If you didn't catch the preview, Fair Food is a Philly-based organization striving to do as the name suggests, bring ethics and consciousness back to our plates through sustainable agriculture. Their members run farm stands, farmer's markets, CSAs, and all scale of eateries committed to using local ingredients and supporting local producers. The Brewer's Plate is a showcase of the city's premiere restaurants and craft breweries. It is Fair Food's marquee fundraising event and this year saw continued success, another sell out judging by the sizable crowd.

I arrived early, and waited shoulder-to-shoulder as ticket-holders filed into the lobby of the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. When five o’clock struck we were given an 8 oz. glass, then a consume-as-much-as-possible stampede commenced with every minute wasted meaning one less craft beer or culinary delicacy to be tasted.

Tables filled the museum's Chinese Rotunda and Upper Egyptian Gallery, with protective casings in place on every potentially vulnerable artifact. The crowd itself was enormous, with a little breathing room in the rotunda but a full on Apple-Store-during-the-iPhone's-release style clusterf*ck in the rectangular Egyptian room. Even with the congestion, most people seemed pleased with the fruits of their $65 charitable contribution.

But not everyone found food ecstasy. While omnivores delighted in a gluttony of sample plates, my fellow veg'heads and I were fortunate to find a bit of garnishing slaw, some cubes of cheese, and the rare dish actually intended for a vegetarian. As I maneuvered through the crowd, I kept ears peeled for the V word. I noticed a group of three discussing the lack of vegetarian options, one wearing a Fair Food badge that read Sarah Mills who offered an apologetic explanation.

“We never want to tell the participants what to bring since this is a showcase. When we realized we were short on vegetarian options, it became a scramble.” Mills continued, “We immediately contacted Michael's Savory Seitan to come onboard and asked Varga Bar to make a vegetarian option of their Mac & Cheese dish.”

My grudge lies with the notion that a luxurious entree must be meat-based, and many of the restaurants that indulged this belief at the Brewer's Plate have plenty of vegetarian options on their everyday menus. But this was about showing off, and I can't say there was much of a contest in popularity between Village Whiskey's pulled pork sliders and the savory seitan.

I didn't go home hungry thanks to second and third helpings. But in total I counted eight veg possibilities, and only three could be considered entrees: Betty's delicious dark chocolate fudge, Bindi's sweet & sour chana marsala, Iron Hill Restaurant's Humboldt Fog goat cheese, Michael's seitan, Night Kitchen Bakery's chocolate mocha moose cake, Tria's Fat Cat cheese, Varga's mac & cheese, and Wonderful Good Market's beer bread.

I suppose my drunk state was an exaggeration; I was composed throughout but it's a pointed overstatement. For as mainstream as vegetarianism has become, the Brewer's Plate didn't reflect it. It was lots of beer with little to eat. Where were Govinda, Blue Sage, Singapore, and the other excellent vegetarian restaurants thriving in the Greater Philadelphia area?

The silver lining: Fair Foods has succeeded in getting people to think about their food. You could feel the appreciation: people read the information sheets detailing which dish came from which farm (with Green Meadows Farm having the strongest food source presence), they asked questions, and they put their money toward a noble cause.

Best of Show
Varga Bar's Truffled Macaroni & Cheese: A delicate cream sauce with melted guyere, cheddar, mascarpone and fontina cheeses (served with or without Applewood smoked bacon)

Runner Up
Betty Speakeasy's Delicious Dark Fudge (particularly when paired with Boak's Monster Mash Russian Imperial Stout)

Trevor Dye is a freelance journalist covering all things thrifty, diy, green, and vegetarian. He resides in West Philly and moonlights as a yoga teacher. His work has appeared on Brokelyn.com.

Article photograph from jo-h, via Flickr (Creative Commons), "Events" photograph from Marty M.Ito, via Flickr (Creative Commons), "Philly" photograph from camardella, via Flickr (Creative Commons)