My quest for a slice of vegan pizza on P.E.I.

This First Person article is the experience of Zack Metcalfe, a freelance writer who focuses on conservation and climate change issues across the Maritimes.For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please seethe FAQ.

Where can I get a decent slice of pizza in this province? For most Islanders, the answer is a short drive or phone call away, but for a shy fraternity of discerning dieters, pizza represents an interesting moral dilemma.

Pizza, for all its indulgent delight, is basically a delivery vehicle for cheese and pepperoni, and there's a growing minority of people who, as a rule, eat neither.

I went vegan in 2017, not because I'm a heart-bleeding, tree-hugging, ground-kissing hippie well, maybe a little but because it's objectively the more efficient way to feed the human animal.

The challenges of eating out

It takes tremendous effort to reinvent one's diet, but over the past several years I've achieved feats of culinary wizardry with this mess of plants. But alas, strict veganism does put one at odds with that most fundamental of societal experiences the restaurant.

That's changing, however. In the last two years especially, I have seen a proliferation of vegan dishes on P.E.I. Some have missed the point, like vegan burgers served on non-vegan buns and pizzas sporting vegan pepperoni atop oceans of regular cheese, but others have been spectacular.

Stir It Up on Charlottetown's waterfront maintains an entirely vegan menu while defying all expectations of taste and texture, and its sister establishment, Lil' Darlings, takes the same approach but with an emphasis on health.

More important than its ingredients and execution is what it represents that plant-based diets have arrived on Prince Edward Island with sufficient force to be taken seriously.Zack Metcalfe

Imagine my joy upon discovering that one of my favourite restaurants Cedar's Eatery on Great George Street had a vegan dish hiding in plain sight, a falafel with fries forged from chickpeas, assorted vegetables and some of the most potent garlic sauce I've ever encountered. It's a flavourful masterpiece I began ordering so routinely that servers started recognizing me.

Hopyard on Kent Street dedicates almost half of its menu to vegetarian options which can often be made vegan on request. The sandwich they served this April had such an explosive blend of ingredients I cannot describe the experience; I just knew I liked it.

In a moment of terror I thought they'd accidentally slipped me a hunk of deep-fried chicken, but I peeked past its breaded interior and found only mushrooms.

The quest for an uncomplicated slice

Yeta pizza seemed too much to ask. I navigate my own fridge with persistent joy and satisfaction but the marketplace, I feared, hadn't caught up.

That is, until January of 2020 when I met David Mitchell, operations officer and vice-president of the pizza chain Famous Peppers.

I was interviewing him for a story on greenhouses and happened to mention my search for a pepperoni and cheese without the pepperoni and cheese.

To my amazement, he described exactly such an undertaking at their Fiamma location, a pizzeria built into Founders' Hall in downtown Charlottetown.

"The Garden of Vegan," they called it, a fully vegan pizza which could be requested with my usual toppings of mushroom and spinach, plus a vegan crumble and cashew cheese they were in the process of perfecting.

It'll be available in a few months, he said, and I was incredulous, marking my calendar with zeal and anticipation, counting down the weeks between me and nirvana.

A slice of something new

Of course the pandemic shattered this timetable like a vengeful hammer, pushing back my dinner date entire months, but when Founders' Hall finally reopened, I discovered a splendid establishment with woodfire oven and a crew of bearded men taking orders.

They delivered me a proud circle of honest-to-God pizza.

By all the classic metrics it was outstanding, but more important than its ingredients and execution is what it represents that plant-based diets have arrived on Prince Edward Island with sufficient force to be taken seriously.

When addressing this province's carbon emissions, we hear a great deal about solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps and electric cars, but food is an equally indispensable part of any climate solution, and while most carbon reductions depend on the will of government and industry, plant-based eating requires only the initiative of the consumer and a slice or two of something new.

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