ComFest Vegetarian 2009

It's that time of year again. Time for toplessness and beer in the park. Time for bands mixed with the scent of body odor and incense. That's right...it's ComFest time.

In between brews, it is often important to obtain sustenance. You could always pick up a vegetarian cookbook from the Krishna tent. However, if you'd prefer somebody else to cook for you while avoiding buying a new wardrobe and changing your hairstyle, there are plenty of options for the vegetarian diner that don't involve changing religions.

Dragonfly's On the Fly (review here) is on-site, featuring your favorite vegetarian comfort food options. The empanada was made with a chickpea mash, black beans and curried onions. It was delicious.

Rad Dog (review here) is also set up at Goodale Park. Vegan dawgs should be leaping off the grill as proprietor Tawd Bell tries to keep pace.

Flavors of India (review here), as with most Indian restaurants, features many vegetarian items. There are veggie platters, veggie wraps and samosas available to cure your addiction to curry.

Whole World Cafe (review here), Columbus' grande dame of vegetarian dining, features one of its most famous items: the broccoli burger. A concoction consisting of brown rice, onion, broccoli, bread crumbs and peanut butter, the sandwich proves that the whole is often times greater than the sum of its parts.

Benevolence Cafe (review here) also made the short trek down the street to feed the vegetarian masses at ComFest. I've yet to have something I didn't like from Benevolence, so this should be a safe option. (Firdous also brought the Mediterranean fare over from the North Market--review here).

Wellness Forum Foods (review here) is a cool operation in North Columbus that prepares ready-to-eat foods for those looking to make healthier lifestyle choices. Chef Del Sroufe is on hand this weekend to whip up the tasty fare.

Living on the Veg is a place I was not familiar with before ComFest. They have a delicious looking menu with an eggplant parm burger and rosemary potato salad on the entirely vegetarian menu board.

Finizio's Family Foods is an Italian catering service. Many of the menu items are vegetarian-friendly.

There are a number of other options scattered throughout the park. The turkey leg place has veggie fried rice. There are many carnival food locations that offer fries, funnel cakes, fried cheese and lemonade. If none of these options work for you, Jeni's root beer floats with Ugandan vanilla bean ice cream should safely put a smile on your face (that is if the rest of the ComFest activities have not done so already).

Comfest Vegetarian