Follow Your Heart, a vegan food manufacturer and popular vegetarian cafe and market in Los Angeles, just announced its new vegan menu. The historic restaurant, which has been vegetarian since it first opened in 1970, is going entirely plant-based.
In over forty years of business, Follow Your Heart has grown into one of the most recognized vegan product brands. It began with its iconic Vegenaise, a plant-based, eggless mayo that the company introduced on its early 1970s menu. Customers who ordered the original Avocado, Tomato, and Sprouts Sandwich began asking for this vegan condiment by the jar, and the product took off. Since then, Follow Your Heart has expanded its offerings to include a wide range of vegan dressings, cheeses, gluten-free breads, yogurts, and most recently, two versions of the revolutionary VeganEgg and a pourable pancake mix.
While all Follow Your Heart products are vegan, the cafe continued to serve dairy items. However, yesterday, the company announced on Instagram that it has officially adopted a fully vegan menu. “In keeping with our values to support the planet, the welfare of animals, and our health, we have evolved the emphasis from our historical lacto-vegetarian tradition to a primarily plant-based offering,” the company wrote. The post continued, “All references to meat, cheese, or other dairy-type ingredients on the menu are vegan.”
In an effort to not exclude any of its customers, the company will still offer a few dairy items upon request. Instead of traditional menus where vegan options are clearly labeled, the select dairy items will be marked on the cafe menu as D(O). To those who may prefer dairy, Follow Your Heart commented, “We hope you’ll give our excellent vegan alternatives a try.”
The new vegan menu includes a wide range of comfort food and diner-style dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. New items include a Seasonal Cheese Plate, Fettuccine Alfredo, and an Organic Tofu Bahn Mi. The classics have also remained on the menu, as the cafe will continue to serve veganized versions of its popular sandwiches, burgers, soups, salads, pancakes, and tofu scrambles.
The company’s post concluded, “We invite you to sit back and relax, enjoy good food and good company, and we thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you.”
Image Credit: Follow Your Heart Market & Cafe.
[April 18, 2018: this article was updated. The Follow Your Heart Cafe never sold eggs but the market did.]