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Why Every Restaurant Should be Offering Vegan Options to the Pittsburgh Vegan Community in 2024

Why Every Restaurant Should be Offering Vegan Options in 2024

Being a vegan nutritionist in Pittsburgh, I’m on a mission to help Pittsburgh become one of the most vegan-friendly cities in America.  After 12 years of being vegan, I have learned that silence doesn’t change a thing. When I started to speak up, and let people know that I would like a vegan option, I am frequently greeted with gratitude for sharing my feedback and a willingness to accommodate. Many people don’t even realize they are not inclusive of vegans, until they meet one who says something. I find that if we simply ask for something vegan, we are much more likely to get a vegan option added to the menu.

My Initiative as a Vegan Nutritionist in Pittsburgh

After years and years of feeling limited in my options when dining out, I finally decided to take action. My mission in 2024 is to speak up on behalf of the vegan community, and ask for more restaurants to offer vegan options. Not only do vegans wish that they could dine at more restaurants, but we all want to feel welcome and understood when we dine out. It is far too common that vegans find animal products in their food at restaurants, and mislabeling menu items as vegan is a constant issue I come across.

If you are a restaurant owner who wants to offer something vegan, it is important to know the basics. Vegans don't eat any animal-based ingredients including beef, pork, fish, fish sauce, chicken, eggs, cow's milk, butter, cheese, cream, yogurt, gelatin, bone broth, chicken broth, nor any other meat or dairy products. Many vegans also avoid byproducts of insects, including shellac, honey, confectioner's glaze, and cochineal extract. If you are uncertain if an ingredient is vegan, just ask me or check out vrg.org/ingredients to find out.

What Do Vegans in Pittsburgh Eat?

It might sound restrictive, but vegans have a much longer list of foods they DO eat vs foods they don't. In general, the food groups that we can eat include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Vegans also can eat foods derived from plant-based ingredients, that can look and taste very similar to non-vegan foods, including burgers, pizzas, tacos, and pastries. For some inspiration, check out what other restaurants are offering and try some vegan recipes!

To be honest, going vegan and transitioning from the standard American diet is not an easy feat, so I understand the confusion. It takes knowledge, trial and error, commitment, time and compassion to fully understand the ins and outs of being vegan. A vegan diet may sound restrictive to someone who is unfamiliar, but grocery stores have everything we need to nourish our bodies.

The biggest struggle for vegans today, is finding restaurants whose staff is knowledgeable about our dietary needs and willing to accommodate us.  It’s a lot of work to have to prep every meal from scratch, and just like everyone else, vegans like to dine out, too! However, most restaurants fail to understand what we eat when creating a menu. There could be many reasons for this, such as a lack of knowledge, a lack of interest, and even a lack of demand.

The Demand for Vegan Menus is On the Rise

When vegans in Pittsburgh are not asking for vegan menus and when they don’t know which restaurants offer vegan options, then the demand appears to be low.  The truth is, creating demand for vegan options will take more effort from the Pittsburgh vegan community and marketing a new vegan menu item will take more effort from Pittsburgh restaurants. Unfortunately, when restaurants offer something vegan but don’t clearly label it on the menu, most vegans don’t buy it.

We really want to support your restaurant, but we also want to dine in with confidence and absolute certainty that what we are getting is, in fact, vegan. Believe it or not, we don’t enjoy asking a million questions, but when the menu isn't labeled properly, we tend to find cheese or meat in our food. That is why we have the obligatory annoying vegan question, of “Is this vegan?” Trust me, it’s equally annoying for us to feel we must ask!

Plus, it can take time for a vegan meal to become popular, so be patient and wait for word to get around. If you’re a Pittsburgh restaurant, you should be talking about your newest vegan option before it becomes available, to increase the hype in our vegan community. In fact, many vegans wait to hear feedback and read reviews from the brave souls who test it out first. I say brave because not every vegan dish is a winner.

Why 2024 is the year to Go Vegan

In today’s day and age, with the increased demand for vegan meats and dairy-free milks, and the rise of flexitarian diets, it’s honestly concerning that so many places still haven’t caught up with the times. I can’t express enough how important it is for Pittsburgh restaurants to offer vegan options in 2024!

If you’re vegan too, please stand with me and speak up for what you want. Restaurant owners need to know that we are here and that we want their menu to be inclusive of our dietary needs. If you’re a restaurant in Pittsburgh, please consider being more vegan-friendly, so that we can add you to the HappyCow directory to increase your visibility to the vegan community and beyond. Let’s all work together to make Pittsburgh the most vegan-friendly city in the U.S.!

My first Petition for Nationwide Vegan Options

While my main focus is in Pittsburgh, some of the chains that exist here in Pittsburgh are also available nationwide. One of those restaurants, Dave and Busters, is a perfect example of a chain that I'd like to see become vegan-friendly around the U.S. I started a petition on March 3rd 2024 for this to happen. Please sign the petition here and share it on social media to help us bring more attention to this matter.

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Vegan nutritionist in Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh Vegan Restaurant Outreach