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| Fred Eric opened Tiara Cafe in the Fashion District with the intent of serving many vegetarian diners. He said about half his customers order meatless dishes. Photo by Gary Leonard. |
Serving Vegetarians and Vegans Becomes Big Business in a Changing Downtown
by Evan George
There's not a bulk bin or a wheatgrass blender in sight. With its frosted glass, sleek metal counter space, and efficient assembly line of beef, turkey, chicken and pork sandwiches, Mendocino Farms is a far cry from the vegan co-op of yesteryear.
But Downtowners on their lunch break have flocked to this fast-service marketplace and deli since it opened in California Plaza a year ago. An increasing number of them, said owner Mario Del Pero, are vegetarians and vegans. About 10% of the 400 sandwiches sold daily are vegetarian, he said.
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.
Actually, with Downtown's booming residential market and hundreds of thousands of daily workers, more and more local restaurateurs are expanding their offerings. It's part of a trend occurring across the nation; whereas the Atkins diet once dominated lunch meetings, today vegetarian, organic and even vegan entrees are increasingly sliding onto menus in mainstream dining rooms.
In Downtown L.A., the shift can be seen in the veggie burgers at greasy spoons all the way up to vegan consommés in fine dining establishments. Experienced restaurant owners are responding creatively to those who demand more than meat.
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."
A More Meatless Nation
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.
Despite the increasingly health-conscious approach, however, it's not as if the nation is going meatless altogether. Only 4% of Americans consider themselves vegetarians - half of them say they are strict vegans - according to a 2002 Time/CNN Harris Interactive Poll.
The lesson is not lost on Downtown's restaurant owners: Be inclusive, not exclusive.
"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."
Considering the thousands of upwardly mobile residents who have moved Downtown in the last five years, and the dozens of upscale apartment and condominium buildings under construction, it's not surprising that many restaurants are catering to an increasingly health-conscious set.
But unlike areas such as Hollywood and Santa Monica, where spots like California Vegan and Real Food Daily capitalize on supremely conscientious "Left Coast" diners, there has not been a noticeable upsurge in all-vegetarian niche eateries in the Central City.
Instead, many of Downtown's most popular restaurants are simply expanding their menus to include an increasing number of vegetarian and dairy-free options. As new concepts move in many of them are targeting omnivores and herbivores from the outset.
According to Eric, nearly half of his customers come to eat vegetarian, even if only about 30% identify themselves as strict vegetarians or vegans.
"Even those who aren't [vegetarian] want to eat healthy, especially at lunch where they're more interested in light or organic than a 'belly bomb,'" Eric said.
Different Diners
When Duc Pham opened Via Café in Chinatown three years ago, serving vegetarian food wasn't a choice.
"My mother is a vegetarian and I've been vegetarian on and off," said Pham.
The Vietnamese restaurant's vegetarian pho and traditional bahn mi sandwiches, with tofu instead of meat, made it a hit with the artists who graze around Chinatown art galleries, even though the menu serves plenty of meat dishes as well.
Eight months ago, Pham's family opened a similar cafe, Blossom, near the intersection of Fifth and Main streets. The kitchen churns out quick Vietnamese bowls, meat and veggie alike. Pham said some of the biggest sellers, like sweet potato fritters, spring rolls and brown curry, just happen to be vegan.
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."
Contact Evan George at evan@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 11/27/2006
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
But Downtowners on their lunch break have flocked to this fast-service marketplace and deli since it opened in California Plaza a year ago. An increasing number of them, said owner Mario Del Pero, are vegetarians and vegans. About 10% of the 400 sandwiches sold daily are vegetarian, he said.
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.
Actually, with Downtown's booming residential market and hundreds of thousands of daily workers, more and more local restaurateurs are expanding their offerings. It's part of a trend occurring across the nation; whereas the Atkins diet once dominated lunch meetings, today vegetarian, organic and even vegan entrees are increasingly sliding onto menus in mainstream dining rooms.
In Downtown L.A., the shift can be seen in the veggie burgers at greasy spoons all the way up to vegan consommés in fine dining establishments. Experienced restaurant owners are responding creatively to those who demand more than meat.
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.
Despite the increasingly health-conscious approach, however, it's not as if the nation is going meatless altogether. Only 4% of Americans consider themselves vegetarians - half of them say they are strict vegans - according to a 2002 Time/CNN Harris Interactive Poll.
The lesson is not lost on Downtown's restaurant owners: Be inclusive, not exclusive.
"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."
Considering the thousands of upwardly mobile residents who have moved Downtown in the last five years, and the dozens of upscale apartment and condominium buildings under construction, it's not surprising that many restaurants are catering to an increasingly health-conscious set.
But unlike areas such as Hollywood and Santa Monica, where spots like California Vegan and Real Food Daily capitalize on supremely conscientious "Left Coast" diners, there has not been a noticeable upsurge in all-vegetarian niche eateries in the Central City.
Instead, many of Downtown's most popular restaurants are simply expanding their menus to include an increasing number of vegetarian and dairy-free options. As new concepts move in many of them are targeting omnivores and herbivores from the outset.
According to Eric, nearly half of his customers come to eat vegetarian, even if only about 30% identify themselves as strict vegetarians or vegans.
"Even those who aren't [vegetarian] want to eat healthy, especially at lunch where they're more interested in light or organic than a 'belly bomb,'" Eric said.
When Duc Pham opened Via Café in Chinatown three years ago, serving vegetarian food wasn't a choice.
"My mother is a vegetarian and I've been vegetarian on and off," said Pham.
The Vietnamese restaurant's vegetarian pho and traditional bahn mi sandwiches, with tofu instead of meat, made it a hit with the artists who graze around Chinatown art galleries, even though the menu serves plenty of meat dishes as well.
Eight months ago, Pham's family opened a similar cafe, Blossom, near the intersection of Fifth and Main streets. The kitchen churns out quick Vietnamese bowls, meat and veggie alike. Pham said some of the biggest sellers, like sweet potato fritters, spring rolls and brown curry, just happen to be vegan.
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."
Contact Evan George at evan@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 11/27/2006
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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