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A vegan Thanksgiving at Venice’s Cafe Gratitude

Ryland Engelhart, center, a co-owner of the Cafe Gratitude restaurant chain, welcomes visitors to a free all-vegan Thanksgiving meal at the Cafe Gratitude a few blocks from the beach in Venice. "This is our quintessential holiday," he said. "This is our day."

Ryland Engelhart, center, a co-owner of the Cafe Gratitude restaurant chain, welcomes visitors to a free all-vegan Thanksgiving meal at the Cafe Gratitude a few blocks from the beach in Venice. “This is our quintessential holiday,” he said. “This is our day.”  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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On Thanksgiving, the folks at the vegan restaurant Cafe Gratitude feel that everybody else has finally caught on. Plates are printed with the question that goes around many holiday tables: “What are you grateful for?” And each day, there is a question of the day -- a practice some find too precious for words and some take as a nudge to live mindfully. Thursday’s question was the obvious: “What are you grateful for?” For some, it was the fact there were no animals on the menu.
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Dinner with Mom

Sandra Sessler feeds her mother Evelyn Sessler, 98, a forkful of the all-vegan meal offered by Cafe Gratitude in Venice. “It is really nice to have somewhere to go that’s not full of dead animals,” said one diner.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Filling the plates

The menu: a loaf made from red lentils, brown rice, kale, butternut squash and other vegetables; a raw stuffing with pecans, apples, nuts, celery and fennel; mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and mushroom gravy; roasted mixed vegetables; green salad with persimmons and pomegranate; pumpkin pie; and a fruit juice spritzer.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

A family holiday

Joseph Bradshaw, left, his son Henry, 3, and wife Lauren were among those who partook of the vegan Thanksgiving dinner at Cafe Gratitude. This was the second free Thanksgiving at the Venice location, but the company has offered the meals for a decade at some of its other spots.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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