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LA vegan restaurants are putting meat back on the menu

13 points by sbuttgereit 3y ago

meitros 3y ago
Manhattan seems to have more staying power for vegan places than LA - our double zero branch is still here and new vegan places like neat burger have been opening. Not sure why, though
- xenospn 3y ago
  I live in Los Angeles and there’s a huge variety of vegan places here, it’s never a problem. Whenever I visit New York I feel like I can’t find any vegan food after 8pm.
  - addicted 3y ago
    Happy cow has 654 Vegan restaurants in LA and 1072 in NYC. https://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/california/los_angeles/ https://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/california/los_an... https://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/new_york/new_york_city/ https://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/new_york/new_york... And with the geographic distribution of the 2 cities Manhattan probably has a much higher concentration as well.
    - xenospn 3y ago
      Maybe they’re not in Manhattan? I could barely find anything Using Google Maps and Yelp. And unlike Los Angeles, most places simply don’t have any vegan options.
OfSanguineFire 3y ago
I wonder if it is easier for fast food to stay consistently vegan than a sit-down restaurant. For example, holes in the wall or food trucks that sell takeaway Middle Eastern staples like falafel or koshary. Sit-down places have too much space that, with soaring rents in so many countries, costs too much money.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
solardev 3y ago
I wonder if this is a downtrend in vegan restaurants in general, or just vegan burger joints specifically. As a "non-preachy" vegan, when I dine out with others, we usually go places where there's options for everyone. They try to do the same for me too. Once in a while, I'll still go to an all-vegan place with certain friends, but that's because that place offers something special... a plant based menu that tries to be its own thing, not just overpriced fast food. If it's just burgers and fries, many places have Beyond and Impossible burgers already. No need to specifically go to a vegan place where the omnivores are just going to be disappointed. ------ Edit: It's also just a lot easier these days in general. Many many restaurants have vegan options, if not directly labeled as such, at least easily modifiable to become such. Apps like HappyCow also make it easier to find these places. I always thought this was the more sensible option anyway (every restaurant having a couple options, rathed than a couple restaurants having only vegan options). It's not like it was 10 or 15 years ago when people didn't even know what the word meant.
- dieselgate 3y ago
  I think there was a big jump in novelty for some alternative meat products the past few years which are now waning - Panda Express pulled their vegi orange chikn experiment (ugh!) and have read sales of Impossible/Beyond are not doing well aside from chik'n products. Am glad field roast seems to be doing fine though; there's always tofu at an Asian restaurant
  - solardev 3y ago
    Yeah, that's a good point! So many companies made so many products in like 2 or 3 years, and then the fad died and that was that.
- lepus 3y ago
  Vegan restaurants exist for a reason - people like having more than one option when they go out. Imagine getting basically the same burger wherever you go because that's the thing on the menu you can eat. It's better than nothing but it gets boring really fast. The number of vegan restaurants compared to the actual demand right now is too high though, especially fast food vegan places that can't differentiate themselves well because they all use the same substitute products without doing much to them.
notyofriend 3y ago
I’m all for vegan food but if you do that it’s got to be vegan first, not over processed animal product imitations. Vegan patties are not healthy and barely ok, vegan cheese is one of the nastiest things I’ve ever eaten. But you can absolutely make a vegan soup, salad, pasta, bread, mushroom dish etc that is amazing, it’s just hard because all the ingredients need to shine.
- dieselgate 3y ago
  You're painting with very broad strokes here
  - notyofriend 3y ago
    What’s so good about imitation foods? Change my mind… m
cozzyd 3y ago
I accidentally went to a vegan burger place in Montreal... in retrospect it should have been more obvious, but I didn't realize until reading the fine print on the menu...
LanzVonL 3y ago
Why are vegan restaurants so allergic to olive oil?
- hifreq 3y ago
  Never noticed that. My guess is that restaurants in general don't use olive oil very often because it's several times more expensive than vegetable oil. Saying that, fine dining vegan restaurants do use olive oil e.g. in salads.

13 points by sbuttgereit 3y ago

Manhattan seems to have more staying power for vegan places than LA - our double zero branch is still here and new vegan places like neat burger have been opening. Not sure why, though

xenospn 3y ago
I live in Los Angeles and there’s a huge variety of vegan places here, it’s never a problem. Whenever I visit New York I feel like I can’t find any vegan food after 8pm.
- addicted 3y ago
  Happy cow has 654 Vegan restaurants in LA and 1072 in NYC. https://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/california/los_angeles/ https://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/california/los_an... https://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/new_york/new_york_city/ https://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/new_york/new_york... And with the geographic distribution of the 2 cities Manhattan probably has a much higher concentration as well.
  - xenospn 3y ago
    Maybe they’re not in Manhattan? I could barely find anything Using Google Maps and Yelp. And unlike Los Angeles, most places simply don’t have any vegan options.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago

I wonder if it is easier for fast food to stay consistently vegan than a sit-down restaurant. For example, holes in the wall or food trucks that sell takeaway Middle Eastern staples like falafel or koshary. Sit-down places have too much space that, with soaring rents in so many countries, costs too much money.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

solardev 3y ago

I wonder if this is a downtrend in vegan restaurants in general, or just vegan burger joints specifically. As a "non-preachy" vegan, when I dine out with others, we usually go places where there's options for everyone. They try to do the same for me too. Once in a while, I'll still go to an all-vegan place with certain friends, but that's because that place offers something special... a plant based menu that tries to be its own thing, not just overpriced fast food. If it's just burgers and fries, many places have Beyond and Impossible burgers already. No need to specifically go to a vegan place where the omnivores are just going to be disappointed. ------ Edit: It's also just a lot easier these days in general. Many many restaurants have vegan options, if not directly labeled as such, at least easily modifiable to become such. Apps like HappyCow also make it easier to find these places. I always thought this was the more sensible option anyway (every restaurant having a couple options, rathed than a couple restaurants having only vegan options). It's not like it was 10 or 15 years ago when people didn't even know what the word meant.

dieselgate 3y ago
I think there was a big jump in novelty for some alternative meat products the past few years which are now waning - Panda Express pulled their vegi orange chikn experiment (ugh!) and have read sales of Impossible/Beyond are not doing well aside from chik'n products. Am glad field roast seems to be doing fine though; there's always tofu at an Asian restaurant
- solardev 3y ago
  Yeah, that's a good point! So many companies made so many products in like 2 or 3 years, and then the fad died and that was that.
lepus 3y ago
Vegan restaurants exist for a reason - people like having more than one option when they go out. Imagine getting basically the same burger wherever you go because that's the thing on the menu you can eat. It's better than nothing but it gets boring really fast. The number of vegan restaurants compared to the actual demand right now is too high though, especially fast food vegan places that can't differentiate themselves well because they all use the same substitute products without doing much to them.

notyofriend 3y ago

I’m all for vegan food but if you do that it’s got to be vegan first, not over processed animal product imitations. Vegan patties are not healthy and barely ok, vegan cheese is one of the nastiest things I’ve ever eaten. But you can absolutely make a vegan soup, salad, pasta, bread, mushroom dish etc that is amazing, it’s just hard because all the ingredients need to shine.

dieselgate 3y ago
You're painting with very broad strokes here
- notyofriend 3y ago
  What’s so good about imitation foods? Change my mind… m

cozzyd 3y ago

I accidentally went to a vegan burger place in Montreal... in retrospect it should have been more obvious, but I didn't realize until reading the fine print on the menu...

LanzVonL 3y ago

Why are vegan restaurants so allergic to olive oil?

hifreq 3y ago
Never noticed that. My guess is that restaurants in general don't use olive oil very often because it's several times more expensive than vegetable oil. Saying that, fine dining vegan restaurants do use olive oil e.g. in salads.