An open letter from a pizza hungry vegan in Sacramento

Dear Sacramento pizza purveyors,

I am vegan and I want to eat pizza at your restaurant.

All of your restaurants! (Don't underestimate me. I really like pizza.)

When I visit Seattle, Portland or New York City, I revel in deep-dish vegan pies laden with faux meats and cheeses, or delicate leaf-topped vegan pizzas that are practically salads. Here in our farm-to-fork capital, famous for outstanding local produce, most pizzerias don't celebrate plant-based pies or even mention the word “vegan” on the menu.

If you are an Old World pizza purist serving gourmet recipes handed down through generations, I respect that. I don't want to mess with a meat-and-cheese tradition started by your great grandmother in her Italian kitchen. I don't expect every pizza joint to cater to California's wide—and, no doubt, annoying—array of special diets.

That said, most pizzerias found a way to synthesize gluten-free dough when that trend took off. If you are willing to serve your proprietary recipes on an experimental disc of bean-and-rice flour, surely you can toss us vegans a bone. (A vegetarian, cruelty-free bone.)

Making vegan pizza is much easier than pleasing the anti-wheat crowd. First, make a pizza. Then, when you are adding the delicious toppings you already stock in your kitchen, just don't include meat or cheese. Voila.

Of course, topping selection matters. Every vegan—and vegetarian, for that matter—has eaten a lifetime quota of the chopped bell pepper, sliced mushroom and black olive combo.

Trust me, this “Veggie Delight” delights no one.

Sacramento's vegan-pizza pioneers maximize flavor profiles with a variety of toppings. Hot Italian's Muti ($14) and OneSpeed's Garden Pie ($15) both use seasonal vegetables such as butternut squash, broccoli rabe and fresh arugula to feature a balance of sweet and salty, crisp and sizzling tastes.

Hot Italian also offers Daiya vegan cheese on any of its pizzas. Chefs there understand that the physics of fake cheese are not the same as mozzarella, and a little goes a long way. They do Daiya right—with a minimalist touch.

Adding non-dairy cheese to your menu is a simple way to open your restaurant to vegans, lactose-intolerants and other heart-healthy diners. If you want to go further and synthesize some delicious animal-free sausage or pepperoni, you'd be breaking new ground in the Sacramento pizza scene.

But you don't need to buy a bunch of new ingredients to make vegans happy. Your kitchen probably has everything you need to start serving awesome vegan pizza. Just create a plant-based combination that represents your restaurant's unique style, and list it clearly on your menu.

Vegans will come running. We are hungry and we are organized. We celebrate national campaigns like Meatless Mondays and U.S. VegWeek, and local events like the annual Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge. (Congratulations to Pizza Rock's chef Billy Lundgren on his three 2014 Challenge wins, including Most Inspired New Menu Options for his vegan Garden Pizza with housemade cashew cheese.)

If a restaurant puts a new vegan item on the menu, we organize meetups to try it out. It is almost embarrassing how excited we get about food. Witness this letter.

Sincerely looking forward to dining with you,

The hungry, hungry vegan