Eat Up! North Carolina Food Crawl Celebrates Earth Month

As the resident gastronome on Team OMD, I’m always talking about food. Whether I’m obsessing over the perfect temperature to roast a butternut squash or searching for muscadines at my local farmer’s market here in North Carolina, delicious plant-based food is always on my mind.

When I transitioned to a plant-based diet a year ago, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to do one of my favorite foodie things — going out and eating at a restaurant. The South is known for its great food, but being plant-based in the meat-centric South? That sounded like being relegated to sad veggie sandwiches and hummus plates forever. Luckily, I was wrong!

Plant-based innovation is worthy of a celebration, so we teamed up with Bull City Vegan to create Dine Out for the Planet weekend, April 12-14, to celebrate Earth Month! We encouraged folks across North Carolina to dig in and veg out with the help of our new North Carolina Plant-Based Eaters Guide to help people find local grub!

The weekend was a blast. I joined fellow North Carolinians during my plant-based food crawl and also hosted a local Meetup on Sunday at Dos Perros, a Mexican restaurant in Durham, to share stories, talk about how people can get involved in OMD and hear about others’ plant-based journeys and challenges. Check out some of the highlights:

We had 32 participating restaurants across the state, but here are some of my favorite spots:

Soul Cocina — Chapel Hill, NC
nOma food & co — Greensboro, NC
Vegan Flava Cafe — Chapel Hill, NC
Living Kitchen — Raleigh, NC
Jack’s Corner Mediterranean Deli — Greensboro, NC
Dos Perros — Durham, NC
Pure Juicery Bar — Cary, NC
Rumi Persian Cafe — Durham, NC
Anisette Sweet Shop — Raleigh, NC
Souly Vegan Cafe — Durham, NC

More local restaurants are creating plant-based confections, but change only happens when businesses hear from patrons like you, or from advocacy groups like the amazing folks at Durham’s Bull City Vegan!