I was once offered a couple of lettuce leaves for dinner.
If I hadn’t been so hungry, the tragedy of it all would have been comical. Perhaps the worst part was that my husband looked at me pleadingly as if to say, “Take the lettuce, please, take the lettuce.”
Vegans can not live on lettuce leaves alone.
And so it was that the lettuce-pedaling restaurant lost our business. Luckily, our relationship equilibrium was restored as we tucked into hearty meals just a few hundred meters from the lettuce leaf crime scene. Hanger catastrophe averted.
Restaurants that cater to all dietary requirements are the smart ones, and seeing as almost five per cent of the UK population is now vegan—a figure that almost doubled between 2023 and 2024 alone—it is not a stretch to suggest that restaurants that don’t cater to veganism may find their business in trouble.
It’s a no-brainer really, because it’s not difficult to provide a couple of decent vegan options. So why do some eateries resist doing so? And why do so many think it’s okay to assume vegans have no taste buds or protein needs?
