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Compiled by Dilip Barman of Triangle Vegetarian Society Whether you are a resident of the Raleigh-Chapel Hill-Durham Piedmont area of North Carolina or just visiting, and whether you are a vegetarian or just interested in looking for a vegetarian-friendly restaurant, food preparation course, or other similar resource, hopefully this information will be of value to you. If you are indeed traveling through our area, feel free to contact us if we can help to make your visit more enjoyable. We will try to keep this information current and encourage updates if you find errors or additions. But please do reconfirm any information, such as business operating times, that may be important to you. Triangle Vegetarian Society (also abbreviated "TVS" and what is meant here by "we"; "I" refers to Dilip's opinions) attempts to provide a handy compilation here, but is not endorsing any of these organizations. All area codes are 919. Restaurants TVS has been reviewing restaurants since before 1997 and the one rule that we follow is that a restaurant we review must be able to offer at least one vegan (purely plant-based) entree, and we haven't run out of restaurants to visit. You can visit our online reviews and can email to become part of the group that reviews restaurants. Vegetarian Restaurants The Triangle is blessed with an excellent concentration of South Indian vegetarian restaurants and I've found it difficult to find consistently better dosa (a South Indian crepe) any other places, including my travels to places like the Bay Area of California and New York City. Most of what they offer is vegan, but do ask to ensure that ghee (clarified butter) or yogurt isn't used in any particular dish, if you are vegan.
Udipi Cafe
Tower Restaurant
Sage Vegetarian Cafe
Once in a Blue Moon Bakery and Cafe (in addition to being able to make vegan baked
goods, they offer an all-vegetarian lunch)
Third Place Coffeehouse
Cool Breeze Vegetarian-Friendly Restaurants Most restaurants should be able to come up with vegetarian or vegan options. Here are a few that are particularly noteworthy.
Neomonde's - please reconfirm, but they seem to make their falafels in
oil dedicated to this and not also used to fry non-vegetarian items Two locations:
10235 Chapel Hill Road
3817 Beryl Road
Margaret's Cantina - they can use tempeh creatively in a number of
their southwest-inspired dishes, like fajitas and enchiladas
Cafe Parizäde - TVS has its annual Thanksgiving event here, when
we transform this fine Mediterranean-inspired restaurant into an all-vegan gourmet buffet. Their normal menu has a number of vegetarian items and they can make many of their dishes vegan Whole Foods Market - we have four of them in each of the Triangle cities and Cary, and they each include a deli and salad bar which can have a good and wide selection of vegetarian and vegan options. Weaver Street Market - like Whole Foods, their deli and salad bar offers a number of choices Pizza Any pizzeria should be able to make a pizza with your choice of vegetable toppings but with cheese withheld for vegans. Ask to make sure that the crust doesn't contain eggs or honey if you are vegan, and double check that the sauce isn't a meat sauce. An increasing number of pizzerias are offering soy "cheese"; beware that many soy cheeses contain caseine, a milk derivative. Lilly's - definitely reconfirm, but offers a caseine-free soy cheese. Their crust appears to be vegan other than a "tiny amount" of honey, but they have made honey-free vegan crusts in the past. Pepper's - their crust may have honey but otherwise, like Lilly's, they offer a large variety of interesting vegetarian toppings Groceries Vegetarian Food Stores We used to have one all-vegetarian grocery store (Durham Food Coop), but currently no grocery store is non-meat. Vegetarian-Friendly Food Stores Increasingly, standard grocery stores like Harris Teeter and Food Lion are offering "Natural Foods" (would you ever want to eat anything else?!) sections where items like organic produce, non-dairy "ice cream"s and "milk"s, whole-grained baked goods, and other items are readily available. Some of the stores that have a larger selection of items of particular interest to vegetarians are: Whole Foods Market (see above) Weaver Street Market (see above) Earth Fare - Brierdale Shopping Center, 10341 Moncreiffe Rd, Raleigh, 433-1390 Fresh Market - 3 locations: 400 Woodburn Rd, Raleigh, 828-7888; 6661 Falls of Neuse Rd, Raleigh, 676-2939; and 3655 SW Cary Pkwy, Cary, 481-2865 Durham Food Coop Harmony Farms Food Preparation Classes Carrboro ArtsCenter (919-929-2787) offers vegan cooking classes that Dilip teaches, as well as raw foods preparation classes by TVS member Frances O'Hallaran. TVS member Jodi O'Neill (jeo@nc.rr.com, 919-462-0672) offers 3-hour vegan cooking classes culminating in lunch, as well as a bread-baking class in her Cary home. The Town of Cary (460-4963) offers vegetarian cooking classes. TVS member Leila Chung through her company Delight Foods offers periodic vegan cooking classes. Dr. and Mrs. Tony and Linda Tanaydin of LodeStar Institute offer food and lifestyle classes in their North Raleigh home (info@LodeStarInstitute.net, 919-772-1132). Catering Dilip (barman@jhu.edu) occasionally offers catering of vegetarian foods or menu design for events. TVS member Jo Pelligra's company Vegetarian Home Dinners (vegdinners@mindspring.com, 919-286-9530) offers healthy vegetarian and vegan meals that they prepare and deliver. Bakeries like Once in a Blue Moon Bakery and Cafe, Whole Foods, and Weaver Street (all mentioned above) can make vegan baked goods such as birthday or wedding cakes. Flutterbye Cakes specializes in vegan, sugar-free, and flourless cakes. Organizations Triangle Vegetarian Society maintains an active calendar of events, including potluck dinners, discussions, lectures, holiday gatherings, and restaurant reviews. Don't miss our annual Thanksgiving event which draws hundreds of people and is usually featured in the local newspapers and at least one local television news program! Consider joining us! Also, please see our links to other local organizations, in areas such as animal rights and macrobiotics. Tom Regan, professor emeritus of North Carolina State University and past-chair, Department of Philosophy, is one of the key scholars in the modern animal rights movement and his organization, Culture and Animals Foundation hosts an annual conference in early October around Gandhi's birthday, the Compassionate Living Festival. The Triangle area has many campus organizations that may be of interest, including NCSU's Students Protecting Animals, Responsibly and Compassionately, which maintains a list of vegetarian friendly restaurants near their Raleigh campus; and Duke University's Plan V vegetarian club, which has a list of Durham vegetarian friendly restaurants. Internationally known animal advocate Dietrich von Haugwitz (July 14, 1927-June 26, 2007) maintained a collection of video tapes on animal issues. They are available by contacting Beth Levine at bethforanimals@earthlink.net or 919-845-3035. There are some "living foods" (raw vegan foods) resources forming. Since early 2004, raw potlucks, "pizza" parties, and similar events in Raleigh are being organized by Rebecca Jordan. Raleigh-based The Raw Choice began selling their products through area Whole Foods Markets mid-2004. There are plans to open a raw foods café, also in Raleigh, in 2004 or 2005. Miscellaneous
vegraleigh.blogspot.com is an online "blog" of commentary about Raleigh area vegetarian food. Dilip also, since March 2006, maintains a blog at dilipdinner.blogspot.com of his vegan cooking.
Created: May 30, 2004
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