Why San Antonio restaurants are offering vegan dishes in October
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A plant-based meal from Best Quality Daughter: A lemongrass Impossible patty and kimchi scallion pancake roll with sweet potato chips. Photo: Courtesy of Ben Yanto
San Antonio restaurants are offering an array of new plant-based dishes throughout October to encourage people to experiment with a greener diet.
Why it matters: The monthlong promotion lets customers try fresh menu items, while bringing new business to local restaurants — all while eating more sustainably.
How it works: Nine restaurants created new offerings that aren't normally on the menu.
- The nonprofit Planted Society, which organizes the initiative, encourages people to dine out, post on social media and add the tag #satxplanetchallenge.
What they're saying: "The goal of the program … it's not to make people go vegan," Britty Mann, founder and executive director of Planted Society, tells Axios. "We're just trying to show people that it's not scary to eat vegan."
Zoom out: A diet lower in meat and dairy products benefits the planet in part because livestock produce methane, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
Context: The initiative launched in San Antonio last year. Planted Society works with the city's Office of Sustainability and Metro Health's Por Vida program to promote the offerings.
The big picture: Participating restaurants range from high-end spots with lauded local chefs to casual, beloved hangouts.
Zoom in: Chef-owner Nicola Blaque of The Jerk Shack, a Caribbean restaurant on the Far West Side, tells Axios it was a "no-brainer" to participate.
- Unfamiliar customers might think her restaurants (including Freight Fried Chicken at Pearl Food Hall) don't have plant-based options. The October promotion brings in people who didn't know they could eat there.
- The Jerk Shack always has vegetarian menu items that can be made vegan, Blaque says. But the new items are available only this month.
"Having options that people can relate to — we have tacos, having a plant-based item — it opens people up to Caribbean food," says Blaque, a James Beard-nominated chef.
State of menus: Items could change throughout the month. For now: The Jerk Shack is offering a teriyaki faux chicken fried rice (made with tempeh) and jerk jackfruit street tacos.
- Ladino, a Mediterranean restaurant at Pearl, has roasted and pickled calabacita squash and a very green falafel with cabbage chili salad, pickled lemon and spicy green tahini.
- Maar's Pizza & More, on Nacogdoches Road, is offering four different types of veggie pizzas with vegan cheeses.
- Sawasdee Thai Cuisine on Blanco Road has a tofu steak drizzled in yellow coconut curry and a fried Thai tofu tossed in a homemade sweet Thai chili sauce.
- Naco's Mexican Eatery, whose brick-and-mortar location is near Pearl, is selling three plant-based tacos: huitlacoche (aka "corn smut"), grilled mushroom and hibiscus flower tinga.
- Find a full menu list online.
By the numbers: In October 2023, customers spent more than $21,000 on plant-based food at 12 San Antonio restaurants in the program, per last year's impact report.
- That saved more than 42,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 537,000 gallons of water, the report estimates.
The bottom line: Mann hopes the promotion will show people that plant-based food can taste really good.
- "We have meat-eaters wanting to try the dishes because it's something new, and they wanted to see our take on it," Blaque adds.