So when Dougherty and her friend Liz Peterson decided to start a restaurant, "I joked about having it be completely vegetarian, except for one hamburger."
It didn't quite turn out that way, but A Full Plate (Northern Liberties) opened in spring 2006 with an interesting balance of vegetarian and vegan "comfort foods" alongside the burgers, ribs and turkey meatloaf.
But the main dishes like tofu jambalaya and vegetarian riblet sandwiches aren't the whole story.
"All of our sides are vegetarian," Dougherty points out. "We don't put [meat] stock in soups or anything like that. If it can be made vegetarian, we do."
Similarly, the restaurant watches out for vegans, whose difficulties Dougherty recognizes.
"If there doesn't need to be cream or butter in the dish, we don't put it in there. But," she cautions, "we don't have a vegan mac and cheese."
Overall, inclusiveness is a common refrain. While vegetarian restaurants tend to be started by vegetarians interested in persuading palates, many regular restaurateurs are seeing vegetarian and vegan menus as good economics.
As omnivore Moshe Malka says about his vegan sandwich line (see sidebar), the decision to go veg was "strictly business. It's not a way of life with me."
Nick Cooney, who oversaw the launch of VegPA.net (the site is a project of Philly-based vegetarian organization Hugs for Puppies), agrees that commerce can be a real motivator.
"It's got to be good for their business, or there wouldn't be so many restaurants adding these items to their menu and keeping them there. And I think that's due to the fact that there are more and more vegetarians every day."
Whatever the reason, the trend seems to be putting Philly on the veggie map. Late last year, the Greater Philadelphia Tourism & Marketing Corp. put out a news release touting Philadelphia's many vegetarian options to out-of-towners.
When asked what spurred this PR scheme, GPTMC's Donna Schorr confirmed that veggie alternatives were on the uptick. "Consumers are getting to be smarter, making better choices; people are more concerned about what they're eating and how they're eating. Even smaller restaurants recognize that consumers want these choices."
She pointed out that Philadelphia has its share of strictly vegetarian places. South Philly's Horizons, for instance, "is becoming well known as a Philly destination for a great meal," but mainstream eateries are also getting on board.
"You can now go into about any restaurant in the city and say you're vegetarian, and even the upscale restaurants don't flinch. They'll have something for you."
That's VegPA.net's philosophy, too.
"We wanted to make VegPA.net as extensive as possible, because we want to make veg eating as easy as possible," said Cooney. *
