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UnchainedTV: Why America's Going Plant-Based... Town by Town · UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell

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If you want to revolutionise your health, get
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truly joyful and jump to the next phase
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of human evolution, all it takes is one
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simple choice.
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Now, here's your host, Jane Velez Mitchell.
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Welcome, we have an exciting show for you
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today.
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Check out these two mischief makers.
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They have created Fort Wayne, Indiana Vegan Restaurant
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Month, and it is all the rage.
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And we're looking at this to see if
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other people can replicate this in their cities
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and towns because it has really taken off
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and exposed, that's not egg, that's not cheese,
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that's not meat, that's vegan, that's 100%
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vegan, okay?
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All of the food that we are showcasing
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today is 100% plant-based, but you've
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got banana splits, you've got breakfast, all sorts
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of delicious smoothies and milkshakes and pastries, and
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it's all completely without any animal products whatsoever.
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That means it's zero cholesterol.
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And so this husband and wife team, the
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Domins, whom you're about to meet, have really
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opened this whole new world through Vegan Restaurant
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Month in Fort Wayne.
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And so I would like to introduce you
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to these change makers in the hopes that
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they can teach us how to do the
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same thing in other cities and towns, because
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I was thinking if I was gonna do
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this in my neighbourhood, I wouldn't have a
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clue.
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So Heather Domin, tell us, how did you
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make this happen?
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Right, hi Jane, thanks so much for having
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us on.
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So this started about six years ago, we're
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in our sixth year.
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Prior to this year, it's been a week
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-long event.
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And this year, because it's grown so much
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and we've had such great feedback from our
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restaurants and our community, we decided to make
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it a month-long event.
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So it's a month-long event of vegan
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food, going out and dining at different restaurants,
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the community gathering at different places and supporting
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these businesses that are participating in Fort Wayne
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Vegan Restaurant Month.
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And look at your husband there, inviting us
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into one of the participating restaurants.
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So I wanna go to JR, your husband,
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and ask how did you get all these
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restaurants to participate and what is in it
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for them?
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That's a really good question, because it's really
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great for the vegan community, but also it's
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really, really good for the restaurants because they
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lose nothing by offering these vegan options.
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Their regular people are still gonna come in
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or whatever, but they're gaining a whole new
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market.
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And I think for a lot of them,
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they wouldn't just throw something on the menu
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because they don't know if it's gonna work
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or not.
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And so this is a great opportunity for
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them to try something out.
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And then they realise, oh my God, this
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vegan community came out in force.
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And then a lot of this stuff winds
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up staying on the menu.
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And it's really cool because I think that
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they enjoy it because they can get a
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little creative, go a little off script.
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And Heather and I, we travel a lot
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and we eat the menu at all the
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vegan restaurants we go to.
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And some of these places have come up
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with concoctions.
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Like there's this place, Three Fires, that has
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a vegan Thai pizza.
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And it has gotta be the best thing
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that I've ever had.
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It is so unique.
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I've never had it anywhere else.
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It's only here in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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And it's only there because they tried it
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out for Vegan Restaurant Month.
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And then they said, oh, it's so good.
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Let's keep it on the menu.
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Let's keep it going.
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Well, the theme of this show is every
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city and every town should have a vegan
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restaurant week.
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And I wanna know how you put this
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together.
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And in fact, you need to have a
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vegan restaurant month.
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But as you said, Heather, you started out
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with a vegan restaurant week.
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So tell people, for those who say this
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is a fantastic idea, I would love to
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do this in my community.
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Let's start with the week.
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How did you first create the vegan restaurant
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week, which has now become Vegan Restaurant Month?
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Tell us.
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Right, so what I did is I just
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went to different restaurants.
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I already had a relationship with some other
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restaurants locally because we go out to eat
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so much and they know us.
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So reaching out to them and just asking
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them, hey, would you participate?
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We have Savour Fort Wayne in town, which
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is something similar.
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It's just not vegan.
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So I just explained it's similar to Savour
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Fort Wayne, but the menu is completely vegan.
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So just reaching out to different restaurants, letting
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them know what we're doing, what we wanna
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do, and how it could benefit them.
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I think the first- How could it
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benefit them?
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A lot more business.
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Restaurants who participate have seen such an uptick
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in their business, especially during the week or
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the month that they're participating in.
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Sometimes it's a little bit too busy where
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there's like, oh, wait, hold on a second.
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That's why we extended it for a month.
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But just reaching out to them and letting
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them know, you can see increased business.
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We have a large community that's ready to
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support you.
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We just need you to create some more
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vegan options.
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So that's where it started, just reaching out
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from there.
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I created a website, I created the logos,
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and actually I've talked to other people about
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implementing these vegan weeks or vegan months into
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their own cities, because it is such an
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easy thing to do.
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If you have restaurants that are already serving
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vegan options or have options on their menu
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that are customisable, have them participate.
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The only rule to being a participating restaurant
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is to offer at least two vegan options
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on a separate menu and to post about
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it during the month.
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So we're trying to normalise these vegan options
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and normalise people having vegan options and normalise
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people going out to these restaurants to support
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these businesses that are supporting our vegan community.
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Like Mocha Lounge, that's just one of the
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participating restaurants.
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Did they see an uptick in business, in
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your opinion?
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I haven't talked to everybody yet just because
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we're right in the middle of the month.
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At the end of the month, I'll put
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out a survey and talk to the restaurants
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and find out.
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But I do know I've been seeing a
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lot of posts about people going to Mocha
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Lounge, people that didn't know that they had
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vegan options.
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They have vegan options on their menu.
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They have a chorizo burrito on their menu.
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I've never had any idea that they had
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it.
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So now people are finding out about them.
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They're posting, they're posting about all the restaurants
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they're going to.
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They're posting pictures on social media and saying,
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hey, I just went to this place and
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had this.
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They're getting groups together and going out to
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eat.
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So I know that they're all seeing an
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uptick in business just because I've seen it
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online so far.
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Go ahead.
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And when we go out to these places,
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I mean, they'll tell us right out.
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They're just like, oh my God, thank you.
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We have gotten so much more business and
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it's good for the restaurants.
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It's good for the vegan community.
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But yeah, every one of them will report
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back to us that they've had an uptick
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in the business.
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And also vegan clients are very loyal clients.
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I mean, if you keep the vegan food
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flowing, we'll keep coming to you.
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And do you see people going vegan as
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a result of this, JR?
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Well, I think that there's definitely, there's a
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couple of things that happen, I think.
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Number one, maybe you have a vegan in
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the family and then they want to take
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the rest of the family out to show
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them, here, look, you guys have been razzing
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me saying that there's no such thing as
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good vegan food.
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Come with me.
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They take them to this restaurant and the
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family tries it out.
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And I think that that changes a lot
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of minds in the families.
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But also I think then there's a lot
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of people that are going into these restaurants
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like that vegan Thai pizza that I was
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talking about before.
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They're going to these restaurants and they're handing
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them menus.
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And they're saying, I'm talking about people that
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are not vegan.
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They're going to the restaurants.
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The people are handing them the menu.
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They're saying, hey, we've got these specials for
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vegan restaurant month.
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And then they look at something like the
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vegan Thai pizza and they're like, well, that's
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interesting.
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They'll look at what it's made of.
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This is really unique.
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Let me try this.
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And generally, I don't think that they would
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normally try something like that, but it being
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presented to them.
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And I do think that a lot of
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those people leave going, hey, this vegan food,
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maybe there is some good vegan food.
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And then they, I think Heather's dad was
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the same way where he was like, well,
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if I could eat like this all the
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time, I'd go vegan in a second.
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So yeah, they have an idea of what
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the vegan food is.
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And I think this is changing minds when
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they're going out there.
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And I think also the restaurants might want
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to top each other and come up with
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something special.
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It's just not another day in the office.
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It's, hey, look at us.
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You bring a little bit of that competition.
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And I was compiling footage of the dishes
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and I was getting so hungry.
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I mean, it was like, oh my gosh,
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these dishes are absolutely incredible.
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But others might be saying, Fort Wayne, Indiana
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is going to the dogs.
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Because your dog is just loving it so
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much.
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And actually I think it creates community because
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a lot of vegans feel isolated in places
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like Fort Wayne, Indiana, where it may not
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be as big of a vegan meetup group
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as New York City or LA.
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So then it creates community for them.
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And honestly, I would love to see this
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where I live because you mentioned family.
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One of our biggest disagreements is I'm vegan,
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my nephew's vegan, his daughter's vegan, but others
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in the family are not vegan.
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Where are we going to go to dinner?
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Okay, and so sometimes I'll take them all
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to a vegan restaurant where I think the
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food's great.
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But sometimes they were like, well, it can't
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always be you making the decision.
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So this is a great way.
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I'm not the only one having these problems.
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Everybody who's vegan has this issue with their
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family members for the most part.
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I mean, I don't want to say that,
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but that seems to be the case anyway.
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And this is a great way to overcome
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that.
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So I want to ask you, if somebody
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were to say in their town, okay, I
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want to do this, I'm inspired and look
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at these incredible dishes.
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If you're listening, you're going to have to
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take our word for it.
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It's sinfully delicious, but you have to know
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that none of this has dairy and none
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of this has any animal products.
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So therefore it's completely cholesterol free and absolutely
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good for you.
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So it's healthier for you.
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It's obviously better for the animals.
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It's better for the planet because animal agriculture
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is a leading cause of climate change.
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And it also brings in business for the
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restaurants and gives people who are plant-based
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an opportunity to sort of enjoy being, just
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normalise it, bring your family in.
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It doesn't have to be this three-act
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play where there's negotiations.
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You know, I've had negotiations with people on
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where we're going to eat.
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And it's so silly.
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It's so unnecessary.
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So what would you say, Heather?
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Not just go to the website, which is
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great.
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We're going to put the website up, but
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what would you say to somebody who says,
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I'm going to do this in my town?
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Take them through it.
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Right, so actually I have had people reach
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out to me.
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And anytime I talk to like Victoria Moran's
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Main Street Vegan Academy, I've been on there
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a couple of times because I'm a graduate
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from there.
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And I tell her students that are graduating
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what I do.
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And I tell them, reach out to me.
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Let's chat.
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I will help you.
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I will give you all of the tools
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that you need.
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I will give you the logos.
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I'll help you create your website.
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Actually, I'm working on a website that I
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can post everybody's vegan weeks on.
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So that way it's not a barrier for
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them.
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Well, I don't know how to build a
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website.
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I have a website for you.
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I have logos for you.
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I have everything that you need to get
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this started.
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All you have to do is step one,
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create a list of restaurants that are in
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your city that you think would be good
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to participate.
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That's the first thing you need to do.
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Once you have your list, start reaching out
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to the owners, the managers, the decision makers
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about what you wanna do.
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And then from there, just do it.
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It's super easy.
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Reach out to me if you have any
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questions, if you need help.
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I'm always happy to help people create this.
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Actually, we're getting ready to possibly next spring
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move into Indianapolis and do Indianapolis Vegan Restaurant
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Week.
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And then from there, I wanna move into
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some other towns as well, unless somebody else
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starts to do it there.
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Once I create it in the town, if
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they wanna take it over, great.
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I just really want to see this going
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in to more cities.
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And Jane, let's do one in Marina Del
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Ray.
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Like, let's do it.
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I would like it because I'm in the
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Venice area and you'd think, oh, hipsterville, right?
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Everybody's vegan.
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No, there's not that many vegan restaurants here.
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We have a fabulous Planta Casino.
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And by the way, you're looking at some
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of the restaurants that participated.
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And I wanna give them a big shout
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out for participating because it does take a
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certain amount of throwing your head over the
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fence, taking a wee bit of a risk
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because anything new involves a little bit of
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a risk.
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But I just wanna applaud these restaurants for
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doing it.
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And of course, the other thing that we
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could do is have testimonials from the restaurants
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that participated to encourage other restaurants in other
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towns.
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That's something, essentially what I see you doing,
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Heather and JR, is sort of creating a
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franchise.
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I was just in Las Vegas to do
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a whole half hour special, which we're gonna
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put on Unchained TV about vegan restaurants in
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Las Vegas.
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On the way back, we stopped at Veganburg,
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which is a new franchise.
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It's on the way back.
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So it's almost back here, but it's not
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quite.
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Near Victorville, Hesperia is where it was.
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And it's a franchise.
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It's a vegan franchise.
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So it's the first in the United States.
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It's a Singapore company, Turnkey, the best food,
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the best, it's a burger place, but the
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most extraordinary burgers.
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And it really got me thinking about franchises.
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Like I fantasise, oh, I wish I could
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have a vegan franchise.
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That would be wonderful.
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Of course, I'm a person who burns toast
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and can't eat with coffee and toast together
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at the same time.
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So maybe it shouldn't be for me.
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I know you can make green smoothies.
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That's true.
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But the whole concept of a franchise just
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really struck me.
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And what I see you guys doing is
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actually franchising this concept all around the United
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States so that it's Turnkey.
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So that it's not like everybody has to
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reinvent the wheel if they wanna have a
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vegan restaurant week or a vegan restaurant month
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in their area.
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Now, when you say you have a website,
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do you have one like start your own
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vegan restaurant week or is it simply you're
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showing an example?
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It's just my website that I use for
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our vegan restaurant week or vegan restaurant month.
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But it's something that I want to create
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that anybody can log in and use for
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theirs as well.
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Or we can somehow, I haven't quite figured
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out how I wanna do it, but it's
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something that I've been thinking about is putting
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together a package, like you said, like a
16:49
franchise.
16:50
So I can hand it over to somebody
16:52
and say, or I can take my website,
16:55
duplicate it and give that to somebody else
16:58
so they can start off without having to
17:00
start from scratch because I've built it in
17:02
six years.
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There's no reason to start from scratch.
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I wanna make it really easy for people
17:07
to do this in their cities.
17:10
I mean, even down to where the letter
17:14
that you write that you send to restaurants.
17:17
Right.
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I would think cold calling a restaurant would
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be kind of scary.
17:24
And saying, hey, how would you like to
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do this?
17:27
I mean, I certainly think there are some
17:30
very meat centric restaurants in my neighbourhood that
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might be like buzz off.
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Although I have convinced restaurants that restaurateurs, local
17:40
mom and pop restaurants I know in my
17:42
area, I've convinced them to add tofu dishes.
17:45
I've convinced them to add the word vegan
17:47
options.
17:49
So I've done that sort of just off
17:52
the cuff over the years, being sort of
17:55
friendly with those people.
17:56
But how would you approach?
17:59
When you go in there to approach these
18:00
restaurants, what would you say in terms of,
18:05
it seems like kind of scary.
18:07
It's like you're cold calling.
18:08
Yeah, actually I started out with an email.
18:11
I have an email script and I keep
18:14
all of my emails that I send out.
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So that way, when I put together this
18:19
package or if somebody else wants to do
18:21
it, I have everything ready to go.
18:22
This is year one, this is year two,
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year three, and so on.
18:25
So I have all of those.
18:26
And I even have a phone script because
18:28
my sister has helped me out the past
18:30
couple of years because I don't have time
18:32
to be contacting every restaurant and saying, hey,
18:35
did you get my email?
18:36
This is what's going on.
18:37
So I have a phone script as well
18:40
that my sister uses to contact the restaurants,
18:43
to ask them about participating and making sure
18:47
that they receive all the information that they
18:49
need.
18:49
I mean, we have everything down to phone
18:51
scripts for this to make it really easy.
18:55
Well, I think this is also a form
18:57
of activism.
18:58
When you think of animal activism, vegan activism,
19:02
you think of protests.
19:03
I'll give you an example of one that
19:05
we were at very recently.
19:07
Dairy and milk means stomach pain.
19:09
Starbucks coffee is to blame.
19:12
Plant-based milk should not cause more.
19:14
Starbucks green, we do have more.
19:16
The intention of this campaign is to get
19:19
them to finally drop the plant-based milk
19:21
upcharge, what they have already done in the
19:23
United Kingdom, France, Chile, Germany, Japan, and other
19:27
major world countries.
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They have resisted here in the US so
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far.
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This is their biggest market.
19:32
They make over, we've estimated they make over.
19:35
That protest and others like it were ultimately
19:39
successful.
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Recently, Starbucks announced they are dropping the vegan
19:44
surcharge for plant-based milks.
19:47
In Las Vegas, I went into a Starbucks
19:49
for the first time in years and no
19:51
surcharge.
19:52
And their coffee's good.
19:54
So that was a huge victory.
19:56
But when you look at activism, the reason
19:58
I bring that up is that you think
20:00
of things like that, protest marches.
20:03
But what you're doing, and JR, maybe you
20:07
can address this, is also activism.
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But it's activism without any of the controversy.
20:13
Nobody can fault you.
20:14
Nobody can say, why are you doing this?
20:17
It's a win-win.
20:19
It's like stealth activism.
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Yeah, I mean, that's always been kind of
20:23
our whole idea is like finding the soft
20:26
sell.
20:26
Finding the soft sell, the easy way.
20:30
I mean, it doesn't have to be a
20:32
struggle.
20:33
Heather and I, I mean, we've been vegan
20:36
for 16 years and we've been really active
20:39
in our community since the beginning.
20:41
Step number one, before you do any of
20:43
this, you have to build a community, right?
20:45
If there's no community to go to the
20:47
restaurants, there's not gonna...
20:49
So step number one, 16 plus years ago,
20:52
Heather had to make a Facebook group, brought
20:56
people together.
20:57
Those people kind of fed in on each
20:58
other.
20:59
They were saying, hey, here's some recipe ideas.
21:01
Here's a restaurant that has this, whatever.
21:03
They're helping each other out.
21:05
But we're constantly out there doing tabling events
21:08
at Earth Day, explaining how the best way
21:12
to be green is to be vegan.
21:14
We're doing circus protests.
21:17
We're out doing tabling events at concerts.
21:21
Like we did tabling for Paul McCartney.
21:24
Heather's getting ready to do one for Morrissey
21:26
coming up here this weekend.
21:28
So we're constantly engaged in trying to reach
21:31
people where they live.
21:33
And so yeah, this is just kind of
21:35
an extension of that.
21:36
But yeah, number one thing, you have to
21:37
kind of build a network to grow that
21:39
out of.
21:40
So do you have, Heather, a vegan community
21:45
in Fort Wayne?
21:46
We have a large vegan community in Fort
21:49
Wayne.
21:49
I'm very surprised how large it is and
21:53
how much it continues to grow.
21:55
I think we have about 3000 people alone
21:57
just on our Facebook group, which is the
22:00
majority of them are in the Fort Wayne
22:03
area because I've met everybody that sends a
22:06
join request to our group because I do
22:07
wanna keep it as local as possible to
22:10
kind of fight some of the infighting that
22:13
you have on Facebook.
22:14
And then also because I wanna keep it
22:16
local to our community.
22:17
I want people to share where they're going
22:20
out to eat locally or share things that
22:23
they found out at our local stores.
22:25
So we have about 3000 people and we
22:27
grew that from zero to almost 3000.
22:32
Of course, not everybody participates, but it's funny
22:35
when I go out to restaurants and people
22:37
come up to me and they say, oh,
22:38
hey, I'm in your group.
22:40
And I love being able to meet new
22:42
people because we have such an amazing community
22:47
and a lot of our friends are from
22:52
this group.
22:52
And I know a lot of people in
22:54
the group, they've made a lot of friendships
22:56
out of it.
22:57
So it's very supportive to have.
22:59
And so it's surprising to have that here
23:02
in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in such a small
23:05
community.
23:06
And it's hugely important.
23:08
It's hugely important because when we went vegan
23:11
16 years ago, we had no idea.
23:14
What do you even eat?
23:15
Before it was steak, potatoes, and like corn.
23:20
And now, okay, now is it just potatoes
23:22
and corn?
23:23
So when we first went vegan, the first
23:26
place we had tofu was at the place
23:30
that I worked at.
23:31
They had a little cafe and the guy
23:34
served us a piece of tofu that was
23:35
like a gelatinous piece of wedge, like a
23:38
piece of pie, wobble, wobble, and put some
23:40
barbecue sauce on it.
23:42
And we're like, oh my God, this is
23:43
tofu.
23:44
If it was just that time, we would
23:46
have never eaten tofu again.
23:48
But luckily, right when we went vegan, that
23:52
loving cafe opened up and we got to
23:55
try tofu there.
23:56
But that's where this is, the whole networking
24:00
community is great because you can share these
24:03
things and get ideas.
24:07
Well, I think what I'm hearing is that
24:10
you wanna start maybe, because we have people
24:15
watching on our streaming network, which is behind
24:17
me.
24:17
We have people watching and listening on social
24:22
media as well as various platforms.
24:26
But some people are saying, I don't have
24:28
any vegans here.
24:29
I don't know any vegan restaurants.
24:30
They're feeling isolated, but it doesn't have to
24:33
be that way.
24:35
The first step I think would be to
24:37
create the group.
24:38
If you're in a small town or a
24:40
small city, and by the way, I looked
24:43
it up, Fort Wayne is the 83rd most
24:46
populous city in the United States.
24:49
Now that's not a very big city.
24:51
It's well under half a million people.
24:54
It's under, I think 300,000 people, but
24:57
you know what?
24:58
In 300,000 people, you're gonna find some
25:01
vegans.
25:01
And it's the same thing in whatever town
25:03
you're in.
25:04
So if you feel, we can't just have
25:07
vegans clustered in New York and Los Angeles.
25:11
Okay?
25:11
They're everywhere.
25:12
And one of the first things that I
25:15
do because we do travel a lot, one
25:16
of the first things that I do is
25:18
I go on Facebook and I look for
25:19
a vegan community in the town that we're
25:21
going to.
25:23
And I can always find a vegan community.
25:28
And some of them might be small, but
25:30
they're going to grow.
25:31
If you get those clusters of vegans together,
25:34
they're going to grow and they're gonna let
25:36
other people know that they're there.
25:38
So that's one of the first things I
25:40
do.
25:40
Anytime I'm going to a new city, I
25:42
join their Facebook group so I can see
25:46
what they have going on and get ideas
25:49
of where we wanna go out to eat
25:51
and try new things.
25:53
And I like meeting other vegans.
25:55
It's a fun thing for me to do
25:57
when we're out.
25:58
So- Let me jump in and say,
26:00
Harolyn Sampson is saying, I'm in a small
26:03
town, closer to nature, not enough vegan restaurants
26:05
within walking distance.
26:06
So I'm pretty much on my own.
26:09
What advice would you give her if she
26:12
wanted to create a vegan community in her
26:14
small town and then ultimately grow it into
26:18
a vegan restaurant week?
26:19
Or when we say vegan restaurant week, we
26:21
don't mean vegan restaurants.
26:23
There may be some vegan restaurants, but what
26:25
we're talking about is restaurants offering vegan options
26:31
during this week or this month.
26:34
Yeah, I would say, Harolyn, go on Facebook
26:36
and create a Facebook group if there isn't
26:39
already one.
26:41
Search for it first.
26:42
And if there isn't, create it.
26:43
So it's My Town Vegan Group or like
26:48
ours is Fort Wayne Vegans and Vegetarians Group.
26:51
Create that.
26:53
And you'll be surprised.
26:54
You may start seeing people because they're searching
26:57
for one.
26:58
You may start seeing people popping up.
27:01
Or what I did, because I wanted to
27:02
grow it faster, I threw a few dollars
27:04
at it and advertised my group because I
27:07
wanted to find where are those vegans?
27:10
Like we did, we felt alone.
27:12
We didn't know how to vegan.
27:15
So I wanted to find other people.
27:17
And so I threw a few dollars here
27:19
and there at the group to promote it
27:22
on Facebook and Facebook started sharing it with
27:24
other people who were interested in veganism around
27:28
my city.
27:29
And we started finding other people and then
27:32
getting together and going out to eat together
27:34
at different restaurants.
27:36
I would call up different restaurants and say,
27:38
hey, we have a group coming.
27:40
Would you make us something vegan?
27:41
If they didn't already have anything on the
27:43
menu, we would do vegan dinner clubs.
27:46
We would get together and have meetups.
27:48
We've done vegan restaurant clubs where we, or
27:51
I'm sorry, vegan cookbook clubs, where we picked
27:54
one vegan cookbook and everybody made a different
27:56
dish and we got together and ate them.
28:00
So just kind of slowly building that community.
28:03
And when we first started, it was me
28:04
and my husband.
28:04
And I think we had another couple and
28:07
then it grew to another person, another person.
28:10
And now when we have get togethers, they're
28:13
pretty nice.
28:15
Yeah, so Amy Jean Davis, who's a wonderful
28:17
activist here in Los Angeles says, I am
28:20
from Northwest Indiana.
28:22
The vegan options slash restaurants have been progressing
28:24
really well in that area.
28:27
Talk about that because I think there is
28:29
a sense that people who are not vegan
28:33
like to portray us as some sort of
28:35
elitist hipsters only living in Brooklyn or Venice.
28:40
And that's not the case.
28:41
In fact, just having come back from Las
28:44
Vegas where there's an extraordinary array of incredible
28:48
vegan restaurants, it blew my mind.
28:52
I started to say to myself, you know
28:54
what?
28:55
Maybe what's happening is America's going vegan town
29:00
by town.
29:02
Would you like to address that, Heather?
29:05
Yeah, I think people are creating these little
29:11
pockets of veganism in their communities.
29:14
And when we travel, it's fun to be
29:17
able to go out and see what communities
29:22
people are building.
29:23
We go to a lot of veg fests
29:25
with one of our jobs that we do.
29:28
And it's just kind of nice to see
29:29
these little pockets of veganism popping up here
29:32
and there.
29:33
And when I go to LA or when
29:34
I go to New York, it's fun to
29:37
go out to all of those vegan restaurants.
29:39
You have a lot of choices, but in
29:40
these smaller towns, you don't have as many
29:43
choices as you do in the bigger cities.
29:46
I mean, we're three hours from Chicago.
29:49
And Northwest Indiana, I'm in your Facebook group,
29:52
so hello to you.
29:54
And they do, I've watched their vegan community
29:57
growing as well.
29:59
I mean, I think- And it didn't
30:00
just- Go ahead.
30:02
Yeah, and it didn't just start, we didn't
30:04
just magically get there.
30:05
Yeah, at the beginning, it really was just
30:09
getting together and having meetups and doing potlucks
30:13
and getting together.
30:15
I mean, you got to start somewhere.
30:17
And I think that that was so key
30:20
here is just those getting together, especially if
30:23
you're from a very small town that doesn't
30:25
have very many restaurants at all, you really
30:27
got to lean into each other and you
30:29
have to share recipes and you have to
30:31
get together and you have to support each
30:32
other.
30:33
Because yeah, you do feel isolated and especially
30:36
anymore with the whole world and everybody kind
30:39
of feels like they're in their own little
30:40
corner.
30:41
And this is where Facebook can really help
30:43
out and that you can build that community
30:46
there.
30:47
I mean, I think this is super important
30:50
because it's a way to weave veganism across
30:55
the United States and make an entire web.
30:59
Look, I am a huge fan of the
31:01
Happy Cow app.
31:02
I urge everyone to get it.
31:04
I have used it from Texas to Vienna
31:06
and all points in between.
31:08
And it shows when you, wherever you are,
31:11
you go in and it shows you a
31:12
vegan restaurant closest to you or vegan restaurants.
31:16
It also shows you non-vegan restaurants with
31:18
vegan options.
31:19
And that has been an incredibly powerful app
31:23
that has been a game changer.
31:26
I almost see this as an app that
31:29
could be developed to connect people.
31:34
I actually tried to start something like this
31:36
but it didn't quite take off.
31:39
The reason being, it was the idea was
31:42
to create like vegans next door, just like
31:44
you have next door that I go on
31:46
all the time, trying to tell people coyotes
31:49
aren't the enemy, you know, and helping people
31:52
when their dogs are lost in the neighbourhood.
31:54
It's a neighbourhood thing.
31:55
So it's either zip code or maybe even
31:57
smaller than zip code but I don't know
32:00
where anybody lives as a result of that.
32:02
But wouldn't it be great to have an
32:03
app where we could identify how many vegans
32:07
we have in either a zip code or
32:09
in a sub-zip code and then bring
32:11
them together.
32:13
Personally, I have found half a dozen vegans
32:16
that live right in my neighbourhood that I
32:17
never knew were there.
32:20
And it was just accidental.
32:23
It shouldn't have to be accidental, Heather.
32:25
There should be a mechanism to allow vegans
32:28
in their community to connect.
32:32
Right.
32:32
I love the idea.
32:34
And I remember when you were talking about
32:36
the idea of that app and I always
32:38
love the idea of getting other vegans together
32:43
in one giant community.
32:45
But the problem with that is we're segregating
32:49
ourselves from the rest of the world.
32:51
And we want to normalise veganism.
32:54
And if we're over here on this other
32:56
app, we're not over here on Facebook or
33:00
Instagram or Blue Sky or wherever sharing veganism.
33:05
We're kind of hiding ourselves away from them.
33:08
Now, on the other hand, it would be
33:10
nice to not see all the meat images
33:14
and images of people hunting or fishing.
33:17
That's always hard as a vegan.
33:19
So, you know, both ways.
33:21
But I think the problem with creating an
33:23
app is it starts out so small that
33:29
people are like, well, there's not enough people
33:30
on here.
33:31
And I have all of my community over
33:34
there.
33:34
But I think we'll eventually have to figure
33:37
out some way.
33:38
And I think Facebook groups is a great
33:40
way because we have here locally, we have
33:42
Fort Wayne Vegans and Vegetarians Group, but then
33:45
we have Vegan Indiana, which brings our whole
33:47
state together.
33:48
And that's one of my next ones as
33:51
well is I want to do a Vegan
33:53
Indiana Restaurant Week where it's all of Indiana
33:57
that's coming together and doing this, not just
34:01
Fort Wayne.
34:02
Well, I'll be honest.
34:04
I'll be honest, like this is all blue
34:07
sky.
34:07
I think this is all brand new thinking
34:10
for me because really, and we did this
34:12
because we wanted to have great food, you
34:15
know, here in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
34:16
So this was a little bit of a
34:17
selfish enterprise for us to first get in
34:21
there, get the restaurants to be okay with
34:23
making, you know, vegan food, putting it on
34:26
their menus on the regular.
34:28
Yeah, I think we should branch out.
34:30
I think it seems like a logical conclusion.
34:33
I've never thought about it before.
34:35
Well, I just think what you've created with
34:37
Fort Wayne, Indiana, Vegan Restaurant, first week and
34:41
then you graduated to month is really a
34:47
template for what could happen across the United
34:52
States in many different towns.
34:55
And I think that's super exciting.
34:58
And the whole idea is to present what
35:01
you've done and then have other people get
35:04
it in their mind, like, ooh, I'd love
35:06
to do it.
35:07
I would love to do it in Marina
35:09
Del Ray, absolutely.
35:10
And I've had problems with, there's a hotel,
35:13
shall go unnamed, that had just opened and
35:17
had no vegan options.
35:18
And then to make it worse, they were
35:20
serving octopus.
35:23
And what I did was I did a
35:26
petition to say, you need to have vegan
35:30
options because it happens to be on land
35:33
owned by the county.
35:34
There's a lot of land owned by the
35:36
county in Marina Del Ray.
35:37
And I said, you have an obligation.
35:40
But see, that was the activist in me
35:42
immediately with the petitions and the thinking about
35:44
protests, whereas perhaps your approach of creating a
35:51
vegan restaurant week and a vegan restaurant month
35:53
and showing them that it can be good
35:56
business is the answer.
35:57
Now, let me ask you this question, because
35:59
I think we've all had the experience of
36:01
being at either a hotel or a restaurant
36:04
that's not vegan.
36:06
And then the entree that they put together
36:09
that's vegan is, I don't wanna use curse
36:12
words, but not good, not good.
36:14
I've had situations where it was drenched in
36:18
you could tell some kind of a lard
36:19
that they didn't realise they were cooking and
36:22
it was inedible to me.
36:24
So how do you train the non-vegan
36:27
restaurants to create vegan food that A, is
36:31
vegan?
36:31
Do you have to educate them?
36:32
Because sometimes people don't know honey isn't vegan.
36:35
There's certain things that they don't realise are,
36:39
I mean, it's a process, not an event.
36:42
What do you do to educate them?
36:44
Right, and a lot of times people think,
36:46
oh, it's gluten free.
36:47
You can eat that, it's gluten free.
36:49
Or I've had family members when we first
36:51
went vegan, oh, it's organic, you can eat
36:54
that.
36:54
And we're like, no, it's still A, because
36:56
even if they're organic, they're still coming out
36:59
of a chicken.
37:00
So we're not going to eat it.
37:02
But I mean, just letting people know, going
37:05
into a restaurant and saying, hey, do you
37:08
have any vegan options?
37:09
Or looking at their menu and creating your
37:12
own options out of it.
37:13
You can always go in and get a
37:14
baked potato.
37:15
Just leave off the butter, get vegetables, ask
37:19
if they're cooked in butter.
37:20
So just starting to educate your restaurants that
37:23
way and the servers.
37:24
And it is kind of like hard sometimes
37:29
because not everybody is interested in feeding vegans.
37:33
But I mean, it's almost 2025.
37:36
Like if you don't have a vegan option
37:38
on your menu currently, you're behind the time.
37:43
Let me ask you, what were some of
37:46
the objections for those who, because we have
37:49
to be prepared if we do this for
37:51
some pushback, not everybody's going to say, yes,
37:55
I'm going to do this.
37:56
I'm going to devote.
37:56
They may feel they have to go out
37:58
and buy different products that they might have
38:00
to spend some time and money educating their
38:03
chefs.
38:03
What were some of the pushbacks you got
38:05
from the restaurants?
38:06
And again, I want to applaud all the
38:08
restaurants that took part in this, but what
38:10
were some of the pushbacks?
38:11
How many restaurants said no?
38:13
And how did you respond to that?
38:15
Well, we have a lot of restaurants in
38:17
Fort Wayne and we have 15 of them
38:20
that participated this year.
38:23
So not everybody's going to participate and that's
38:26
fine.
38:26
Even the, like our all vegan restaurant doesn't
38:28
participate and that's fine.
38:30
It's not for everybody.
38:32
Some places don't have the manpower to get
38:35
as busy as the restaurants do, but just
38:38
educating them on what vegan is and looking
38:41
at their current menu and helping them create
38:44
vegan options out of that.
38:47
Or if they're wanting to try something new,
38:50
just letting them know what's vegan, what they
38:53
can't have in that.
38:58
But I mean, what did they say to
39:00
you when you approached them?
39:01
Did everybody just say, yeah, absolutely.
39:03
Or what was the dialogue so people could
39:05
be prepared?
39:07
Yeah, so we live in the Midwest.
39:09
So there's such a thing as Midwest nice,
39:11
where even if people don't like you, they're
39:13
going to be friendly.
39:15
And so sometimes they would just simply say,
39:17
no, we're not going to participate.
39:19
Some people would just not return phone calls
39:21
or emails or talk to me.
39:25
But for the most part, I think a
39:28
lot of restaurants that I reached out to
39:30
were excited to participate and they would ask
39:33
me questions about it.
39:35
Otherwise they would just say, no, we're not
39:36
interested in doing it at this time.
39:39
Most people are gonna at least be nice
39:41
to your face.
39:42
They're not going to yell at you when
39:45
you go into their restaurant.
39:47
I feel like approaches everything, because we're not
39:51
going and demanding anything from anybody.
39:54
Heather, I mean, before Vegan Restaurant Week was
39:57
even a thing, we were engaging with these
39:59
restaurants on a very nice way saying, hey,
40:03
you could get more people coming in if
40:08
you did this.
40:09
And Heather was consulting with restaurants years ago
40:13
before we ever started doing it.
40:15
But it was always out of an engagement
40:17
of, hey, here's something that might be good
40:21
for you.
40:22
You have to kind of position the whole
40:24
thing, what's in it for them.
40:26
So instead of being like, we demand that
40:29
you do this for us.
40:30
Does that make sense?
40:31
Absolutely, it makes perfect sense.
40:34
Yeah, I had restaurants reach out to me
40:37
who we had gone to their restaurants before
40:40
and they wanted to know, okay, what can
40:43
I label vegan on my menu?
40:46
And they brought out their book of recipes
40:48
and I would go through their book of
40:49
recipes and mark it if it was vegan,
40:51
if it was vegetarian or nothing at all,
40:55
or to let them know, if you just
40:57
switch this one little ingredient, it would be
41:00
vegan and everybody can eat it.
41:02
You'll get more business that way.
41:03
So I did start there with restaurants and
41:08
just kind of building those relationships, being nice
41:10
is free and it goes a long way
41:13
when you're talking to these restaurants who you
41:15
want to go and dine at and you
41:18
want to participate in things.
41:20
Starting to build a community of restaurants as
41:23
well as your community of vegans is I
41:26
guess your first step.
41:28
Wow, well, I think this is so exciting
41:30
and I really hope that it inspires others.
41:33
It's inspired me, but I'll tell you, it's
41:36
a little scary because I don't like rejection
41:39
and the idea that I'm going to go
41:40
into some of these places and get rejected,
41:42
but I like your approach.
41:45
Your approach is, hey, this is, oh, first
41:48
of all, it just occurred to me, once,
41:51
do you say, hey, this one signed up,
41:53
this one signed up, this one signed up,
41:55
you should sign up because if not, you're
41:57
going to be kind of out of it.
41:59
Like, is there that competition that- You
42:03
know, there really hasn't been.
42:06
I'm trying to think back of when we
42:08
did our first one six years ago, I
42:11
think it was just kind of, we had
42:13
another all vegan restaurant at the time that
42:15
participated in a few small places and then
42:19
from there, people heard about it on the
42:21
news or different things and they said, oh,
42:24
hey, I want to be a part of
42:25
that.
42:26
And we just started looking at the different
42:28
restaurants that we thought would be a good
42:30
fit for Vegan Month that would do something
42:32
really, really good, especially local restaurants.
42:35
If you reach out to local restaurants, they're
42:38
able to do a lot more than if
42:39
it's a national chain.
42:41
National chains have to go through corporate, they're
42:43
not going to be interested in trying to
42:46
change things for us, but the local restaurants
42:49
want the business and they want to keep
42:53
their community happy.
42:56
So a lot of times they'll go out
42:58
of the way, even when we go into
42:59
dine, we'll ask for, hey, you don't have
43:02
really anything on the menu, would you mind
43:05
making us this using the ingredients that you
43:08
have that are actually vegan?
43:10
And they're always, a lot of them are
43:11
always happy to do that.
43:13
So starting with those restaurants that are local
43:15
and that can do scratch foods is going
43:19
to be the ones to focus on first.
43:22
I absolutely agree with you.
43:24
Mom and Pop, smaller restaurants that are not
43:27
part of big chains, forget the big chains,
43:29
like that hotel that was serving octopus, that's
43:32
a major brand, one of the biggest in
43:33
the world.
43:34
That's going to be very hard to get
43:36
in there with corporate and make that change.
43:39
We've got a lot of comments coming in.
43:41
Amy Jean Davis says, we're doing the same
43:43
menu adjustment campaign with Plant Based Treaty.
43:46
Paige Parsons Roach and I were out yesterday
43:48
going to cafes and everyone we spoke to
43:50
was very nice.
43:52
So yes, menu adjustment, I like that phrase.
43:57
I think that there's a tendency and I
43:59
suffer from it of all of nothingness.
44:03
Like I want everybody to go vegan tomorrow.
44:07
The idea of adding a vegan option may
44:09
seem like a small thing, but if all
44:14
of that put together is cumulative and I
44:19
really have a new attitude toward what's happening
44:22
with veganism in the United States, I think
44:25
that it's morphing.
44:26
I think it did start out where it
44:29
was kind of like this Californication type, you
44:33
know, hipster thing.
44:34
And then we realised, well, a lot of
44:36
people are alienated by that.
44:38
They may not, they think it's expensive.
44:40
They try to make this, the meat industry
44:44
tries to make that veganism is more expensive
44:46
when we all know it's cheaper.
44:48
You could buy a sack of brown rice,
44:50
a sack of dried beans and a sack
44:53
of potatoes and live for two months.
44:55
And so we all know it's cheaper, but
44:57
the word out there that the advertiser-based
45:03
media tries to push is that it's vegan
45:06
and elitist.
45:07
Now I see a change happening.
45:09
I see that it's going mainstream in these
45:14
smaller towns.
45:15
And I was, again, blown away by the
45:18
vegan options in Las Vegas.
45:20
Not that that's such a small town, but
45:22
it was just, it was shocking.
45:26
I mean, and we talked to a couple
45:29
who came all the way from Florida, who
45:31
run a sanctuary, who fly all the way
45:33
to Las Vegas, not to gamble, but to
45:35
go to this vegan Asian restaurant that makes
45:39
vegan sushi, vegan dim sum, and traditional Chinese
45:43
dishes.
45:44
And the food was so good, I brought
45:46
the leftovers home and had it for lunch
45:48
yesterday because it was absolutely delicious.
45:52
And I'm thinking, we need you to open
45:55
a restaurant in LA like that.
45:57
I was trying to convince all these people.
45:58
But it made me think that, when you
46:01
try to push something down and you try
46:03
to suppress something, which let's face it, the
46:06
meat industry is, there's an article in the
46:08
Guardian that says basically they have a war
46:10
room in Colorado where they send out all
46:14
this negative stuff about ultra processed and never
46:17
mentioning that processed meat is officially cancer causing,
46:21
according to the World Health Organisation.
46:23
So we have to push back.
46:26
And so I see that it's coming, the
46:30
vegan movement is sort of like, okay, you're
46:32
gonna try to push it down here, it's
46:33
gonna pop up here.
46:34
What's your thought on that, JR?
46:37
Well, I think it's all about normalising the
46:40
whole thing.
46:41
Heather and I have been involved with that
46:43
for years, whether it's, Heather gives cooking demos,
46:47
Heather does tabling events.
46:49
And I wanna also stress, one of the
46:52
cool things that these restaurants get is publicity
46:56
out the wazoo.
46:57
I mean, like Heather is doing, she's done
46:59
like maybe three TV interviews.
47:04
She's done, you've got a newspaper and whatever.
47:10
So that's huge for them.
47:13
So they're getting their name out there and
47:15
people are curious.
47:17
So yeah, I think it's all about-
47:19
This is a list of, we're putting up
47:21
a list of all the restaurants that participated
47:24
and kudos to you.
47:26
You're right.
47:27
So that's the other piece of the puzzle
47:29
that we have to explain to people, Heather.
47:31
It's not just, oh, you go up to
47:33
these restaurants, you've issued a news release, which
47:36
I've read, which names all these restaurants, they're
47:38
named on the website.
47:40
And you're also doing TV interviews where you're
47:43
saying, hey, look at these great restaurants that
47:46
are participating.
47:48
So you're providing them free advertising.
47:50
Right, well, the restaurants do pay a little
47:54
bit of money to be in this because
47:56
we do have a lot going on behind
47:59
the scenes that we have to pay for.
48:01
So the restaurants do pay, but they don't
48:03
pay a lot to be included.
48:06
They pay enough to help pay the bills.
48:09
So it's not quite free, but they're getting
48:12
publicity all month.
48:14
I own a marketing agency.
48:16
You can't get the type of publicity that
48:18
these restaurants are getting for even one day
48:22
on what they pay to be included in
48:25
this.
48:25
So yeah, veganism is popping up.
48:28
To go back to what you said, I
48:29
mean, veganism, I see it popping up in
48:32
different cities.
48:33
I mean, we go up to Michigan and
48:35
small towns there, there's Detroit, there's Ann Arbour,
48:38
Traverse City, have all these little pockets of
48:41
veganism around there.
48:43
We go to upstate New York and Rochester
48:47
and different places, and there's little pockets of
48:49
veganism.
48:50
And it's so fun to know that we're
48:53
out there.
48:54
We're not just in the big cities.
48:57
Anywhere you go in the US or even
49:00
outside of the US, there's vegans everywhere, and
49:03
you just are hiding.
49:05
We're hiding everywhere.
49:07
You just don't, yeah, you just don't know
49:09
it.
49:09
So it's a lot of work.
49:14
Don't let me lie and say it's not
49:17
a lot of work.
49:17
I put a lot of work into this
49:19
leading up to it, but I think the
49:22
benefits for the vegan community and the benefits
49:25
for the restaurant and the benefits for the
49:27
animals outweigh like all of the work that's
49:31
put into it.
49:31
And it is kind of a streamlined process
49:33
that I've done the past six years.
49:36
That makes it a lot easier.
49:37
It's a labour of love.
49:38
It's a labour of love.
49:40
I do love it.
49:40
And there's no doubt that, I mean, the
49:43
other restaurants that don't participate, the first year,
49:47
maybe it's a little harder, but they see
49:49
that.
49:49
The other restaurants that don't participate, they see
49:51
that coverage and they're like, ooh, I kind
49:53
of missed the boat on this one.
49:55
And I'll tell you what, if they see
49:56
it two years and they weren't participating and
49:59
they see that coverage, they're like, man, I
50:01
am, so number three, they're definitely on board.
50:04
So yeah, it's a labour of love.
50:06
I know Heather puts in a lot of
50:08
time into this.
50:10
I just get my picture taken, so.
50:13
Well, speaking of that, this conversation has been
50:15
so much fun and it's gone by so
50:17
quickly, I forgot to play, but I'm going
50:20
to play it right now.
50:22
What you do when you're not doing vegan
50:24
restaurant week or vegan restaurant month.
50:27
Oh, right, right.
50:28
Long live the king.
50:29
But what if, say, Jailhouse Rock had been
50:31
written by a vegan instead?
50:35
When a vegan throws a party, you can
50:37
bet your tail, all the chips on the
50:39
plate will all be made of kale.
50:40
The salad and the smoothie will be kale
50:42
as well, cause every single vegan loves the
50:44
kale, kale, kale.
50:45
Let's rock with the lettuce, let's rock.
50:50
Every vegan living on your block will be
50:52
munching on the kale nonstop.
51:02
I'm kale-less.
51:04
Kale-less parsley.
51:06
Thank you very much.
51:10
It's ridiculous.
51:12
I love it.
51:14
And I will say you have a whole
51:16
bunch of others, but I did check and
51:18
Jailhouse Rock is public domain.
51:21
That's why I played that one.
51:22
Oh, is that right?
51:23
Okay, okay.
51:24
You've got plenty of others.
51:26
Super fun.
51:27
Another example of how veganism is a joyous,
51:31
fun, very fun adventure, no sacrifice involved.
51:36
And that's what I think is the final
51:37
thing.
51:38
We've only got a couple of minutes left,
51:39
is that this whole vegan restaurant month, vegan
51:43
restaurant week shows that it's fun, that our
51:49
lifestyle is a blast.
51:52
And frankly, I have to control myself not
51:56
to just make it a social club because
51:57
I could go somewhere every night to a
51:59
different potluck or a different restaurant or a
52:02
different meetup or a different party or a
52:05
different veg fest.
52:09
Your programme of vegan restaurant month needs to
52:12
go coast to coast.
52:14
I personally want to get involved to help
52:16
this.
52:17
I think it should maybe become a 5013
52:21
nonprofit project where you get funding to do
52:25
all this.
52:25
And so that we enable people all around
52:31
the United States and beyond, Canada, Europe, Latin
52:35
America, everywhere, the entire world could be creating
52:40
their vegan restaurant weeks and months in their
52:44
towns because you've provided a very specific template
52:47
almost like a franchise.
52:49
So final thoughts, Heather, what do you say
52:53
to that?
52:53
Yep, I think Jane, you're definitely right.
52:55
And I've procrastinated long enough and I think
52:59
you've just kind of given me the push
53:00
that I need to put together my package
53:04
of everything that we do for vegan restaurant
53:07
week or vegan restaurant month.
53:08
I mean, I don't think many places can
53:10
jump straight to a vegan month starting at
53:13
a vegan restaurant week, even with two restaurants
53:15
is good.
53:17
So yeah, I think that's kind of given
53:19
me the push that I need to put
53:20
everything together and touch base with other vegan
53:24
communities and other towns to say, hey, let's
53:27
get this started in your town.
53:29
And a final thought from JR. You said
53:34
something really interesting.
53:35
You said, you feel like you should make
53:38
it a social club.
53:39
And I think that that's where it's gotta
53:41
start, right?
53:42
It's gotta start as a social club and
53:44
it's gotta start as a network and people
53:47
leaning into one another.
53:48
I mean, the things that we do, everything
53:50
that we do, whether it's the tabling, whether
53:53
it's the vegan restaurant month, whether it's Heather's
53:56
doing the cooking classes, we do all of
53:58
these things out of love and because it's
54:01
a fun thing to do.
54:02
And we wouldn't do any of this if
54:03
it wasn't fun.
54:04
I mean, it's great to be there fighting
54:09
for the animals, but I wanna be a
54:11
happy warrior.
54:12
So that's where it's gotta start, I think.
54:14
Wow, well, please reach out to Plant Based
54:17
Treaty for possible collaboration, says Amy Jean Davis,
54:21
who's a very well-known activist and who
54:24
does so much for animals, people and the
54:28
planet.
54:28
So yes, I think that Plant Based Treaty,
54:32
which tries to turn institutions, cities and restaurants,
54:36
plant-based and individuals would be a great
54:38
collaborator.
54:39
And somebody else said, put them on the
54:41
team.
54:41
Well, guess what?
54:42
Full disclosure, they're already on the team.
54:45
Heather Dahman is on our board on the
54:47
Unchained TV, Jane Unchained News Network, 501C3 nonprofit
54:52
board.
54:52
And she is also our technical director.
54:56
And a lot of what happens on our
54:59
streaming network would not be able to happen
55:02
without Heather.
55:04
So with that, I am going to urge
55:06
everybody, yes, make a vegan restaurant week in
55:12
your town.
55:13
And also, I think you should download Unchained
55:16
TV.
55:17
So it's a vegan Netflix.
55:19
Okay, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard.
55:21
I love Unchained TV.
55:23
Unchained, Unchained TV, your life will change.
55:25
It's just that easy.
55:27
Unchained TV has all sorts of content for
55:29
everybody.
55:30
Unchained TV changed my life.
55:33
Unchained TV is crushing it.
55:35
I love Unchained TV.
55:37
Unchained TV is my go-to.
55:39
Unchained TV, who knew?
55:42
Unchained TV, yeah.