Turkeys this year can be thankful for local vegan and vegetarians.
Green, a vegan-vegetarian restaurant in Phoenix and Tempe, will host its fourth annual ThanksLiving Thursday at noon at the Tempe location with a multi-course gourmet buffet style dinner and live entertainment.
“The only difference is there isn’t a dead bird in the middle of our table,” said Damon Brasch, Green’s owner and chef.
Brasch said they will serve everything from seitan turkey breast, a wheat gluten mock meat, to homemade organic winterberry and oatmeal cobbler.
Green’s general manager Trygve Johnson said “omnivores” will be present among the 600 attendees.
About 30 percent of Green’s customers are omnivores, Johnson said.
Theresa Sarna, Whole Foods Market marketing supervisor, said she sees all types of people purchase healthier options in this busy time of year.
“They are people embracing that new way of life,” Sarna said. “We see more people switching to a plant-based diet.”
Elementary education senior Anthony Espinoza became a vegetarian after researching its health benefits.
Vegetarianism can be associated with lower cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure levels and lower risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to a July 2009 press release from the American Dietetic Association.
Espinoza said there are additional benefits to being vegetarian.
“I am glad to become vegetarian because it forced me to try new foods,” he said.
Espinoza said this year he will spend an additional Thanksgiving dinner with his vegan friends because his family celebrated it last Saturday.
“I am looking forward to being around people like me and being able to enjoy everything and not just some things,” Espinoza said.
Sarna said there are options, like the Whole Foods Market Vegan Meal for One, to vegetarians or vegans who are spending Thanksgiving with their turkey-eating families.
“You can eat anywhere, but you have to be alternative,” Sarna said.
Journalism junior Grant Francis said he has struggled with the idea of being vegetarian because he spent time in Brazil, where most dishes had meat.
Francis said his second attempt as a vegetarian has been easier because of health reasons and ironically, his sweet tooth.
Francis said he doesn't feel isolated spending Thanksgiving dinner with his family.
“No one is upset that I don't eat meat,” Francis said.
In the same way, Francis said he doesn't advocate the vegetarian diet to meat eaters. He just asks for people to keep an open mind.
Johnson said Green is not hosting the event to promote vegetarian diets, but healthier eating.
“We are not here to here to preach to anyone what they should or shouldn't do, but if you are going to eat meat then eat local and organic,” Johnson said.
Reach the reporter at thaniaAB@asu.edu
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