Chicken town gets vegan eatery

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DECATUR — A new style of food is being served in Decatur, a small town built on the chickens bred and plucked by Peterson Farms. A vegan restaurant opened in late October in the community in western Benton County, where Peterson’s name is affixed to a clock, signs and roadside properties. The restaurant, Wellness Secrets, serves no animal products, including eggs, dairy or meat. That means no cheese on the veggie burger and no milk in the creamy Ranch-style salad dressing (which instead is cashew nuts and tahini, a paste made from ground sesame seeds, that are blended together and bleached a creamy white from lemons ). The meatballs in Tuesday’s spaghetti special are made from ground pecans. A tahini sauce with garlic and basil instead of butter dressed the bread. “It’s definitely the opposite of the main industry here,” said Jane Martin, who was eating a meal at the restaurant with a friend. Peterson

processes chickens from about 300 farms in Arkansas and Oklahoma and sells its products mostly in the upper Midwest, though Peterson chicken products are found in the Decatur grocery store. Peterson sells chicken under the company name, as well as brand Crystal Lake. “In 1939, Mr. [Lloyd ] Pe- terson started hatching baby chicks in the window of the feed store and it’s just grown from there,” said Janet Wilkerson, vice president of human resources at Peterson Farms. “For years it was the main company in town.” Decatur was formed before Peterson opened his business, but today most of the community works for the poultry company. Peterson employs about 1, 000, while Decatur is home to a population of about 1, 300. The restaurant at Wellness Secrets, a health center that includes a health spa and store and is owned by the Decatur Seventh-day Adventist Church, seats about 10, with additional seating on the small deck outside.

“We are peeling our own potatoes. We are making our own salad dressing from nuts and seeds, and the pie crusts are made from almonds,” said Kae Borrero, director of operations at Wellness Secrets health center. “It’s all a whole-food, plant-based menu.” The restaurant is only open for lunch Sunday through Thursday. “I used to eat anything and drink anything, but that’s changed,” said Bernie Schlageck, of Kansas, who operates the restaurant with his wife, Marisol Schlageck. Now “we are both vegans, and I’ve been a vegetarian from birth,” said Marisol Schlageck, a native of Chile. “We have people who’ve come in and didn’t know we don’t serve meat, and they loved it.” A mix of people from vegetarians to those wanting to eat healthier have come into the restaurant, the couple said. B enton County Deputy Sheriff Kristina Bertschy is one of them. “I noticed the sign when I drove by and

thought it would be a good healthy alternative instead of going to eat fast food,” Bertschy said as she finished up the spaghetti special. “This was very good and very filling.” The percentage of vegan and vegetarian restaurants nationally remains small, but existing restaurants are adding more vegetarian items, said John Cunningham, consumer research manager for the Baltimore-based Vegetarian Resource Group. “As far as we know, we don’t know of any vegan restaurants in Arkansas, so this might be the only one,” he said. “There are some vegetarian-friendly restaurants in Eureka Springs, Little Rock and Fayetteville.” More than 30 percent of restaurants, including casual and fine dining, say customers are ordering more vegetarian entrees than they did two years earlier, according to the National Restaurant Association’s 2006 Restaurant Industry Forecast. Customers at more than 25 percent of fast-food restaurants also are ordering more vegetarian items than they

did two years ago. “This is a trend we’re going to see continuing,” Cunningham said. “As people have more acceptance of vegetarianism, they won’t think it’s so strange, and they won’t have any trouble going to a vegetarian restaurant.” To contact this reporter: ccody (AT) arkansasonline (DOT) com Peter H

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