I still remember the day when the idea for VeggL was born in 2018.
Jen and I were in the car heading to dinner with my parents. My parents, not ones for being adventurous when it comes to dining out (we’ve gotten them more out of their comfort zone over the years) mentioned a popular sit down chain restaurant for dinner.
This was just before I went completely plant based… that actually happened later the same year.
I watched Jen frantically search on her phone for anything vegan she could eat at the chosen restaurant.
Unfortunately she had been doing this since 2012 when she became vegan. So it was nothing new, but also something she did not express her frustrations out loud about much. She never wanted to purposefully inconvenience anyone since this was her decision to make this change; especially with my parents visiting.
But I could see her sweating.
“There’s not a website that just tells you what’s vegan?”, I asked.
“NO.”
That was the moment VeggL was born. I thought it was ridiculous that eating out was so hard for Jen and if there wasn’t a resource out there, I would help her build it.
I had taught myself how to build some websites over the years and helped build out the technical side while Jen went to work contacting every chain restaurant we could think of along with researching every nutrition, allergen and ingredient list we could get our hands on.
VeggL has come a long way since then.
We currently have over 215 vegan guides for chain restaurants in the United States, as well as airports, sports venues and some amusement parks.
We even turned VeggL into an app!
Our goal with VeggL is to hopefully help make life a little easier for you… and us.
Finally, if you have an idea or suggestion that you think can make VeggL better, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re always looking for ways to improve!
-Ryan
