Glenn Rose
Staff Writer
Yorgo’s Bageldashery serves vegan-friendly options
You wouldn’t expect a bagel restaurant to be a good place to find vegan-friendly sandwiches, yet Yorgo’s Bageldashery (which seems to be a word they have made up) has a whole menu devoted to giving vegans and vegetarians a new place to eat.
Restaurants that cater to those who have tried to remove animals from their diet are on the rise in Norfolk. If you are interested in the meat substitutes, they have vegan chicken, barbeque chicken, egg salad, chicken salad, bacon and lastly Philly cheesesteak. The vegan Philly is the best thing here by far, the texture and taste of the sandwich exactly what I remember real Philly cheesesteaks tasting like.
This restaurant is small and closes at 3 p.m. every day, which I think has helped their business. The many times I’ve gone in to Yorgo’s there have been a lot of people inside. I believe this is partially because of the early closing time. They are shaving off extra hours of labor and people feel the need to “get in there before it closes!” There is no shortage of restaurants that do this, many of which are found in Norfolk. The reasoning behind this isn’t just to save hours, it makes it easier to keep your ingredients fresh. Since you don’t have to worry about staying open all day, you have time to find fresh ingredients for each day and not staying open all day, means you won’t have to spend as much money replacing the produce.
I’m assuming this attitude came from being a restaurant that specializes in bagels, considering that bagels are meant to be eaten fresh and if they’re day-old they’re sold at a major discount.
On the subject of their bagels, well, they are delicious. But this shouldn’t be a surprise since they are a bagel place. There are almost 30 types of bagels to choose from, some of which can even be purchased layered with the vegan options mentioned earlier. If you don’t want your vegan food on a bagel, well, no problem! They have wraps and sandwiches too, along with a whole cooler full of drinks you don’t typically see anywhere else and an equally unique soda fountain machine which has a personal favorite of mine, birch beer. You will definitely enjoy your stay.
Yorgo’s is in the Ghent area of downtown Norfolk, which is heavily populated by young people. This could also be part of the reason why they choose to sell food that is vegan-friendly, since most vegans are young. If this restaurant keeps its popularity up, other places will hopefully see the appeal in having a meat-free menu.
