Doctored Artichoke Sub

So, here’s another fun little series for ya. The same way the “Local Vegan Eats” posts explore dining out as a vegan, “What does a vegan order at…?” will uncover the vegan options available at more mainstream, non-veggie restaurants. Some of these you’ll only find around St. Louis, some are widely accessible national chains.

If you’re already vegan, maybe you’ll discover a few more places you can easily dine at with non-veg friends and family or when you’re traveling and away from your favorite local spots. If you aren’t vegan, you might be surprised to see how easy it is to find vegan options at familiar places. Who knows, maybe next time you visit, you can test-drive a convenient vegan meal!

Obviously, in this first post we’re talkin’ bout eating veg at Penn Station.

I actually just recently discovered the wonder that is this particular establishment. I’ve never been much of a sub sandwich kinda gal and I figured if there were vegan options here it would be along the lines of Subway (brown, wilted, shredded lettuce and a smattering of sad looking vegetables – no thanks). Then a veggie friend mentioned how much she adored their artichoke sub and I became officially interested.

Happily, the bread at Penn Station is vegan. Once you clear that hurdle, it’s generally pretty easy to stay on the veg train at a place like this. Done Penn Station’s way, the Grilled Artichoke sub comes with artichoke hearts, provolone, oregano, parmesan and mayo with an option to add fresh mushrooms. Done my way: Opt for the mushrooms and sub grilled onions and pizza sauce for the provolone, parm and mayo. Add on some fries or chips and you’ve got a bonafide vegan meal (Also vegan: the Grilled Vegetarian sub, sans cheese and mayo – but the basic idea for this series isn’t necessarily to show everything that could be vegan on the menu – just that there is something).

Funny aside: you may notice from the picture that there’s an order of large fries on my ticket. As I said, I’m sort of new to Penn Station, as is my husband.  On this particular trip, we decided to split an order of fries and got a large, expecting something along the lines of a large fry at McDonald’s. Yeeeeah, the large fries at Penn Station could feed a really hungry family of four. It’s literally a bucket! I refuse to comment on whether or not we/I ate them all.

So next time you’re at Penn Station give the Grilled Artichoke sub a whirl, if you’re so inclined. And don’t order large fries unless you’ve got an Army to feed.