Order the grilled vegetables. Get a salad without cheese. Ask for the salmon if it’s a feast day. You can absolutely navigate business lunches during Lent without making a scene or compromising your fast.
The Orthodox fast during Great Lent means avoiding meat, dairy products (milk, cheese, butter, eggs), fish with backbones, and on most weekdays, wine and olive oil. That sounds restrictive until you realize how many restaurant menus have pasta with marinara, vegetable stir-fries, hummus plates, bean soups, and salads. Even here in Southeast Texas, where barbecue is practically a sacrament, most steakhouses have baked potatoes and grilled asparagus.
The key is understanding what fasting is actually for. It’s not a test of your ability to be weird in front of your coworkers. We fast to gain control over our appetites, to remember our dependence on God, to make space for prayer and repentance. It’s a tool for healing, not a performance.
So when your boss suggests lunch at that new burger place on Dowlen, you go. You order something you can eat. If someone asks, you can say you’re not eating meat right now, or you can say nothing at all. Most people won’t notice. They’re thinking about their own lunch.
When It Gets Complicated
Some business lunches are trickier. Maybe you’re at a client dinner where refusing the main course would genuinely create awkwardness. Maybe you’re traveling for work and the only option is a gas station sandwich with mystery meat. Maybe you’re at a wedding reception on a Wednesday evening.
This is where you need to talk with your priest. Seriously. The Church has always recognized that life happens. We call it oikonomia, which means managing the household of faith with pastoral wisdom rather than rigid legalism. Your priest can help you figure out what makes sense for your specific situation.
The sources are clear: don’t make up your own rules, but also don’t fast to the point of harming your health or your witness. If eating the chicken at a business dinner means you can continue building a relationship that supports your family, that might be the right call. If you can easily order the pasta primavera instead, do that.
What This Isn’t
This isn’t permission to blow off the fast whenever it’s inconvenient. The whole point is that fasting is inconvenient. It’s supposed to interrupt your normal patterns. You’re meant to feel it.
But it’s also not meant to be Pharisaical. The Church Fathers who wrote about fasting assumed you’d start where you are and grow gradually. They knew most laypeople couldn’t keep the strictest monastic fast. They encouraged people to do what they could, to improve year by year, to seek guidance rather than either giving up entirely or becoming prideful about their discipline.
If you work offshore on a two-week rotation and the galley serves what it serves, you adapt. If you’re in sales and client lunches are part of your job, you figure it out. The fast serves you; you don’t serve the fast.
Practical Tips
Look at the menu ahead of time if you can. Most restaurants post menus online. You’ll feel less pressured if you already know what you’re ordering.
Shellfish is allowed during Lent. Shrimp, oysters, crawfish, all fine. So if you’re at a seafood place, you’ve got options.
On Saturdays and Sundays, wine and oil are permitted, which opens up more choices. Business brunches on weekends are easier.
Some feast days allow fish with backbones. The Annunciation (March 25) and Palm Sunday are the big ones. If your lunch falls on one of those, order the salmon.
Don’t make a big deal about it. You’re not trying to evangelize through your lunch order. You’re just quietly keeping a discipline that’s between you and God.
And remember that the goal isn’t perfection. The goal is progress. If you mess up or make a judgment call that feels compromising later, confess it and move on. The fast is meant to cultivate humility, not anxiety.
Talk to your priest early in Lent about situations you know are coming up. He can give you specific guidance based on your circumstances. That’s what he’s there for. The Church has been helping people navigate fasting and daily life for two thousand years. Your business lunch isn’t a new problem.
