Backstage Catering Playbook

Catering is a weather system. Some rooms are tropical. Some are a parking garage with a fruit bowl.

Read the table before you talk

Walk the line. Identify:

• Clearly vegan (rice, roasted veg, beans, salad without cheese)
• Salvageable (pasta, skip the cream)
• Trap (soup that is secretly chicken, bread that is buttered)

Then eat. Then, if needed, talk to catering — not at them.

The conversation

Be specific. "I eat plants, no dairy, no eggs. Beans, tofu, veg, rice are perfect." Not a manifesto. A spec.

If they can help, they will. If they cannot, thank them and open your bag.

A good vegan meal backstage is a gift. A missing one is not a moral failing of the local crew.

Green room politics

Do not finish the only vegan tray in front of a hungry band unless you like unemployment. Share. Label your leftovers. The bus fridge is a commons and a war.

After the show

Catering closes. Your hunger does not. That is why the 2AM guide exists. Pair these two articles in your head like a stereo.