>It isn't hugely "special"
I really do agree with you, but butter and dairy are pretty ubiquitously used in American cooking, it's actually really difficult to eat at restaurants that don't use butter on things that would definitely be vegan otherwise.
>when Indian food is reasonably popular
I'm willing to bet that a lot Americans who try to make Indian food at home will use butter instead of oils for their pans. Also, the most popular Indian dishes that don't have meat, namely * Paneer, is cheese.
But yes, if I wanted to avoid animal products, I would definitely try the Indian place. They definitely have at least thought about whether or not animal products have gone into their food, while usually the average American isn't really sure of the ingredients to their foods.
>debunks the notion that vegans all eat weird concoctions of soy meant to resemble meat. I'm sure some do, but a curry which happens to contain no animal products is much more appealing.
Rice and beans, a complete meal nutritionally and easy to make interesting!
But to address the point of GP's post:
You really do need to hover over dietarily restricted food. It's really sad when you order 1 GF dish and everyone wants to try it, leaving the one person with an allergy to drink soda. Someone needs to be there saying: "there's a limited amount of this food for people with dietary restrictions. If you don't have that dietary restriction, please move on. There's plenty of food for you."