Cities keep surprising me. My wife and I were able to spend a very long weekend in Detroit completely meat free. We suspected doing so would prove difficult, but every place we ended up had at least one vegan option. The surprises just kept coming.
Before we even made it to Detroit, we had the shock of our gastronomic lives. In Farmington Hills, Michigan sits a very humble and unassuming place called The House of Falafel. We found it via a simple internet search. We both ordered the vegan falafel burger and we both agreed it was the best falafel we had ever eaten in our lives. We had no idea that falafel could taste so amazing. If we lived nearby we might visit weekly. The only disappointing thing was the end, when all of the food was gone. Absolutely amazing. After taking a bite, I even took a picture of the burger to remember it. If I'm ever in that area again, I will make a point of returning.
In Detroit itself, the vegan options kept popping up. The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation offered good vegan cauliflower tacos. The Detroit Zoo's Table 28 restaurant, the only one open at the time of our visit, offered vegan burgers. The Detroit Institute of Art's restaurant in Kresge Court offered a vegan falafel pita (they called it a wrap, but it came in pita bread) and pretty good vegan cake. We had no trouble finding vegan options no matter where we went, even at places that don't usually offer such items. In our experience, art museums and zoos rarely offer vegan items, but perhaps that's changing? Japanese and Indian restaurants (we even found dosa) offered other options.
Not only did Detroit provide plenty of interesting things to do (the art museum and the penguin exhibit at the zoo in particular were amazing), it offered more than enough options to avoid meat throughout the city. We didn't even eat everywhere we wanted to in our long weekend. Overall, a very great experience.
(And yes, I do have very mixed feelings about zoos, but I won't go into that here)
Before we even made it to Detroit, we had the shock of our gastronomic lives. In Farmington Hills, Michigan sits a very humble and unassuming place called The House of Falafel. We found it via a simple internet search. We both ordered the vegan falafel burger and we both agreed it was the best falafel we had ever eaten in our lives. We had no idea that falafel could taste so amazing. If we lived nearby we might visit weekly. The only disappointing thing was the end, when all of the food was gone. Absolutely amazing. After taking a bite, I even took a picture of the burger to remember it. If I'm ever in that area again, I will make a point of returning.
In Detroit itself, the vegan options kept popping up. The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation offered good vegan cauliflower tacos. The Detroit Zoo's Table 28 restaurant, the only one open at the time of our visit, offered vegan burgers. The Detroit Institute of Art's restaurant in Kresge Court offered a vegan falafel pita (they called it a wrap, but it came in pita bread) and pretty good vegan cake. We had no trouble finding vegan options no matter where we went, even at places that don't usually offer such items. In our experience, art museums and zoos rarely offer vegan items, but perhaps that's changing? Japanese and Indian restaurants (we even found dosa) offered other options.
Not only did Detroit provide plenty of interesting things to do (the art museum and the penguin exhibit at the zoo in particular were amazing), it offered more than enough options to avoid meat throughout the city. We didn't even eat everywhere we wanted to in our long weekend. Overall, a very great experience.
(And yes, I do have very mixed feelings about zoos, but I won't go into that here)
