Veganism is one of the big new trends of the late 00s. You can’t go anywhere, it seems, without hearing about something being vegan friendly or some new vegan food coming out. A small number of vegans have been quite aggressive in their determination to get people, meat-eaters especially, to switch over not over to a vegan diet, but also a vegan lifestyle. There have been a few instances where vegans have stormed steakhouses and other such restaurants to try to get their point across. It’s obvious that the entire world population is never going to ‘go vegan’, but an interesting question is raised in this debate: should all restaurants have vegan options?
Frankly, no restaurant should be forced to have vegan options on its menu. All restaurants should be free to decide what dishes they serve and what appetites they cater for. If a restaurant wants to specialise in seafood, that’s fine. If a restaurant wants to specialise in vegan food, that’s fine too. So long as restaurants are selective, there will always be some who can’t eat there and will have to find somewhere else to eat. But, that’s no real big issue because not every restaurant is going to be able to accommodate very kind of eater.
People have all sorts of dietary requirements and whatnot and someone who is fussy about what they eat isn’t going to be able to eat everywhere; they just have to accept that fact. if all restaurants catered for vegans and other people with specific requirements, there’d be less room for restaurants to be creative and unique. Restaurants should always have the freedom to determine what they serve their guests. If they want to aim for the mass market and offer a bit of everything, catering to every possible dietary requirement, great. But you can’t criticise a restaurant if it’s selective and, let’s say, not catering for vegans. If vegans, for example, are critical of a seafood restaurant for not having vegan options, those who eat seafood have just as much a right to be critical of vegan restaurants for not offering seafood.
Not everyone eats every kind of food. Many people are selective about what they eat for various reasons and many restaurants are selective about the food they serve. Vegans and anyone else with specific dietary requirements can’t expect every single restaurant to cater for their needs, simply because they’re the minority right now and many restaurants, as businesses, have to focus on the majority. Sure, there are loads of big-name restaurants that do their best to accommodate everyone, but if you’re selective, you can’t criticise a restaurant for being selective as well.
