See Which Eateries Made PETA’s List for the Best Vegan Soul Food

Group Celebrates the Restaurants Dishing Up the Best Jerk Jackfruit, Vegan Sandwiches, Fried Chik’n, and More

For Immediate Release:
June 23, 2020

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Norfolk, Va. – As restaurants welcome diners back after COVID-19 shutdowns, PETA is highlighting some of the Top Vegan Soul Food Restaurants across the country.

The honorees include Souley Vegan in Oakland, California, where the specialties include The Southern Staples Bowl—a generous serving of grits, crispy tofu, and house-made okra gumbo. Drop Squad Kitchen in Wilmington, Delaware, is known for its sandwiches—like the Olmec, which is filled with BBQ jerk “chicken,” and the Tunut, which comes with a pumpkin seed pâté. In Boise, Idaho, Vegan Soul dishes up hits like its Southern vegan fried chicken dinner, which is served with yams, mac and “cheese,” and collards. The rotating menu at Veltree in Charlotte, North Carolina, might include the popular “It’s Not Popeyes” Chik’n, and Trio Plant-Based in Minneapolis offers a Soul Food Platter with a choice of mac and “cheese,” collard greens, cornbread, BBQ jackfruit ribs, and more.

“Whether you’re in the mood for unique and super-tasty items or craving an old favorite like chicken and waffles, BBQ ribs, or sweet potato pie, these eateries have a vegan dish for you,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “All the restaurants on PETA’s list are satisfying diners’ hunger for soul food that’s as delicious as it is kind to animals.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that going vegan is a social justice issue. Vegan restaurants help keep some communities from being stranded in food deserts, which contribute to higher rates of strokes, heart disease, and diabetes—all conditions that going vegan can help prevent—and each person who goes vegan combats speciesism, the archaic belief that other animals are inherently inferior to humans and that it’s acceptable to exploit them. Vegans also have a smaller carbon footprint and a lower risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and strokes than meat-eaters do.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.