Awesome downtown L.A. restaurant article - veg dining proliferates in the city of angels!

LA Downtown News Online

What a great read. Choice quotes:

Del Pero stumbled upon the growing market for meatless meals while managing his other restaurant, Skews, just a few dozen feet away from Mendocino Farms in Cal Plaza. Customers with conscientious eating habits started making requests, Del Pero said, and he realized there was a niche for more than just a default vegetarian item.

"Most restaurants that don't really take the time are typically just going to come up with a vegetarian sandwich that has hummus, avocado and sprouts," said Del Pero.

At Mendocino Farms, Del Pero and chef Connor O'Neill embarked on a soy safari by sampling nearly 50 veggie-based proteins, sending each and every faux meat, fake cheese and egg-less condiment through a panel of vegan regulars.

Now the menu at Mendocino Farms has an entire section of vegetarian offerings, all of which can be prepared vegan or dairy-free, including standards like the Caprese and the Not BLT with vegetarian bacon. There are also more adventurous inventions like a Southwestern Chickenless sandwich that replaces chicken breast with an herbed soy cutlet topped with pico de gallo, avocado, vegan nacho cheese and chili veganaise.

"Why do you do it? It's business," said Del Pero. "I think very few major concepts with a wide appeal have actually treated that market with the respect it deserves, because it's a real emerging market."

It's a trend that isn't just local.

A recent survey by SmartBrief, a trade publication put out by the National Restaurant Association, asked business owners to rate a variety of menu categories. The report found that vegetarian menu items increased in popularity by 33% among customers in 2005 - more popular than both low-carb and low-calorie menu items.

According to a 2006 industry forecast published by the National Restaurant Association, 33% of family dining, 34% of casual dining and 39% of fine dining restaurant operators say their customers are ordering more vegetarian dishes than they did two years ago.

"When I first went to design this menu I actually wanted it to be more vegetarian and more vegan," said Fred Eric, the owner and chef of the Tiara Café, a 120-seat dining room and gourmet market that opened last spring on the ground floor of the New Mart building in the Fashion District.

It's a restaurant whose concept might have been a hard sell in Downtown Los Angeles five years ago: organic ingredients, fresh technique and mostly vegetarian meals with countless vegan-friendly options. Eric, who is well known for the creative offerings at the late Vida and for co-founding hipster comfort food emporium Fred 62, said he hoped to take it a step further with Tiara Café.

The menu is almost three-quarters vegetarian and vegan, although the restaurant does not market itself as such. Instead, Eric uses the tag line "Eat healthy more often, diet less."

At noon, Blossom's sparse dining room fills with office workers in starched shirts who power lunch under a minimalist Buddha wall sketch. Many opt for healthy soups and salads. At night the phone rings with take-out orders from the nearby Historic Core lofts. All in all, Pham said, more than 25% of his customers order vegetarian.

"I'm actually going to focus more on vegetarian dishes primarily because I think we need to offer variety to our [vegetarian] customers," Pham said.

As the Downtown workforce grows, and new loft dwellers get their keys, restaurants like Blossom are opening almost monthly to feed them. Those that aren't, or existing establishments that don't adapt, Del Pero suggested, will lose out.

"You're missing the boat as a restaurant to not understand that it's a really underserved market," said Del Pero.

"If you can knock a vegan's socks off, you've hired a director of marketing. You might as well give them a business card, because they're going to let people know."

Bolding mine, and amen to that!

Tags: restaurants