Soy Happy has been consulting with Shea Stadium since the start of this season. It's our great pleasure to announce that the Mets added veggie dogs to their new Grab-n-Go stand in the mezzanine level on Monday, September 24. That's with only one week left in the regular season. If they graduate to post-season play, the concession manager will be offering vegetarian chili as an optional topping on those veggie dogs during home games. (We will update you with specific stand locations and photos soon!) The Mets are offering Lightlife's Jumbo dogs, which are vegan and kosher, in addition to being non GMO. (Their chili is also vegan.) Shea Stadium becomes the fourth MLB park to offer this brand of veggie dog, along with Washington Nationals' RFK Stadium, San Diego's Petco Park and Los Angeles Dodgers' Dodger Stadium. Soy Happy will organize a group outing to a Mets game in the 2008 season to celebrate these new veggie options. Contact us if you'd like to be a part of this celebration!

Chicago White Sox / U.S. Cellular Field "Being the first major league baseball facility to add a vegetarian hot dog, the White Sox are constantly working with our concessionaire, Sportservice, to identify food options that cater to all of our fans that attend games at U.S. Cellular Field.  Along with the veggie dog, we have the Garden Burger available for our fans – and we continue to explore other non-meat options for concession stands." Lou Hernandez Director of Public Relations, Chicago White Sox

San Francisco Giants/ AT&T Park Our vegetarian program at AT&T has been very successful. We have a tremendous selection of vegetarian food, and have increased it consistently every year. Our veggie dogs began in one concession stand, and now are offered in 3. The same is true of the Garden burger. In addition to these popular ballpark favorites  we also offer many, many, more. The selection includes a vegetarian minestrone soup, a mixed vegetable baguette sandwich, mozzarella cheese- tomato skewers, vegetable sushi, and much more. The trademark of our ballpark has always been our extensive selection of food options, we have just extended that to our vegetarian menu. Thanks for all of your support Johanna, and you have done a great job with the Soy Happy program throughout baseball. Sandie Filipiak Concession Manager for AT&T Park *Read on for another Giants update in our SH Manager News.

Shea Stadium's addition of veggie dogs (and chili) with only one week left in the regular season simply indicates that it is never too late to ask for concession menu changes or additions. Remember that feedback and suggestions to concession managers can make a big difference. Check our page on Empowering Consumers for tips on the best way to voice your suggestions.

 

Updates from Soy Happy Managers

The Phillies began offering a vegan steak option this season. Pretty cool!

Scott, Soy Happy Manager for the Philadelphia Phillies is proud to share that their Citizens Bank Park received the #1 ranking by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in their Top Ten Veggie Ballparks this year. Contact Scott if you'd like to extend your support and join him for games next season!

Patti with SH director Johanna and friends Noah and Melanie at a Nationals game.

On August 31, Johanna joined Patti, Soy Happy Manager for the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals for a Nationals game at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C. They enjoyed eating veggie dogs (offered on the first level). Next year, the Nationals will host games at a new ballpark in D.C. Soy Happy will communicate with the concessions director there to encourage the inclusion of veggie dogs on the menu. Meanwhile, visitors to RFK Stadium can continue to enjoy eating veggie dogs during soccer matches and other events.

Yum! Vegetarian food updates

Turtle Island Foods, (Tofurky brand products)

Seth Tibbott, owner of Turtle Island Foods, offers the following update:

Dave Wagenheim, our Tofurky Cart Vendor working Fairs in the NW this summer, says that they are always the first to sell out.  Tofurky Kielbasa is very strong retail seller in foodservice, sold with caramelized onions, mustard and sauerkraut.  A true "meal in a bun".  

Tofurky  Franks are also on the menu of several other restaurants from Willie Dawg's in Brooklyn, NY to the Lovin' Spoonful in Tuscon.   Mickey Hartwick of the Chicago Diner planned to sell 6000 Tofurky Jumbo (2.4 oz size) Franks August 3-6 at a large music festival in Chicago and Dave Wagenhiem sold over $6000 worth of franks and sausages at the Oregon Country Fair July 13 to 15.  

Tofurky Deli Slices are also finding their way into more foodservice outlets.   The hickory smoked Tofurky Deli Slice is also the #1 selling meatless deli slice in the country and is sold at Trader Joe's, Publix, Safeway and everywhere natural foods are sold.  The foodservice pack (4/2.5 pound units)are now available through UNFI west and contain approximately 40 slices per pound.

Lightlife Foods

Lightlife Jumbo Smart Dogs have just been added to the concession menu for the Mets and Shea Stadium. (After regular baseball season is over, the Mets plan to also offer their vegetarian chili as an optional topping on those dogs.) This makes a total number of four MLB stadiums that currently offer Lightlife veggie dogs to their fans.

In other news, Lightlife just launched foodservice into Dot Foods on September 24. Dot Foods is a company that distributes to larger distributors such as US Foodservice, Sysco, and others. This means that accounts that use these super distributors can now order the quantity of products desired, instead of meeting a minimum order requirement that may be too big or impractical, initially.

Soy and vegan cheese on your pizza? Pizzerias and others are catching on

Soy Happy recently facilitated vegan (yes, vegan) cheese for Govinda's restaurant and pizzeria in Philadelphia. They are very happy with it and say the cheese melts well and tastes great! In fact, their orders of this vegan cheese have increased dramatically in the last few months. More and more pizzerias are catching on to meltable and delicious plant-based options in lieu of the usual cheese. In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, there are many to choose from. Lane Splitter Pizza offers their own soy-based ricotta topping. Pizza Plaza delivers an entire menu of vegan pizzas; Noriega Pizza Place offers a pesto based vegan pizza at their Ocean Beach pizzeria in San Francisco; Extreme Pizza offers take-out and delivery with soy cheese as an optional topping on their pizzas; and the Parkway Speakeasy Theatre even offers both a soy cheese and a vegan cheese pizza for their movie goers. (Read more Berkeley pizzeria information in the special blurb section below.)
* BTW. If we haven't stipulated that an option is vegan, be sure to check with them.

We invited the owners of several pizzerias and restaurants to share their thoughts and experiences regarding the addition of vegetarian/vegan cheese options to their menus. Below, we share insight from two Bay Area establishments, in addition to others in Oregon and Washington, D.C. Read on!

Bobby G's Pizza in Berkeley is a pizzeria that is catching the popular wave of offering vegan menu options. Soy Happy is consulting with them and facilitating new items for their growing vegan/vegetarian menu. They already offer a vegan pizza featuring their own soy cheese topping. Co-owner Robert Gaustad shares his experience with testing and adding soy cheese options to his pizzas:

With respect to our offering of our own house-made soy cheese, here's the way it happened.  My partner and I decided before opening the restaurant that we would offer a number of vegan options for our customers who could not or did not eat dairy or meat.  At first I tried some soy mozzarella that was available at my local natural food store.  Although the package touts that "it melts", we found that it did not melt well when placed on slices.  It melted okay with whole pizzas, since it would be in the oven longer, but the taste wasn't to our liking.

Since we sell a lot of pizza slices, we needed to find an alternative.  One of my cooks at the time was a guy who had a lot of experience with vegan cooking.  We came up with a recipe for a house-made soy cheese, and a vegan Caesar dressing.  We call them Fauxmage and Vaesar, respectively.  Yes, we like to have fun with names here.

The "Fauxmage" we use on pies and slices consists of organic tofu, organic soy milk, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and fresh herbs.  It has a lot of flavor and seems to work well with our vegan customers.  Plus, since we blend it carefully, it heats up nicely on our marinara slices.

I do hope you come by to try it out. My partner just created a vegan-only menu so vegans can easily determine what items we offer that they might like, without having to go through our complete menu.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fellini Restaurant, also in Berkeley, has been a favorite destination for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. The Fellini themed design, fine wines, and long list of vegetarian/vegan options make the dining experience both enjoyable and tasty. Their Sunday brunches are also very popular. Owner Jeff Davis, shares his thoughts on his business model:

Fellini was founded on a progressive, green business model that emphasizes sustainability, organic foods and animal rights.  Our menus lean heavily vegetarian, with absolutely no "red" meat ever offered.   

I wanted to create the type of restaurant where I might dine, assuming that other, like-minded people would follow.  The vegetarian and vegan audience tends to be an educated, sophisticated and gracious crowd, and fortunately, that's who we have had the pleasure of attracting.  The response to the inclusion of vegan items on our menu has been fantastic, with people coming from all over the Bay Area in groups small and large!  Approximately 20-30 percent of our clientele identifies themselves as vegan, and accomodating them comes very naturally to us.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Hood River, Oregon, a natural market called Mother's Marketplace offers an awesome vegan pizza made from scratch, that has generated such positive reviews, we had to feature it here.  The owner, Margaret Ohlson, shares how the pizza is made:

All organic ingredients begin with our fresh made spelt crust followed by an awesome pizza sauce, lots of sauteed vegetables and topped with our own vegan tahini cheese and/or our own sesame parmesan cheese.  Once a week or so our topping includes Hood River's Turtle Island (home of Tofurky) Italian Sausage.  People have praised the pizza many times over as the BEST vegi pizza they have ever eaten!   We share recipes for every thing we make.  Come taste and see!    Mother's Marketplace is at 106 HWY 35 Hood River, OR 97031. You can call us at 541-387-2202.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Washington, D.C., Pizzeria Paradiso offers vegan soy cheese pizzas at their locations in Dupont Circle and Georgetown. Owner/chef Ruth Gresser shares this with Soy Happy:

Pizzeria Paradiso started selling soy cheese at the same time that we began offering our whole wheat crust.  We had received requests for whole wheat crust for many years and then more recently we began receiving requests for a cheese alternative.  We pursued these options when we expanded to our Georgetown restaurant.  As it was a larger restaurant, it afforded us the extra space to allow us to be able to offer such alternatives. In addition, one of our senior managers changed his diet to a vegan diet due to health concerns, and we wanted to ensure that he could still enjoy Pizzeria Paradiso pizza.  We chose the soy cheese after trying several different brands and upon the suggestion of soy cheese eating customers.  It is a vegan soy cheese and it melts!

It's not just pizzerias that are catching this wave of plant-based cheese options. Bagel shops are increasingly offering soy cream cheese as an optional topping on their bagels, too. Several bagel shops in the Bay Area offer two or three flavors. In New York city, we frequented a popular 24-hour deli and bagel shop that offered multiple flavors of soy cream cheese spread. They made the spread themselves with fresh ingredients. (Do note, however, that most of the available soy cheese spreads are not vegan, so always ask, if this is a requirement for you.)

Soy Happy's director, Johanna McCloy, recently spoke at the 2007 Animal Rights Conference.

The conference was held in Los Angeles in July. It was attended by over 800 participants from all over the United States and ten other countries. Johanna was a speaker for two sessions: Individual Activism and Engaging Business.

Johanna McCloy speaking at the Animal Rights Conference this year.

You can order audio recordings of any ( or all) of the sessions offered during the conference. Peruse the AR website for more information on this conference and a list of sessions, along with the speakers attending this year.