Friday, March 16, 2018

Vegan Options at Arooga's

Arooga's in opening up in a town close to me, and they have the Impossible Burger!  Exciting, right?  I know some people don't consider it vegan because the company that took part in animal testing.  You can find a pdf of their statement, The Agonizing Dilemma of Animal Testing" here.  But I shop at stores that sell animal products and animal-tested products, and most of my favorite vegan products are being bought out by non-vegan companies.  If I villanize them for what they did, wouldn't I be a hypocrite?

Back to why you're here.  When I checked out Arooga's menu, I noticed their Impossible Burger comes on a brioche bun, with (what I'm going to assume is) a non-vegan-friendly special sauce and American or Cheddar cheese.  The rest of the menu seemed pretty non-vegan-friendly too.  I couldn't find contact information on their site, so I tweeted them asking for one.  Radio silence.  Then I messaged my local chain on Facebook and they did respond with the following:

"The Impossible burger is vegan but the process in which we cook and prepare it makes it vegetarian only.  Our brioche bun has egg as well as our faux wings.  Our vegan options are limited to our salads with a few replacements."

Well, that's disappointing.  I'm uncertain who they think they're marketing this burger too.  Vegetarians don't normally eat eggs and if you're cutting back on red meat as per doctor's orders, then why is there not-so-heart-healthy items like cheese, mayo, and eggs?  Even getting back to the vegetarian aspect, there are eight items listed on their menu as "vegetarian", most of which contain eggs.  So unless you're an Ovo-Vegetarian (Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarian if you're eating eggs and dairy, FYI)...yeah, that stuff is a no-go too.

I'm always baffled why these chains understand there is a demand for vegan items, but half-ass add them.  How hard would it be to make actual vegetarian or vegan food?  I'll steer clear of Arooga's until they can, at the very least, learn the definition of a vegetarian...





3 comments:

  1. Just discovered this post googling "vegan options at Arooga's". They offer the Beyond Brat sausage now; it comes on a non-vegan roll (vegan rolls are available... $1 more though) and there is cheese (ask for no cheese), mustard, and onion. For appetizers, the pretzel nuggets are vegan (no cheese!). Wish those faux wings were vegan though...

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  2. Whatever your reasons are for making the transition to the vegan diet, write them down on paper. Stick them where you can see them every day such as on the fridge.Going vegan

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  3. While it's true the process for creating the Impossible Burger wouldn't be considered vegan by some vegans, the 2nd product release used NO animal testing results and are therefore, vegan. Hasn't Arroga's labeled their faux wings as vegan? Bad news. Big fans!

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