We’d like to give out a few things to those of you who read this blog and supported a restaurant or two during Vegetarian Restaurant Week.

Send us your reviews of the participating restaurants you visited during Restaurant Week – either a link to your blog, or the review itself. Submission is easy: Simply respond to this post with your link or review. If sending a link, please include at least the first few lines of your review, being sure to include the restaurant’s name at the top.

Three lucky winners will receive a free, 1-year subscription to VegNews Magazine.

At the end of this year, Brooklyn will be losing at least 2 more vegetarian restaurants.

Let’s continue to support our local economy by supporting the places that support our eating habits.

Be sure to tell 4 Course Vegan and all the other restaurants that you heard about them from BKLYN Goes Veg!

Built from remains of NYC’s Peace Church, Urban Spring uses organic and local produce, biodegradable packaging, and renewable source electricity to bring you delicious and nourishing food that leaves a light footprint.

Enjoy a complimentary cup of tea with the purchase of soup or a sandwich.

I don’t think vegetarianism is waning and it certainly isn’t dead.

I do think that with every “new” idea or way of thinking and being that moves from the fringes of society to the center, vegetarianism has become mainstream enough – more accessible, less controversial – to stop receiving the kind of negative attention necessary to sell papers and magazines. Unless of course you’re a celebrity vegetarian or a misunderstood parent with “concerned” relatives.

Or maybe vegan is the new vegetarian?

I also believe that the global food crisis has catapulted the local, slow, and sustainable food movements (as well as issues of food security, and food justice) to the top of the conversations about our food choices. So, it’s not that vegetarianism is waning, or dead; it’s just not front page news anymore – which is what I expressed to Mr. McLaughlin.

This year’s take on BKLYN Goes Veg! in the Brooklyn Paper is a complete departure from the way they covered it last year, which is very curious to me. Perhaps readership is low; perhaps Mr. McLaughlin still hasn’t found a new girlfriend and the idea of yet another lonely night has turned him into a snarky, misguided failed vegetarian (he admitted that he was “vegetarian” in college, but has long since returned to eating meat).

In any case, BKLYN Goes Veg! is and has always been about promoting vegetarian dining in the borough. How a restaurant makes a decision to participate is based on their marketing strategy and bottom line, which may not include participating in a restaurant week.

If you feel you need clarification about the views expressed in Mr. McLaughlin’s article, feel free to send me an email.

At the very least, I hope the article motivates you all to get out and put your money where your mouth is. And maybe next year, you’ll see a larger lineup.

Support your local vegetarian restaurants.

Use the map to help you locate the restaurant of your choice.

If you have questions, please direct them to the restaurant.

I was going to mention the specials, but I forgot what they were, and it’s not on their website yet, so you’ll have to call them.

Join SuperVegan for our Presidential Debate Watch Party to cheer/sneer at the final showdown between “that one“ and that one at Red Bamboo Brooklyn in Fort Greene next Wed, Oct 15th at 7:30pm (debate starts at 9pm)!

Where else would you be able to enjoy a full bar and vegan goodies like Red Bamboo Brooklyn’s famous creole soul chicken, buffalo bbq wings, and cajun fried shrimp while you cringe in anger and barfiness while that man with the not so steady hand from the Palin ‘08 ticket calls you one of his “friends”?

Since our trust funds and stock portfolios have plummeted thanks to 8 years of dog-gone-it, mavericky Wall Street deregulations, this is a pay your own way party with no subsidies or bailouts.

However, in honor of (wink, wink) the Republican’s 2008 presidential/vice presidential nominee, who can see Russia from her igloo in Alaska (!!!), Red Bamboo Brooklyn will be offering discounted Vegan White Russians for just $5!!

If you’re on Facebook, RSVP for the event there.

Since there are indeed such things as Republican vegans (just like there are Republican gays), we welcome folks of all stripes – and even if you come cheering for Palin ‘08, we promise we will show you more mercy and compassion than what Palin has shown to Alaska’s wolves, polar bears, and other animals.

Stories must be positive and anecdotal.

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Submissions require sending in a release form, and may be edited for clarity, content, and length.

Send all photos and stories to bgv-submissions@melissamail.net.