San Francisco to Orlando by way of Memphis, with a 2-hour layover. Lunch on the first flight, but i’m hungry by the time i reach Memphis. No problem, i’ll just get something at the airport, right? Hah! Not for vegan boy over here. Not in Memphis. Even that chain that has veggie burgers in all its OTHER restaurants at the other airports doesn’t have them here. And that food stand with a name like “healthy sandwiches?” Well, apparently ham and cheese is considered healthy here. They have a veggie sandwich consisting of cheese, lettuce, and tomato. Take away the cheese and i might gain a grand total of 25 calories from the meal, assuming i don’t expend them chewing it. Of course, i should probably know better by now, as this is the third time in as many trips that this has happened to me.
Am i complaining? Yes, but i’ll be realistic here. I don’t expect such places to cater to me when there’s not enough reason to. But it WOULD be nice to know what i can expect at the airport. Therefore, i’d like to propose an online directory filled with information on airports around the country (and maybe eventually around the world), to tell people what to expect when they get there. If, like me, you have a particular diet, you can find out precisely where you can go, or if necessary to brown bag it. Even if you didn’t have any special diet, you could still look at it to figure out where you’d like to eat. It could also provide information on other ammenities at the airport (for instance, the new terminal at the SF airport contains a full-fledged art museum, and i’m told there’s an airport or two that have movie theaters: good for long layovers!)
I’m not really planning on making any money off of this. Maybe a few years ago, i coulda looked forward to skyrocketing stocks, but that’s long gone. I’d just like to see something like this out there. Does anyone else think this is a good idea? Anyone care to contribute airport info? If there’s enough interest, i’ll start working on it.
Well, i’m thinking i could start with a few airports, basically the ones i see. Other people could submit their own info on airports they go through, etc. Maybe eventually i could start contacting airports and ask them directly about it.
Y’know, I’m a vegetarian, not a vegan, but I have a lot of the same problems as you when I travel.
Start a web site, and make it really easy for people to submit info to you (e-mail or a form). If you post on veggie-friendly sites and MBs, you’ll get traffic, I’m sure.
Good luck. I’ll be sure to help out; there are three airports around DC, and I’m going to be in Newark next month.
I’d like to become a vegan or vegetarian some day. But have you ever tried to get something w/o cheese on it in Pittsburgh? Some of my friends can do it. I have no idea how, though.
Sue: largely for environmental reasons. I can tell you more about it if you’re really interested, but i’d rather not turn this into a thread that’s more appropriate for GD.
Zenster: oh hell yes. It’s no problem nowadays in San Francisco, but being vegan in Orlando was bad. My personal favorite question was, “so you don’t eat anything that comes from any animal? What about fish?”
SpinneZiege: you can find some good links to resources at http://www.vegweb.com. Good luck!
Zyzz, the idea of a directory is an excellent one. I’m not a vegan (just a regular sort of vegetarian) but I would be happy to send you names and addresses of places to find vegan food whenever I run into them while travelling.
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Dude, you are so majorly out of luck.
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The “Vegetarian Cuisine” link for Digital City’s search on Orlando’s vegetarian restaurants turns up six places, that’s it just six. Now for the harsh part. Half of them are “[sup]UP[/sup]Chuck E. Cheese” psuedo-pizza parlors! The other half are all listings for the same “Chamberlain’s” franchise as well. You may not fare any better there.
What you are proposing is to set up a Vegan bulletin board. Contact the nation-wide vegan.com and get back to us with your results (you’ve gotten enough free research out of me already). At least there were hits at the Digital City site. But then again, try and remember that they post my restaurant reviews too.
There’s plenty of places that serve veg food in Orlando. They just don’t tend to market themselves as vegetarian, but they’ll have one or two dishes (i have NO idea why Chuck E Cheese is on there! Chamberlain’s is health food, though). It’s not a problem. The same goes for most cities. I’m just concerned about the airports, since most of the time that’s all i’m seeing in said cities.
I’m always wishing I were a vegeberry when I travel.
The meat items have made me sick in Tijuana, Glasgow, and the Virgin Islands. But shopping makes you want to stop and sit down and just trust street food vendors.
I, too, think its a great idea. I know that there are a couple of websites out there that have restaurant reviews in different states/cities (I think VegSource has one somewhere on their site). I have planned on adding that feature to my personal ar-veg website based purely on my personal experiences (i.e. good places for veg’ans to eat in the areas I’ve lived, worked and visited). I haven’t seen airport fare rated or elaborated upon anywhere–great idea! I’d be willing to helping on this project!
I will submit that at Logan Airport in Boston, the domestic terminal with the best bar is Terminal C. The “Cheers” bars at A and B have (or used to have) those creepy “Norm and Cliff” dummies in them.
Terminal E has the Shipyard Brew Port, which I haven’t been to yet.
