Meet Vegans

By Tim State in Food on Jun 2, 2007 10:34PM

Now, we love our meat. This is the Midwest after all. Chicago was home to the Chicago Union Stock Yards once dubbed, “slaughterhouse to the world.” So we guess it's no real big surprise Chicago is also home to the world’s largest vegan social network: VegChicago, with 840 members.

VegChicago hosts monthly gatherings, generally dine-outs. Their website says, “No agendas, no pressure… just a pleasant social setting for vegans, vegetarians, and veg-curious to meet, network, or just get out with like-minded folks.”

So when Chicagoist got an email for VegChicago’s Meetup at Foster Avenue Beach, we thought we’d check it out. (Does anyone else find juicy irony in he fact that when vegetarians cluster, they call it a “meetup”?) Particularly when we saw they were going to be playing Four Square. Adults playing Four Square, people! When we got there, sure enough, vegans were bouncing a ball around a path, arguing over whether it was a line-ball or not.

VegChicago was also cooking out, serving Veggie Bite – the first fast-service vegan restaurant ever. The current (and only) location is way South, but their Web site says a future North Side location is coming soon. While we think nothing’s quite tastier than a peppercorn-crusted fillet of beef, Veggie Bite had some pretty tasty meat-free alternatives and we’re certainly looking forward to them moo-ving into new neighborhoods.