ARLINGTON, Va.–Interstate Hotels & Resorts has launched a vegetarian and vegan culinary promotion for its managed hotels to meet the needs of today’s travelers for healthier eating through plant-based diets. The management company will start incorporating high quality vegetarian and vegan lunch and dinner entrees in restaurants and banquets across its full-service hotels. Interstate created 27 new vegetarian and vegan menu items for this promotion, which launched on Jan. 1.
As a result of the generational change driven by Millennials, the passion for vegetarian and vegan meals has progressed rapidly, with a 350 percent increase in the number of people consuming a plant-based diet within the last decade. More consumers today look to meat-alternative options for reasons supporting health and wellness, the environment, and animal welfare.
“We recognized a shift in the growing demand of consumers craving healthier options and it is our job to cater to the desires of our guests and meeting attendees,” says Interstate’s Vice President of Food and Beverage Operations, Bradley Moore. “There is a clear need to offer plant-based menu items and we are thrilled about the quality, variety, and benefits our hotels will be able to provide to travelers seeking healthy alternatives while on the road.”
In designing this promotion, Interstate’s Food and Beverage Advisory Council joined Moore at the Culinary Vegetable Institute in Milan, Ohio, where they set out to uncover what offerings could be provided to better accommodate guests’ needs and demands. Six of the new featured recipes include: corn risotto; eggplant meatballs and zucchini noodles; Nashville eggplant with mac and cheese and wilted kale; pastrami beets; zucchini squash spaghetti with spigarello hazelnut pesto; and tuscan avocado toast.
The participating hotels will customize menus online and also will receive collateral aiding in the promotion of these new additions, with photography provided by Tim Turner Studios in Chicago and creative copy executed by IMI Agency in Atlanta.
