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Photo from The Pizza Plant

The Vegetarian Resource Group maintains an online Guide to Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants in the USA and Canada. Below are some recent additions. The entire guide can be found here: VRG Online Veggie Restaurant Guide

To support the updating of this online restaurant guide, please donate at:
Donate to The Vegetarian Resource Group

Here are some new additions to VRG’s guide:

El Cactus Veggie-Vegan
18 W. Pacific Ave.
Henderson, NV 89015
This all-vegan Mexican restaurant has tacos to be sure, but also pambazo, albondigas, guajolotas, and more! The portions are generous, the prices are reasonable, and the flavors are amazing. Their aim is to make you feel like at you’re at your abuelitas house!

Heart Choices Café
4127 6 St. NE
Calgary, AB T2E 6V5 Canada
This place has great choices, whether you’re looking for a hot sandwich or a curry. Choices include green and yellow curries, satay skewers, Beyond burgers, and French dip sandwiches. Everything is 100% vegan, including the poutine and the mac and cheese!

Rabbits Café
555 SW Oak St., Ste. 6
Portland, OR 97204
Rabbits Cafe is a small breakfast and lunch spot that you may have to search for, as it’s located inside the Bancorp Tower on the bottom floor. Once you’re there though, they have a range of rice and kale bowls, wraps, smoothies, and salads to choose from. Arrive before 11am to try their biscuits and gravy or one of several varieties of tofu scramble. Seating is limited, but you can always order your meal to go!

Raw Fresno
2405 Capitol St., Ste. 103
Fresno, CA 93721
Tacos, wraps, veggie burgers, and salads made from fresh, local ingredients are just a few of the many offerings at Raw Fresno. There’s also fresh smoothies, blended drinks, and delicious desserts. Make sure to leave room for the brownie sandwich or the cheesecake!

Root & Bloom
423 Elmwood Ave.
Buffalo, NY 14222
West coast vibes meets east coast comfort food style of café in Buffalo! The food is vegan, free of processed ingredients, and local and organic when available. They have homemade cinnamon rolls, pancakes, waffles, and eggless omelets for breakfast and brunch, just to name a few options. For dinner, choices include jackfruit sliders, salads, and vegan mac and cheese.

Sol Sips
203 Wilson Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11237
Sol Sips is changing up the drink game with innovative “Bevs” like raw hot coco, root brews, fresh nut milks, smoothies, and milkshakes. The entire restaurant uses agave and maple syrup as the sweeteners. Order a Bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich made with chickpea eggs, tempeh bacon, and violife cheddar cheese, or head over on the weekends to get pancakes for brunch. The locally sourced ingredients are fresh and the food is made to order.

The Pizza Plant
55 S Madison Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91101
From Stuffed Avocados and Jalapeño Poppers to the Not Your Grandma’s Pizza, The Pizza Plant is the vegan pizzeria we’ve all been waiting for. Choose from a pre-designed pizza, or create your own from a list of crust, sauce, cheese, and topping options. There are also salad options, and every salad and pizza has two size possibilities.

The Thai Vegan Café
9679 MacLeod Trail SW
Calgary, AB T2J 0P6 Canada
While the focus here is clearly on Thai favorites, that’s not all on the menu at this latest offering from Hearts Choices. Consider the BBQ “pulled pork,” made from jackfruit and topped with caramelized onions and house-made slaw. But if Thai is what you came for, try the Pad Thai or Tom Kah Pak. Either way, why not end your meal with a cashew cheeze cake? It’s all vegan, and many of the dishes also have gluten-free options.

Subscribe to Vegetarian Journal today and you’ll start with the August issue that’s now hot off the press! Enjoy articles such as Vegan Recipes from Egypt, A Summer Picnic with a Pan-Asian Twist, Getting Vegan Food into Elementary Schools, Nutrition Hotline: Does drinking black tea every day interfere with iron absorption?, New Vegan Product Reviews, Vegan Book Reviews, and much more.

Visit Subscribe to Vegetarian Journal for a one-year subscription or a two-year subscription with a free copy of the book Simply Vegan.

By Hannah Greene

My internship at The Vegetarian Resource Group has been absolutely life-changing! From the minute I walked into The VRG, Co-Coordinators Charles and Debra were so welcoming. I couldn’t stop smiling after my first day of work! I had been nervous to start this new job, but they made me feel instantly at home. Each day, they offer advice and tell stories, and the office is always full of laughter. I have learned so much about the vegan movement, and also about the nonprofit world as a whole. I learned about the book and magazine publishing industries, the analysis needed to understand statistics truthfully, the politics of agriculture, and a lot of other important life lessons.

We’ve had stimulating conversations about ethical dilemmas in the animal rights movement and all sorts of thought-provoking questions.

Highlights of my internship were… everything! This was the first job that I have looked forward to every single day. I spent each day feeling excited about articles I was writing, intrigued by all that I learned, and even more inspired to make change in the world. I loved learning about the environment and the importance of veganism, and sharing this knowledge with others in creative ways. I gained experience writing articles for the website, sharing vegan meals, and planning presentations and outreach booths. I found new understanding of the nonprofit world, which I’m sure will inspire me for years to come.

Our outreach work reached someone I hadn’t expected– me! When I first started at VRG, I was vegetarian, but now that I have learned more about veganism, I am committed to the vegan lifestyle.

I connected with so many inspiring people during my internship. During our outreach booth at Waverly Farmers Market, I interacted with countless fellow Baltimoreans, from lifelong vegans to people newly interested in eating less meat. Later, we visited a longtime friend of VRG at his homemade wildlife preserve. On his 23-acre protected land, we saw beautiful birds, chipmunks, and trees. His interesting stories inspired me for a lifetime of activism and service to the world.

Amy and I gave a presentation at Tuttie’s Place, a group home for foster children in Baltimore City, with a lesson plan designed to inspire and empower the students to think about the impact of what they choose to eat. We played a game using a six-foot-diameter My Vegan Plate we had made to teach them about healthy eating. I enjoyed designing a coloring book to inspire children to be activists for the issues they care about.

By far the most challenging task was sampling delicious food for Veggie Bits articles! I got to try vegan microwavable meals, millet tots, vegan pizza pockets, millet medleys, fig “salami,” and vegan cream cheese! Researching vegan restaurants for write-ups in the restaurant guide was informative practice for researching and communicating information. Recording these exposed me to new fields of writing.

One of the most exciting parts of my internship has been interviewing vegans and vegetarians in the field of public health. I dream of working in global health, and networking with these people was a valuable opportunity – plus I loved acting as a journalist and writing about their fascinating stories!

Writing an article on vegan Malaysian recipes combined a lot of things I’m passionate about – veganism, cooking, travel writing, and Malaysia! After my amazing year-long experience living in Malaysia as an exchange student, I was excited to share my knowledge of this culture with readers of a future issue of Vegetarian Journal. This was a valuable opportunity to spread cultural awareness and exciting new recipes.

I enjoyed writing articles about vegan snack options for field hockey players and other athletes, and about starting a vegetarian group in high school. Hopefully these articles will inspire other teens to embrace veganism fully and to be activists for the issues they care about!

This internship was particularly fulfilling because of all the community service I was able to do. One of the most challenging but rewarding opportunities has been helping to create a vegan meal plan that fulfills nutrition requirements and meets the financial limits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. We helped design a vegan meal plan, alter it within a nutrition tracking database, and make a shopping list for a family of four. After that, we visited a supermarket in a Baltimore neighborhood to check prices for ingredients. Finding that even the staples added up to be too expensive, we continued to modify recipes to cost less and still fulfill daily nutrition requirements. It is difficult to find any SNAP meal plans at all, so this vegan one should be particularly impactful.

Making six large vegan casseroles for Our Daily Bread was another fulfilling way to give back to the Baltimore community. Cooking on a large scale was a new adventure, and the seven hours spent cooking was a fun bonding opportunity with the other intern, Amy, who is now one of my best friends!

I am so thankful to Charles, Debra, Amy, Gene, Rissa, and everyone else I have met through my work at The VRG. Each of you made it uniquely fun, rewarding, and enjoyable, and working among like-mind fellow vegans was a real privilege. It was so nice to meet people who share my passion for making the world a better place. I look forward to many years of continuing to help The Vegetarian Resource Group!

For more information on The Vegetarian Resource Group internships, see: https://www.vrg.org/student/index.php

To support The Vegetarian Resource Group internships, donate at www.vrg.org/donate

The Vegetarian Resource Group has compiled an extensive list of non-leather items that are often difficult to find. Listed are both online stores and actual shops where you can purchase items such as non-leather hiking boots, cowboy boots, Iphone cases, and more.

See: VRG’s Guide to Nonleather Shoes, Bags, and More

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

Vitamin B12 is an essential vitamin that helps to keep blood cells and the nervous system, including the brain, healthy. It also helps make DNA. Vegans get vitamin B12 from foods fortified with vitamin B12 and/or from supplements containing vitamin B12. You can read more about vitamin B12 on our website here: https://www.vrg.org/nutrition/b12.php. Many non-vegans also rely on fortified foods as a source of vitamin B12 since the vitamin B12 in fortified foods is easier for some people to absorb than vitamin B12 in meat.

One food group that is commonly included on lists of foods fortified with vitamin B12 is plant milks. While many plant milks do have vitamin B12 added, not all popular brands do. As of July, 2018, based on website information and product labels, the following milks are not fortified with vitamin B12:

Almond Breeze almond milks
Califia Farms almond milks, cashew milks, coconut milks
Dream Ultimate almond milks
Edensoy soymilks except Edensoy Extra soymilks
Elmhurst Milked nut milks and grain milks
Forager cashew milks
Malk almond milks, pecan milk, cashew milk
Milkadamia Latte de Barrista macadamia milk
Mooala almond milks, banana milks
New Barn almond milks
Orgain almond milk
Pacific Foods almond beverages
Pacific Foods cashew beverages
Pacific Foods hazelnut beverages
Pacific Foods unsweetened hemp beverages
Pacific Foods oat beverages
Pacific Foods rice beverages
Pacific Foods soy beverages except UltraSoy
Pearl soymilks
Rice Dream Classic rice drinks, Horchata, and Rice Nog
Ripple pea milks
Silk almond milks
Silk almond & coconut blends
Silk blended nut milks
Silk cashew milks
So Delicious coconut holiday nog and chocolate coconut milk
So Delicious crafted almond milks and almond milks
Soy Dream Classic soymilks
Three Trees almond milks
Trader Joe’s refrigerated and shelf-stable almond milks, Matcha almond milk, Blueberry Lavender almond milk, Cocoa Almond Cashew milk, Cashew Macadamia milk
Trader Joe’s shelf-stable Extra soymilks and soy beverages
WestSoy organic original and organic unsweetened soymilks, lowfat and nonfat soymilks, Soy Slender, Chocolate Peppermint Stick soymilk

If your favorite milk is on the list, don’t despair! You could try another similar product that does provide vitamin B12, find other foods fortified with vitamin B12, or take a supplement supplying vitamin B12. Look for our upcoming posting listing plant milks that have B12.

This is not an exhaustive list so if you’re aware of other plant milks, please send us a photo of the front of the package and the Nutrition Facts label and we’ll update our listing.

We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.

Two Vegetarian Resource Group interns were assisting people at a farmers’ market VRG outreach booth. Because there were so many questions on protein, they created this protein for Vegans and Vegetarians handout. See: https://www.vrg.org/nutrition/Protein-1.pdf

By Gene Slothour-Hudnall

Cafe Rio confirmed to us in June 2018 that their rice is not vegan because it
contains a margarine that contains whey. See:
https://www.caferio.com/nutrition/allergen-info

For info on other restaurant chains, see:
https://www.vrg.org/fastfoodinfo.php

For info on vegan and vegetarian restaurants, see:
VRG Online Veggie Restaurant Guide

Thank you to Elsa Spencer, PhD (in nutrition) who staffed The Vegetarian Resource Group booth at The Richmond VegFest. Though muddy from previous rains, the weather stayed dry. Elsa had about two 2 dozen in-depth nutrition conversations with inquirers, several of whom were diabetic or pre-diabetic, some of whom were wanting to limit sugar, carbs, or gluten. Another fun bonus – a new non-profit radio station was there and Elsa went on the air and gave a shout out for VRG and for the festival – fun!

If you would like to volunteer at VRG booths, please email Gene at [email protected]

To support The Vegetarian Resource Group outreach, donate at Donate to The Vegetarian Resource Group

A&W CANADA STARTING JULY 9TH, 2018 WILL CARRY THE VEGAN BEYOND BURGER. They have over 900 locations.