zpizza considering new vegan cheese
(Update: The vegan cheese pizza at zpizza is here (or coming very, very soon)!)
I have two zpizza restaurants near me, one not far from my house and the other near my work. I love the fact that they have veggie meat options and offer a soy cheese pizza. The problem: their soy cheese contains casein, so it’s not an option.
I wrote to them, knowing that they’re a fast-growing national pizza chain, and urged them to consider using a vegan cheese. Turns out that they’re actively testing a number of vegan cheese options, including a certain brand from Chicago. This would be a huge win for pizza-loving vegans everywhere, so drop them a line and let them know that you’d love to see them start offering a vegan cheese option, particularly if there’s a zpizza in your area.
In addition to letting me know about their search for a good vegan cheese, they also passed along this helpful list of current vegan options at zpizza:
Pizzas (all of these request No Cheese):
- Provence
- Napoli
- Greek
- California
- Tuscan
- Berkeley Soy Cheese Veggie
- Casablanca
- Moroccan Rustica
- Pear and Gorgonzola Rustica
- Mediterranean Rustica
Salads:
- California
- Arugula (no cheese)
- Greek (no cheese)
- Pear and Gorgonzola (no cheese)
If you’d like to build your own cheese-less pizza or order a salad, below are acceptable vegan ingredients:
- Pizza dough
- Tomato sauce
- Marinara sauce
- Chipotle pesto
- Roasted garlic sauce
- Veggie crumbles
- All fresh vegetables
- Balsamic dressing
[...] The Veg Blog: zpizza considering new vegan cheese “Turns out that they’re actively testing a number of vegan cheese options, including a certain brand from Chicago. This would be a huge win for pizza-loving vegans everywhere, so drop them a line and let them know that you’d love to see them start offering a vegan cheese option, particularly if there’s a zpizza in your area.” [...]
I think a lot of places aren’t really aware of the casein problem. In my experience, most of them are willing to change it once it is brought to their attention. A similar thing happened with a vegan “cheesesteak” place here in Philadelphia.
I don’t really get why companies think that providing a soy cheese that has casein in it is any use to anyone! It kind of defeats the object of offering an alternative to dairy cheese in that it still contains a dairy protein. A vegan “cheese” pizza available at zpizza and other pizza restaurants/chains would be a great step forward.
All this talk about a vegan cheese pizza is making me hungry! Hope that other restaurants would also follow suit!
Pizza Fusion is another national chain that has always had vegan cheese options. I’m not sure of the brand but it’s yummy!!! I know PETA just named them Top 10 Vegan friendly restaurants… R&D done!
This would be great. There’s a Zpizza real close to me, too. I wrote them a couple of times about a year ago – no response. (In retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t have called them conniving bastards. Kidding.) COK apparently contacted them, also. Nothing…until VegBlog! Whoo!
(I’ll write them again, to hopefully help push along the momentum.)
What a great idea! I love ZPizza and this would just put them right over the top in my book! You know, anytime a chain takes a step in the right direction I always hope that others will jump on board as well. Fingers crossed!
Pizza Fusion uses Vegan Gourmet Cheese by Follow Your Heart. :-) Yummy!!