It’s been a good long while since the words “vegetarian food” conjured up images of hippy-dippy lifestyles or the obligatory joyless vegetable plate. Offering meatless menu specialties isn’t just hospitable or the right thing to do: It’s become a strategic imperative.
And lately it seems that the notion of a meatless menu option has evolved into a serious culinary and marketing pursuit. Whether meatless makeovers of classic dishes, or entirely new approaches, it’s a great time to be a vegetarian.
There are several underlying reasons for this, including:
- The entrenched local-and-seasonal trend, which focuses so heavily on fresh, farm-raised produce
- Chef fascination with—and guest enthusiasm for—vegetable-forward cooking, to the point that many restaurants are working directly with farm or even growing their own
- Increasing number of consumers who are eating less meat at least part of the time, whether for reasons of health, sustainability or budget
- Growing awareness of plant proteins (such as grains) as a viable alternative to animal proteins, both nutritionally and gastronomically
This is not just a demographically defined movement, either, even though the new generation of vegetarian dining is particularly appealing to Millennials. Guests of all age groups are embracing more veggie-centric meals.
There are a number of ways this is playing out. At Superiority Burger, in New York City, the entire menu is meatless, and the eponymous best-seller consists of a patty made with quinoa and a rotating mix of chopped vegetables, topped with tomato, cheese, honey mustard and iceberg lettuce. Chef-owner Brooks Headley (himself a former vegetarian and an alum of Mario Batali’s upscale restaurant Del Posto) experimented long and determinedly until he came up with a formula and technique that would produce the same satisfying level of flavor and char that lovers of traditional burgers crave.
Strict vegan menus tend to focus on foods that are not only free from animal products (including cheese, eggs and even honey) but are also gluten free and often organic. The Green Wave, in Plantation, FL, also throws raw, living foods into the mix for a rigorous nutritional as well as flavor focus. In addition to a menu that offers vegan versions of indulgent food like nachos, Philly cheesesteak and chocolate banana pie, Green Wave offers meal plans and special events including raw gourmet cookery and cleanse challenges.
Semilla in Brooklyn, focuses on the kind of mindful eating that recognizes that the production of meat and consumption of meat is wasteful and ultimately unsustainable. Instead, the owners’ high level of culinary props is focused on $75 tasting menus that might include baked, celery-salt-crusted fingerling potatoes served with various dipping sauces; beets poached in hay water and homemade burnt juniper vinegar, served with sunflower seeds and fermented ramp aioli; and sprouted rye sourdough bread served with butter and buttermilk. The 18-seat restaurant consists of one central bar with communal-style dining “intended to provoke conversation and interaction.”
The appropriately named Plant, in Asheville, NC, bills itself as “a restaurant with roots” offering “flavor-sophisticated scratch-made food,” but it is also 100% vegetarian/vegan, with menu specialties such as Broccoli Panang, Applewood Smoked Porto’house (a portabello mushroom, served steakhouse style with chard and garlic, and loaded polenta), Black Pepper & Herb Tofu, and Lasagna Cruda. There is an ambitious cocktail program, and the wine list features sustainable, organic and biodynamic methods and grapes.
Lentil burger photo credit: Jennifer CC by 2.0