Tuesday, September 11, 2007

O'Charley's

(in progress)

Hello,
Can you tell me what menu items are vegan (no animal products)? From your website's allergen chart I cannot determine what products have no animal ingredients in them. Your help is greatly appreciated.
Best,
Erin


The response I received was a link to their nutritional data, which does not include ingredient info and therefore is useless in answering my question:
August 31, 2007
Thank you for your request in regards to obtaining an O'Charley's nutrition guide. It is always a pleasure to hear from one of our loyal customers. Per your request, please click on link below that will allow you to view our nutrition information.
http://64.213.197.19/fulfillment/OCharleysNutritional.pdf
Request: 3159907


My reply (#2):
Hello,
My question was in regards to whether O'Charley's serves anything free of animal ingredients (vegan). This nutrition guide does not answer that question since ingredients are not listed. If your company is unwilling to release the ingredients in the food you serve so that I can make that determination, can you please determine for me which foods on your menu are, or could be ordered, vegan?
Thank you,
Erin


Twelve days, no response. Try #3:

Hello,
I have written twice and asked for help determining which of your menu items are or could be ordered vegan. Both times my response was a link to nutritional data, which does not answer my question in the least since ingredients are not given. I haven't yet, but I would like to visit your restaurant. Since your website's nutritional data doesn't include ingredient information, can you tell me what menu items are vegan (no animal products) or could be ordered that way? Thus far my experience has been that O'Charley's is making it extremely difficult to patronize your restaurant. Thank you for taking the time to determine this, your help is greatly appreciated.
Best,
Erin


Oh, the power of media. Please see the comments section for an update!

The verdict:
Nothing at O'Charley's can be determined to be vegan.

5 comments:

DG said...

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. We greatly appreciate your continued interest in O’Charley’s. I realize my earlier reply came as a disappointment and I apologize. However, I wanted to ensure you had our most up-to-date nutrition information. While our menu currently emphasizes fresh preparation, our specialties focus around such items as hand cut and aged steaks, a seafood variety, and fresh-cut salads. We understand this is not consistent with a vegan diet. At O’Charley’s we believe in A Passion to Serve our Guests, Stakeholders, our Community, and Each Other. Please know that we are forwarding your comments to our culinary team for consideration in future menu planning. Thank you for your time, follow-up, and patience.

Sincerely,
Daniel Gragg
Guest Relations
O'Charley's

Erin said...

Daniel, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to address this issue and my readers in person. It is as important to me and many other vegans who have taken on this sometimes-challenging lifestyle that restaurants at least hear us and respond in a helpful and respectful manner, even if the answer is "we don't have anything for you."
It behooves any smart business to treat all of the consuming public this way, current customer or not, and I appreciate your example.

Dinie said...

I just went to O'Charly's and they don't have many vegan options. The food was bland and they over salted my broccolli to the point I had to just send it back, not to mention it was mushy(yuck!). They took it off, but I ordered the broccolli, sweet potato fries(and a side salad without the cheese with apple cider vinegrette the salad and the fries were really good. You can eat vegan almost anywhere, but it will never be as good as mine at home, because meat eating "normal people" think that you have nothing to eat, when really it is they that have the limited diet.

Dinie said...

I just went to O'Charly's and they don't have many vegan options. The food was bland and they over salted my broccolli to the point I had to just send it back, not to mention it was mushy(yuck!). They took it off, but I ordered the broccolli, sweet potato fries(and a side salad without the cheese with apple cider vinegrette the salad and the fries were really good. You can eat vegan almost anywhere, but it will never be as good as mine at home, because meat eating "normal people" think that you have nothing to eat, when really it is they that have the limited diet.

Unknown said...

Not many choices for vegetarian. Even their tomato soup is chicken based. It is a shame. In this day and age.