O P I N I O N

CHEWS LIFE NOW

By Carolyn R. Choate

Dear New Hampshire Restaurateurs,

Thanks to the Internet, your menus are an open book. I read those of the state’s top 46 restaurants featured on Open Table, the popular online reservation service.  Some of us diners don’t feel welcome at your table and I’m one of them. I speak for vegans and those who follow a whole food plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle. Less than 32% of New Hampshire’s fine restaurants offer customers like me vegan/WFPB options.  Far fewer offer the recommended dietary requirement for protein per meal – 15 to 30 grams – from a WFPB source. 

Yet, according to Ipsos Retail Performance, the number of vegans in the U.S. has grown from 290,000 in 2004 to 10 million in 2019. And 70% of the population now consumes WFPB foods, spending $7.4 billion in 2021 (Vegconomist, 2023). Surely, you want a piece of the vegan shepherd’s pie. 

Unlike vegetarians – who don’t eat anything made with meat, seafood, or by-products of either – vegans/WFPB do not consume foods originating from any animal source i.e. dairy, eggs, honey, to name the most obvious. So, no, we won’t be ordering the creamy broccoli soup locally sourced with cream from cows at the nearby farm, but we have our reasons, and we hope you will respect them and want us over for dinner anyway.  

We’ve had enough of your ubiquitous veggie burgers and fries. But don’t take my word for it. In a recent Facebook post of Vegan New Hampshire (5.6K members), Lisa Gerrish, roused up our people.

“It would be easy for many restaurants to offer vegan options with only minor tweaks to existing menu items. It’s [Sic] seems though, that many don’t think it matters to most people so why should they bother. I saw this posted elsewhere and would love to get some cards made up like this that we could all start sharing wherever we find vegan offerings.” 

Lots of folks responded.

Ruth E. Harlow: “Yes, and I am heartily tired of “Well, you can have a salad.”

Stasiu Sumner: “Or “you can just remove the sauce/dressing/dip” oh thanks, I’d love to eat a dry af meal”

Laura Marqus: “And there is so much profit! Tofu, beans & greens.”

Adair Moran: “If I eat somewhere with good vegan options, I like to leave a positive Yelp review specifically saying how I went there for vegan dishes.  The business owner will probably see it, and other patrons will too and maybe be inspired to try a vegan dish.”

BTW, 117 people liked the post with 6 sharing it. 

There was even some restaurant name-dropping about a popular eatery.  The post pointed out they don’t offer a single vegan-friendly option. 

I know what that’s like.

Joining friends last New Year’s Eve at one of Salem’s most prestigious restaurants with an adjoining hotel, the manager said to me, “You can’t please all the people all the time, right?” FYI, most pasta is vegan and has 6 to 9 g protein per 2 oz. serving; however, said restaurant uses a fresh egg pasta recipe so…

. . . yeah! We’re hungry for creative, real food that delivers the Big P and we’re happy to pay. Thanks in large part to the savvy marketing efforts of the longevity movement with cable shows like the Blue Zones with Dan Buettner on Netflix and NYT best sellers, Fork Over Knives: The Cookbook and The How Not to Die Cookbook by Michael Greger and Robin Robertson, gone are the days of tasteless, uninspired health food.  

I’m not suggesting you need to simulate Manhattan’s 3-Star Michelin totally plant-based sensation, Eleven Madison Park at $729 for a posh dinner for two because of Chef Daniel Humm’s epiphany after seeing “what was happening in the world of animal agriculture – disease, waste, and unsustainable environmental impacts.” (Bite! Eat! Repeat! 2024)  Just give us a vegan option or two that offers that daily protein hit equal to the flavor sensation you conjure up for the rest of your lineup.  Ones that make going to your restaurant with our non-vegan family and friends enjoyable and memorable for all.  Instead of making us feel like social rejects or pains in the butt relegated to the kiddie table at Aunt Helga’s Thanksgiving gathering. 

If you’ve avoiding serving vegan/WFPB options because you’re concerned about your ROI, you’re missing a money-making opportunity.  

A 2021 study by Oxford University showed consumer food bills in the US, UK, Australia, and Western Europe were reduced up to 30% when adopting a vegan, vegetarian, or flexitarian diet. (The global and regional costs of healthy and sustainable dietary patterns: a modelling study; The Lancet, 11/10/2021.)

UK cookbook author Miguel Barclay was not surprised by the findings. Having written seven in his bestselling series, One Pound Meals, Barclay has had to cost out hundreds of meals.  “Without a doubt vegan and vegetarian meals consistently come in at a much lower price than recipes with meat,” he said. 

Thus, less expensive for you restaurateurs. 

Lucky for my food group, 2024 James Beard nominated chef and Top Chef contender Chris Viaud, chef/owner of both Greenleaf and Ansanm in Milford as well as Pavilion in Wolfeboro, got the memo.  He’s all about inclusion, mentoring his staff about the personal, professional, and pecuniary advantages of serving today’s many dietary preferences.

“To stay competitive,” Greenleaf executive chef, Justin O’Malley says, “we need to offer a menu that can accommodate all eating habits. We always have one vegan option on the menu and usually a couple of gluten-free dishes. Everything that goes on the menu is held to the same standard. We spend just as much time and care planning vegan or gluten free dishes as anything else. Regardless, we just want to show off the local produce and give our guests a taste of New Hampshire.”  

That’s what I’m talking about. Feeling validated when I want to go out for a special occasion – or no occasion at all – and spend my hard-earned pay on a lux meal with family/friends who may or may not share my dietary philosophy.   

Greenleaf and its sister restaurants aren’t the only mainstream New Hampshire restaurants with noteworthy vegan-friendly options. Firefly American Bistro in Manchester serves some very tasty, protein forward choices like their Coconut Red Curry with tofu on jasmine rice with Thai basil. Or their Vegan Super Bowl with quinoa and brown rice, baby kale, avocado, vegan feta, and lemon tahini dressing.  

I was jazzed indeed when attending my first concert at Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club in Portsmouth two years ago for Spiro Gyra. When I asked the waitress what they offered a vegan like me, without missing a beat, she said I could order any animal-protein dish on the menu, and they would substitute braised tofu with a savory sauce.  And non-alcohol beer on tap. Snap! That’s what I’m talking about. 

New London’s 74 Main is on my vegan GPS for an upcoming party in my mouth.  If I get there before summer is over, I’ll have the Watermelon and Arugula Salad with pickled red onions, mixed olives, mint – hold the feta – and OO with red wine vinegar.  For the entrée?  The Thai Peanut Bowl. Wok tossed Asian vegetables, coconut ginger, and peanut sauce on rice noodles.  

I’m fortunate to live near Live Free & Dine here in Nashua where professional chef/owner, Karen Calabro – formerly a physician assistant – and her staff cook up a riot of to-go entrees both singular and family size including traditional proteins – beef, pork, poultry – but always legions of vegan and vegetarian dishes like vegan shepherd’s pie, black bean and street corn chili, minestrone, and more.

A bow of respect and gratitude to the Asian restaurant community for an enormous tradition of vegan offerings. Whose flavorful sauces without animal byproducts – both piquant as a firecracker or mellow as velvet – elevate tofu, vegetables, rice, and noodles into a blissful experience. As one who used to pride themselves in whipping up classic butter-based French sauces in the kitchen –  Béchamel, Hollandaise, Béarnaise, and Beurre Blanc to name a few – I’m glad I’m off statins and not promoting coronary artery disease on the one hand and, on the other, no longer supporting an industry that is largely inhumane and whose combined effects continue to cause environmental devastation.  

Kudos, of course, to the numerous vegan-centric restaurants in the Granite State including The Green Beautiful in Manchester, Green Elephant in Portsmouth, The Sleazy Vegan in Pembroke, and The Iron Cactus in Kingston, to name a few. Only the Green Elephant is open for dinner, a reminder that New Hampshire is a tough place to actualize our ideological and health goals. 

Meanwhile, plant-based food sales at retail grocery stores are soaring. A 79% increase since 2018. Still, like any other dining demographic, this WFPB/vegan enjoys getting out of the kitchen once in a while, putting on some swish and a little lipstick for a great meal out with her vegan husband and carnivore friends. So, what do you say, restaurateurs? How’s about cookin’ something up [for] us? 

Note: The writer’s experiences and observations are intended for informational purposes only and are not intended to provide medical advice about the avoidance, diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. Medical advice should be sought from a qualified healthcare professional.

Carolyn Choate is a freelance writer who lives in Nashua and writes about food and health. You can reach Carolyn Choate at [email protected]