Well, is it?
On the surface, it would seem not. Let's face it - before I relocated here from Seattle, when I thought "Vegan Friendly", Fort Wayne was not the first city that came to mind. A quick Google search for 'Vegan restaurants in Fort Wayne' returned a meager five listings - and only one of them truly vegan - The Loving Cafe, Chipotle, Flat Top Grill, Naked Tchopstix, and Pembroke Bakery & Cafe. All are good restaurants in my opinion, but hey, a girl likes a little variety when she goes out to eat. I'll admit, I was a bit disheartened by my search results. After all, I had recently come here from the land of gluten-free this and organic that. I had almost resigned myself to just skipping eating out altogether and cooking at home every night when a fresh resolution to find veg-friendly restaurants came to me. And then I started digging.
The results were pleasantly surprising. Although the restaurants in Fort Wayne that call themselves vegan can be counted on one hand, the vegan-friendly restaurants are far more numerous. The Dash-In, for example, has a few vegan options on their menu (psst - try the Black Bean Cakes, they're delicious!), and places like Red Robin, Moe's, Penn Station, and Ruby Tuesday have options that allow you to "veganize" your meal - but then, of course, you are rolling the dice on how your food is prepared. There are also the more exotic options - most Thai, Ethiopian, Chinese, and Asian Fusion restaurants have vegan and vegetarian dishes on their menu. Then of course there are options like the Co-Op, if you feel like choosing from their prepared dishes section and picnic-ing it.
So what's my final answer to the question of vegan friendliness, you ask?
It's a yes, given you know where to look (and there's plenty of room for improvement). I'm only speaking for myself here, but I could definitely forego the endless online menu-perusing to hunt for vegan options when I want to go out for a meal. And with the growing number of customers crying for vegan food, the market is certainly growing. So if you ask me, Fort Wayne is undoubtedly ready for a few more vegan restaurants, or at the very least, restaurants that offer a vegan menu. So until then, I'll just keep looking. Veg-on, friends.
