Creative? 

HE Creative reached out to me after they did a book on H.R. from Bad Brains, but they wanted to do a book this time based on my lyrics and life experiences. It turned out really beautiful. I spent hours upon hours FaceTiming the creative team for weeks so we could get it right. Josh Brolin wrote the foreword for the book, and when he sent it to me, it made me fucking cry. All of my friends are in the book as well, and really the book in general is just an animated version of my life story. Each chapter represents a moment in my life and the journey from the first song we ever released. It’s super posi, and I love it. I’m really stoked to release it.

This interview appeared in issue 400, available here.