It began with Zakaim, the first restaurant in Tel Aviv that dared to serve only vegan food, but of the kind that would meet the standard of the gourmet restaurants that fill the city. Before that, there were quite a few restaurants that joined the Meatless Monday initiative including, believe it or not, the Knesset cafeteria — although, according to Inbal Klein, a public relations professional specializing in food, a recent survey she conducted discovered that only a few of the restaurants that joined the initiative so eagerly continue to have Meatless Monday, while most of them just took advantage of the image boost and continued to serve meat.

Some of the leading restaurants in the city, such as Orna and Ella, a Tel Aviv landmark, or the Asian temple Thailand House have made a point of offering vegetarian and vegan options on their menus for years. Recently, even The Brasserie, a legendary bistro that keeps winning the title for the "best hamburger in town," added a page of vegan options to its well-designed menu. Even the famous Domino’s Pizza chain has offered its own vegan pizza.

And we must not forget Israel’s “national foods,” falafel and hummus, adopted from the Arab states surrounding us. They are both a vegan option (by foregoing the egg, of course).

But it seems like nothing threw the Tel Aviv culinary scene into turmoil like the decision by Nana Schreier to make the menu of her hedonistic paradise, the Georgian restaurant Nanuchka, completely vegetarian. After all, this was a place where the vodka flowed as freely as water, and the khinkali dumplings, stuffed with meat and cheese, flowed from all over (just before the guests got on the bar to dance).