Meatless Monday fans crave seasonal fare, survey says

In a recent online survey, two-thirds of respondents said they would opt for a local restaurant that promoted Meatless Monday and would bring their friends along for the ride.

Respondents also weighed in on the types of promotions that would entice them to dine at a restaurant offering a Meatless Monday menu. The most popular include:

• Meatless Monday seasonal specials: 56 percent

• Discounts on Meatless Monday featured items: 53 percent

• Chef tasting menus: 40 percent

As for the menu options, here’s what survey participants preferred:

• Seasonality. 59 percent said they would like to see “anything in season” on a restaurant menu.

• Most popular choices were veggie burgers (39 percent), followed by grilled vegetables (37 percent) and vegetable soup (29 percent).

• Black bean burgers (27 percent) and mushroom burgers (25 percent) topped burger options, followed by lentil, tempeh and walnut burgers.

Jason Weiner, who offers a prix fixe Meatless Monday menu at his Almond restaurants in NYC and Bridgehampton, NY, is one of many chefs who are fans of the program.

“Meatless Monday is expanding our clientele, challenging our cooks and supporting our local growers. Put simply, Meatless Mondays is win, win, win,” Weiner says.

Here’s what top chefs Bill Telepan (Telepan), Ivy Stark (Dos Caminos), Matteo Bergamini (SD26) and Bryce Shuman, Betony and Jonathan Waxman (Barbuto) say about the benefits of Meatless Monday:

Meatless Monday talks to Top Chefs 1 from Meatless Monday on Vimeo.

The Meatless Monday movement, founded by Monday Campaigns’ Chairman Sid Lerner with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2003, encourages people to cut back on meat consumption one day a week for their health and the health of our planet. Restaurants do not need to take meat off their menus; they simply promote their plant-based dishes on the first day of the week. The campaign is founded on research that demonstrates Monday is the day we are most primed to start and sustain a healthy new behavior.

Just over 200 respondents completed the survey, which was promoted on the Meatless Monday Facebook page.