Faith Woodman eats out regularly. However, as a vegan she doesn’t always find what she’s looking for on restaurant menus. Not long ago, she was at a Brunswick restaurant (that will remain nameless), and the best the kitchen could rustle up for her was a plate of lettuce leaves.
Other times chefs – even in unlikely places – happily surprise her. Take the evening last summer when she and her husband were visiting friends on Lake Webb near Mount Blue State Park. For dinner, they went to the Kawanhee Inn and Restaurant in Weld.
“It was a gorgeous location, and we were sitting outside watching the sun set,” said Woodman, who lives in Bath. “But they didn’t have anything on the menu that was vegan. So I asked the waiter if the chef could make something.”
The answer was yes, and the chef prepared a citrus quinoa salad. Woodman had frequently eaten similar salads, but after just one bite of the Kawanhee Inn version, she knew “this one was the best. It was fresh and tasty.”
More recently, Woodman’s daughter arranged a family dinner at 76 Pleasant Street in Norway. When making the reservations, her daughter told the restaurant there would be a vegan in the party. They cooked an off-menu vegan pad thai for Woodman, who described it as the “best ever.”
CALL AHEAD
While chefs continue to add vegan dishes to their printed menus (and often report the dishes sell much better than they expected), many restaurants don’t offer completely plant-based entrees.