Veg-heads and Vegans, oh my!
This past weekend, we had a special guest at the Mack household. My wife’s brother was in the area, and stopped by for the weekend. It’s always nice to see the brother-in-law, but his presence always brings a small problem. See, whereas my favorite style of eating is the mega-meat Churrascaria, my brother-in-law is a vegetarian. Even worse, his girlfriend is a Vegan.
The vegetarian, alone, creates anxiety whenever he’s hungry, just because you have to put so much thought into the dining situation. You can’t just say, “Hey, let’s go get some grub.” Instead, you have to peruse menus on the internet, play the “do you like that?” and “will you eat this?” game, and finally settle on someplace that has more than just bare pasta and salads to choose from.
The Vegan is a whole other matter. When she stays over, she goes grocery shopping on day one so that she can ensure that her meals are without eggs, dairy products, or accursed flesh. And when we go out? DEAR GOD. In her defense, she is very cool about the whole thing–actually, they both are. They never try to preach their diet to others, and are actually so mild-mannered that they’ll sit quietly while others eat meat around them.
I saw that someone posted about R. Thomas earlier. I wish I’d known about that place this weekend. What other veggie/Vegan restaurants could you recommend for the in-laws’ next visit? More specifically, what v/V restaurants are in Atlanta that also serve people food like R. Thomas does?
Camelli’s in East Atlanta is great for vegetarians and vegans. They don’t serve any meat, but plenty of meat-eaters like their food. They have some “raw” food items too if you ever encounter someone even more challenging than vegan. Cafe Sunflower in Buckhead/Roswell is good, if pricier than Camelli’s. Many ethnic restaurants are good for mixed-dining as well. Indian is my favorite.
There’s also Shipfeifer, which is next to R.Thomas. It proclaims itself to serve both Vegetarian and Mediterranean meals, but like I said in a previous comment.. I always get their chicken burrito (which is neither Veg nor Med).
Atlanta is also home to Soul Vegitarian which is 100% vegan but you’d never know it if they didn’t tell you. It’s basically a down home soul food place. We used to drive up from Gainesville just to eat there…
there are two Soul Vegetarian locations in atlanta, one on N. Highland in between North Ave and Ponce. The other one is in college park i think. I saw Andre 3000 there.
It’s remarkable how much anxiety and even disparagement vegetarians and vegans inspire, even those who, like your in-laws, are “mild-mannered” and do not attempt to impose, even going out of their way to ensure minimal disruption to households they visit. It’s a failure of imagination to suppose that “bare pasta” is all that can be had in most restaurants, but I can’t imagine what could inspire such horror when you do go out and the v/V’s inquire with the waitstaff regarding their options. Are the restaurants that poncy? Or is it just you? In your defense, I do recall a visit to Atlanta where my antipodean and vegetarian spouse asked whether the chilli fries were vegetarian and ordered them with the assurance of the waitress, who apparently didn’t understand that the term didn’t mean “includes vegetables,” because the potatoes were served smothered in chilli-flavoured mince. So perhaps it’s a regional problem.
I’ll have to look up poncy to be sure, but it’s probably just me. :) I’ll have to also look up “antipodean,” I guess. Does that mean your wife doesn’t eat things that come in pods? I’m no fan of peas, myself. Or of pod people, which can be even scarier than vegetarians.
And while I’m sure you’re up to the challenge of finding appropriate fare for a Vegan on short notice, when you add about six or seven other hungry adults to the list plus a couple of finicky toddlers, and then try to ensure that the cost will be reasonable and everyone will be happy…well, it’s sometimes beyond my abilities to deal with. Which is why I totally appreciate the recommendations that have been posted so far.
By the way, I just looked up “poncy,” and the closest thing I could find in the dictionary was “ponce – n : someone who procures customers for whores (in England they call a pimp a ponce)”
Yeah, sounds like me. :)