The (Vegan) Baseball Roadtrip: An Introduction

One of the things I wanted to do when I first decided to start this blog was to create an archive of the information I accrued about various ballparks and baseball towns, and which veg*n-friendly¹ places were the best to eat. This is primarily because I am from a place far away from my favorite team, and am generally unfamiliar with the Cleveland area, which means that when I go to see my team, I'm always a little bit lost about where to eat and what to do. While a lot of people live in the city where their favorite team plays, many more people live in the region around that city. I also hate calling in places to ask them annoying questions, so I figured other people probably feel much the same way, so an internet source is often something of a service.

What I will be doing is unlikely to be a "roadtrip" per se, primarily because I lack the money to afford the hotel stays that a proper roadtrip would require. However, this summer, I'll be visiting several ballparks as part of a Finally Getting My Bachelor's Degree present for myself.

Links to Helpful Things From Other Blogs

Everywhere
Happy Cow Vegetarian Restaurant Guide: It doesn't have every restaurant in every city, but it's a good starting place if you don't have any idea where to eat in a new city.

Cleveland
From Mistake By the Lake: Parking Prices near Jacob's Field

Seattle
From Marinerds: Safeco Food Project

Posts I Have Made

... I am a big slacker.

Further cities and parks coming soon, so watch this space!

---

Before I get this party rolling, here are some straightforward tips I've gotten on eating while traveling from... pretty much every book I've read on the topic (mostly Vegan Freak and How It All Vegan).


1. Ethnic food is your friend
Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mexican places will often have some sort of veg*n option.

2. Call ahead
Sarah Kramer recommends first of all calling a local health food store to ask what restaurants in town they recommend for vegans. She also recommends calling any restaurant you intend to visit, asking if they can accommodate you ahead of time. That way, if they can't, you'll know before you go there. Personally, I hate making phone calls to places of business for some reason, so this piece of advice is always difficult for me to make.

In this case, also give the ballparks a call. Some ballparks do carry (or have in the past carried) vegetarian faux-hot dogs and the like. It'd be nice to know about that ahead of time so you can have a "hot dog" with your buddies at the game, right?

3. Ask the Internet
This is my own recommendation, but I tend to ask people from the area before I go if they know of any good veg*n restaurants. Sometimes the recommendations are hard to follow, but it's always smart to ask first.

4. Feed yourself!
This is especially useful on actual roadtrips. Vegan Freak recommends "self-catering" from grocery stores, rather than eating food you don't really like from restaurants. If it's a short, day-long trip, you can always pack food. (I recommend checking out the stuff at Vegan Lunch Box, which is for kids, but I'd eat it. It looks delish.) If you live in a very rural area with no good vegan specialty foods outside of a small-ish selection of soymilks or something, check out places like Food Fight Grocery or Vegan Essentials for non-perishable, non-cook items you could pack on a roadtrip.

Eating on the road can be scary, especially if you're a rural vegan like me, who normally eats at home, able to better control the ingredients in one's food. That said, there usually are places to eat, and I'm going to try to figure them out.

¹ veg*n is shorthand for "vegan or vegetarian." It's used... primarily because I'm lazy. For those of you who are not veg*n and might be confused, a vegetarian doesn't eat meat (yes, including fish), while a vegan eschews all animal products and by-products, such as meat, eggs, and dairy.