The Legumes du Marché at DB Bistro Moderne, as tasty as they are pretty.
I’m assistant managing editor at a Big Fancy-Pants Magazine, and I have the corporate card to prove it. This means that occasionally I have to take people to lunch, at high-end restaurants in Midtown. You know what that means: not a whole lot of options for the token vegan.
Now, you’d think that when you’re paying that much for a meal, you’d have better options than asking them to leave the cheese out of the salad. But at places like these, meat commands respect, the rarer the better; the soups are all made with some kind of animal stock; and maybe they can make the vegetables with oil instead of butter, but doesn’t that get boring after a while? Plus, it always leaves the omnis looking at you like, Is that all vegans can eat?
Recently I had back-to-back lunches in which I had to play well with omnivorous others, and I hit three of the top spots around our office. The first was The Lambs Club (I know, even the name…), a very who’s who in the magazine world kind of place with a huge fireplace. While my lunchmate dined on a lobster roll sandwich (and I apologized to the poor little crustacean in my head), I had a side of corn and a side of lentils. Maybe a salad sans chicken, egg, hanger steak or tuna would have made a better showing, but I just didn’t feel like asking for Item A Minus Pretty Much Everything Besides the Lettuce. And there were French fries, but what’s the fun in that? And then of course, came dessert: none for me. No surprise there.
Next up was DB Bistro Moderne, also elegantly decorated but a little less stuffy-feeling. Continue Reading…
