Vegan Dining at Lost Dog Cafe – a review

Lost Dog Cafe is a cheerful eatery with a serious mission on the side: helping to rescue stray dogs and cats. The cafe was founded in 1985 by Ross Underwood and Pam McAlwee, who are lifelong animal lovers. According to the “Restaurants to the Rescue” information that’s printed on the back of the menu, Ross and Pam began rescuing dogs from local shelters shortly after opening their cafe in Arlington – and “employees at the Cafe were soon fielding calls from dog adopters in between orders without missing a beat; and the rescue mission became part of the Lost Dog culture.”

Much has changed since that humble beginning. Lost Dog Cafe now has 5 locations in the DC area: the original Arlington location and four franchise locations. And the rescue operations were long ago formalized into the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation (LDCRF), a nonprofit organization that helps homeless pets find their way into loving homes through rescue and adoption. Since 2001, over 30,000 dogs and cats have been saved by LDCRF.  That’s an impressive number.  Not only does LDCRF hold weekly adoption events at local pet stores for the pups and kitties in its care, it also operates the The Lost Dog Ranch, a 63-acre facility for homeless pets in rural Virginia.  The ranch (plus a small paid staff and a volunteer crew) offers plenty of outdoor space for dogs to run and a cage-free building for cats.  And even though the nonprofit’s focus is on rescuing homeless dogs and cats, the ranch has also provided a safe place to live for some horses, donkeys, goats, pigs, longhorn steer, chickens, and roosters — who will live out their lives at the Lost Dog Ranch.

A Colorful Cafe

The cafe in McLean is the most convenient of the 5 Lost Dog Cafe locations for my husband and me, so that is where we go. The atmosphere is colorful, busy, and fun. The cafe includes a small front patio with several tables for outside seating when the weather is warm. The inside area features whimsical murals depicting dogs who are engaged in various human occupations. The art is clever and vibrant — and it serves as a reminder of the rescue operations that are partially funded by restaurant proceeds.

The bar is a prominent feature of the main room, and bottles of craft beer decorate the wall behind the bar — along with a cafe slogan: “Life’s Short, Bite Hard.” If you’re a sports fan, you can keep up with the action by watching a couple of TVs installed over the bar. Cafe guests have a choice of seating:  outside on the patio, at the bar on wooden bar stools, or at wooden tables and booths in one of the two indoor dining rooms. The second room is smaller and quieter, with no bar – but with a wraparound mural featuring a doggie-themed shopping mall with creatively-named fictional stores.

The cafe serves a wide variety of pizzas, sandwiches, salads, and pasta dishes. You’ll be entertained just reading the menu, because each dish has been given an amusing name.  In keeping with the restaurant’s theme, many of the monikers refer to animals: Healthy Dog, Downward Dog, Rin Tin Tin Pie, just to name a few. On our most recent visit, my husband and  I ordered sandwiches — his being the Healthy Dog with hummus and veggies, and mine being Emory’s Portobello minus the mozzarella. I realized after the sandwich arrived that I should have asked the server to hold the pesto as well.  It’s all good — we don’t expect to hit vegan perfection with every restaurant meal.  But here’s the kicker…  It wasn’t until we came home and I did some additional research on their website that I found out Lost Dog Cafe has got a Vegan menu! It’s listed under “Allergy Menus,” and I wouldn’t normally look there because I’m not allergic to meat, dairy, and eggs — I just *choose* not to eat them.

Looking at the vegan menu, I am happy to see that the restaurant provides guidance on how the regular menu items can be altered to fit a vegan diet.  The vegan menu contains three starters, six salads, two pastas, seven gourmet pizzas and four specialty sandwiches (plus the ability to Create Your Own Pizza or Sandwich).   And I’m pleased to know that they can substitute Daiya ®Vegan Cheese for regular dairy cheese.  Wish I’d known that sooner.  On another visit to the Cafe not long ago, I ordered the Pointer Pie (whole wheat dough drizzled with olive oil then topped with pine nuts, spinach, tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese, a touch of mozzarella cheese and sprinkled with rosemary), although I asked the server to subtract both cheeses.  In the ideal world of my imagination, the server would have asked if I’d like to have the nondairy cheese instead.  But no such suggestion was forthcoming.

So Here’s the Lesson for Me

This visit to Lost Dog Cafe marks the second time in the past few weeks that I have been surprised to learn that a restaurant has a separate vegan menu.  (The other time was on a visit to the Omni Homestead Resort, where I was pleased to find out that two of their onsite restaurants have vegan menus; read my review here.)  From now on, if vegan options are not already clearly marked on the menu provided to us by the server, I’m going to be bold and ask the server if there happens to be a special vegan menu.  Even if there’s not, the squeaky wheel gets the grease — and perhaps enough requests from people like me will make it happen in the future.

And here’s a suggestion for Lost Dog Cafe.  You’ve got a good thing going with a separate vegan menu, and you should shout it from the rooftops! While we vegans are still a small part of the population, we’re a rapidly growing demographic, and I believe you should be letting more of us know that we’ll be very well fed if we dine at Lost Dog Cafe.

Extra Points for Helping the Animals

I’ve always believed that “what goes around comes around.” And I am optimistic that a businesses’s bottom line will benefit when it helps the community.  I certainly hope that’s the case with Lost Dog Cafe.  Join me in eating there regularly — and maybe buy one of their tee shirts on the way out!