Coming from Brown, PETA’s “most vegan-friendly college” of 2012, I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed when I arrived in St. Louis to find that it wasn’t quite as vegetarian-conscious as I would have liked. As I’ve gotten to know the area, though, the local restaurants have really grown on me. There are a ton of eateries in the Central West End (within walking distance of both school and my apartment!), and most have yummy meat-free options. Pi Pizzeria, a local pizza chain, even has a meat substitute you can sub for meat in any of the pizzas! Sure, it’s a little disheartening to go to a lunch talk and realize the coordinators forgot to order a veggie option (or more commonly, the carnivores thought the veggie option looked so delicious that they ate it all before you got to the front of the line), but then I remember that Lulu’s, a vegetarian food truck, usually parks outside school during the lunch hour. And if cooking’s your thing, there are plenty of grocery stores — Schnucks, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods — nearby, and I hear they’re planning on building another Whole Foods just a few blocks from the medical school.
— Kelly M., M1