Le Vegan Week kicks off in Winnipeg with pizza, burgers, sushi and more

Nearly 40 Winnipeg restaurants are offering a slew of plant-based menu items for the city's inaugural Le Vegan Week, which starts on Sunday.

The idea came about after the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled this year's annual VegFest event, which usually sees vendors, speakers and more gather to promote plant-based living, said organizer Stasa Veroukis-Regina.

Instead, the Winnipeg VegFest committee decided to come up with a new way people could explore vegan food — which has no animal products like meat, eggs and dairy.

"We wanted to do something to support the local community," Veroukis-Regina told CBC's Weekend Morning Show host Nadia Kidwai on Sunday.

"Restaurants in Winnipeg and chefs in Winnipeg have been doing such a great job in being so creative with vegan foods [and have] really stepped up their game, and we wanted to incorporate that."

She said organizers were overwhelmed and "absolutely thrilled" by the response they got, as an initial roster of 22 participants quickly grew to almost 40 local restaurants from all corners of the city now offering their own take on vegan comfort food.

Those places aren't just restaurants that normally specialize in vegan food — in fact, most of them aren't, she said.

And the list ranges from spots that specialize in everything from Vietnamese food and sushi to ice cream and doughnuts to pizza and burgers to beer and fresh-pressed juice.

"We have diners. We have high-end restaurants. We've got different ethnicities represented as well, which was also very important to us," Veroukis-Regina said.

"There might still be a perception that, you know, vegans only eat salads or green things…. [But] there's pasta and pizza and burgers, and there's curries and vermicelli bowls, and there's tandoori bowls and there's a sloppy joe."

Organizers wanted to represent all of Winnipeg in the offerings for the first-ever Le Vegan Week — and that includes people who have never had a vegan meal before, Veroukis-Regina said.

She said she's been vegan for four years and has seen plant-based foods become more popular in the time since.

"When I walked into a restaurant four years ago, it wasn't that difficult for me to get something to eat. I would ask a couple questions and the kitchen would make something for me or alter something on the menu," she said.

But now, there are usually already vegan options on the menu, she said.

Veroukis-Regina said she already has her eye on a few items created for Le Vegan Week, like a seitan chicken burger at Bernstein's Deli, a garlic and mushroom pizza at Pizzeria Gusto and a bean enchilada at JC's Tacos and More.

"There's just so many," she said. "It's never been easier to walk into a restaurant and order something vegan."

The first-ever Le Vegan Week runs until Jan. 23, with each restaurant donating $50 to local animal sanctuary The Good Place, Veroukis-Regina said. People can vote for their favourite dish on the VegFest website.