When you think of Five Points, the nightlife district popular among University of South Carolina students and young adults, you might not think of it as a hub for vegan and vegetarian cuisine.
But in the last month, two restaurants added to the neighborhood’s vegan offerings. Bang Back Pinball Lounge rolled out a new vegan menu and a new Mediterranean restaurant, Falafel King, opened up and offers an impressive array of vegan and vegetarian cuisines.
Bang Back has been in the district for a little over a year and has made a name for itself as a popular spot for those who love pinball and those who are after good bar atmosphere with good food. The pinball lounge now has a vegan menu with a handful of choices like vegan Bao buns and roasted garlic hummus with made-from-scratch pita chips.
Owner Fred Richardson jumped on the growing trend, taking feedback on his menu from customers who frequented his spot.
“So our original menu was 20 items and while it was good, it was also very interesting to listen to the voices of the neighborhood to hear what people really wanted,” Richardson said. “And so we listened and we got a lot of feedback. And I think we did our best to kind of incorporate food items to what people wanted, but putting our twist on it.”
Meanwhile, new restaurants in the neighborhood, like Falafel King, joined the scene with a vegan menu already in tow. The Mediterranean restaurant has a variety of vegan and vegetarian options, including an entirely vegetarian appetizer list.
“I’m trying to introduce a style of vegan food that is not the processed stuff, it’s not the tofu … I mean it’s not healthy for you anyway,” Falafel King’s owner Mohammad Saadeddin said, “I want to do our version, the Middle Eastern version of vegan where you get the real foods even vegan.”
Saadeddin doesn’t consider himself a vegan or vegetarian, but he said that his vision for the restaurant is to emphasize the culture of the Middle East and its minimal dependence on meat.
But despite the new places that are jumping on the vegan trend, a few Five Points spots, like Publico Kitchen and Tap, have been offering vegan cuisine for a few years.
“Doing gluten-free and doing vegan (options) was always kind of thing we did, but it’s never been as big as it is on our menu until about two or three years ago. We’ve made a larger vegan menu,” said Mike Duganier, who owns Publico in Five Points and the recently-owned Boku in the Vista, which also offers a handful of vegan plates.
Duganier has had vegan options on his menu since he opened up the spot in late 2015, but he curated a specifically vegan section of his menu — featuring items like fried tofu tacos and plant-based burgers — a few years ago when he began seeing desire for the option increase. Now, plant-based social groups like Midlands Veg Community plan occasional meet ups at his restaurant.
He said he joined the trend a few years ago in an attempt to keep up with the growing plant-based trend he saw happening nationally.
“It’s happening all over, especially in bigger cities… so getting ahead of it and staying on top of those kinds of things is critical for a town like ours,” Duganier said.
And it’s no surprise that spots in Five Points have seen a growing desire for plant-based options. The area is known for being popular among college students, a growing number of which are choosing the vegan lifestyle. More than 10% of college students in a 2019 survey said they followed a vegetarian or vegan diet, compared to only 4% of adults.
Veganism and plant-based diets have gained popularity over the last decade or so. Using Google search data to determine the popularity of veganism in certain areas, Ispos Retail Performance estimated that interest in the lifestyle has grown by 290,000 people in the last 15 years.
It’s grown around the city some as well, with COA Agaveria y Cocina debuting a vegan menu in 2020.