Photo by Steven Seighman
Baja Cauliflower Tacos by Chef Eddie Garza.
By Kathleen Furore
The Google reviews are in. And many of the rave reviews of the cuisine at Chicago’s La Esperanza Restaurant tout its vegan cuisine. “Solid vegan menu with tons of variety...the flautas with vegan meat are my personal favorite with a side of nopales...” “Better vegan fare than more vegan restaurants in Chicago...Ask for the Plant-Based Menu.” “Had the vegan pozole with jackfruit, it was delicious!”
One look at the page full of La Esperanza’s plantbased options and reasons for the accolades become clear: It’s a comprehensive offering that includes burritos, enchiladas, flautas, quesadillas, gorditas, sopes, huaraches, nachos, tacos, tortas and pozole made with the customer’s choice of soyrizo, vegan meat, hibiscus birria, cactus, mushrooms, beans and avocado and jackfruit.
While it might seem surprising that plant-based dishes rank among favorites from an authentic Mexican restaurant located in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, which is rich in Latino culture and culinary traditions, chefs and consultants alike says plant-based cuisine’s time has arrived.
“Plant-based alternatives are popping up on menus across the U.S. and beyond. But this top food trend has been a long time coming,” says Chef Eddie Garza, a plant-based chef, cookbook author, and host of “Global Bites with Eddie Garza” on OzTube, who has been a proponent of the plant-based movement for many years. “In 2018, I partnered with one of the most exclusive luxury hotels in Guanajuato, Mexico — Casa Del Rector — where we developed a series of plant-based menu items for each of the hotel’s dining establishments to keep up with patrons’ demands.”
Restaurant consultant Henry Dominguez, the president and CEO of FoodPro Restaurant Consulting, also sees a move toward this trend. “I am adding more plant-based options to menus,” reports Dominguez, who works with Mexican, Tex- Mex and other concepts on tasks such as recipe and menu development. “Customer requests are driving decisions to add plant-based options.”
NOW SERVING...
The nice thing about plant-based dishes is that they can work on most any concept’s menu, from casual restaurants to high-scale establishments and everything in between.
Take the menus Garza created for Casa Del Rector. “At the hotel’s cafe, you’ll find a plant-based version of the iconic Mexican breakfast sandwich the mollete, featuring house made chickpea ‘chorizo’ and cashew ‘cheese’ among other local favorites done in a plant-based way,” Garza says. “At its fine dining restaurant, we developed a seasonally rotating plant-based chile relleno, locally sourced jackfruit tacos al pastor, and an array of plantbased small plates, including a delightfully sweet and tart shiitake mushroom and mango ceviche — a house favorite.”
A version of Garza’s Baja Cauliflower Tacos is on the menu at Hotel Los Angeles in Chiapa de Corzo, Mexico, another Mexican establishment he partnered with in 2018. “There, you’ll also find a plant-based version of the regional dish cochito, featuring hyper locally sourced jackfruit from a neighboring jackfruit plantation,” he says. “Having worked with both of these establishments on paving the way for a plant-based future is one of the highlights of my career.”
At La Puerta Azul in Milbrook, New York, owner Jan Mendelson has added vegetarian items including vegetable burritos, tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, and portobella mushroom fajitas — some that can be made vegan on request. “All of the vegetable items are popular,” says Mendelson, who notes that he’s experimented with both house-made and commercial veggie burgers, as well as Impossible Burgers, on the menu. And while there is “little demand” for those items, a portobello burger, with the mushroom replacing the patty, sells well, he adds.
Although the restaurant sits in a rural area where most customers are “fairly meat centric,” Mendelson says he has seen an increasing demand for vegetarian items, although it remains small.
“Our existing vegetarian customers do express an interest in more variety, and we try to address that through specials, for example roasted winter vegetable enchiladas with a chipotle-peanut salsa,” he says. And speaking of meat-centric — even Pig Daddy’s BBQ in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, is experiencing an uptick in requests for plant-based items, according to owner Jerry Mullane.
“We have established a vegan, plant-based appetizer menu similar to our regular restaurant menu that allows couples to have basically the same items, but one being plant-based,” he explains. “In doing so, we have found that some of our ‘meat eating’ customers who have tried them have come to enjoy the plantbased options equally well.”
Best-sellers, he reports, are vegan tacos with Briskket, Pulled Porc and Chikon; nachos made with Chikon, Pulled Porc, or Loaded (with Chikon, Porc and Chorisso) and Vegan Flatbread with Porc and Chorisso.
What is driving Mullane’s decisions to add these items? “First, customer requests. Second, popularity within the community. And third, internet and TV advertising,” he says.
THE PROFIT POTENTIAL
Not only are plant-based dishes healthier for people and the planet; they can be healthier for restaurants’ bottom line, too, restaurateurs report.
“The profit impact is great!” says Dominguez. “Cost of sales for plant-based items are 23 percent to 27 percent.”
“In our particular restaurant, our biggest cost/least profitable items are meat-based menu items,” Mullane says. “Plant-based menu items can be up to 50 percent lower in cost and have a higher selling price for similar, same size portions.”
“Vegetarian dishes generally have lower food costs and higher profitability than meatbased options, especially with the ongoing increases in meat prices,” Mendelson echoes, but adds one caveat: “With low demand, they make a relatively small contribution to profitability overall.”
GETTING STARTED
Restaurateurs who have added plant-based items have suggestions for others who are just getting started. Customer input, all say, is key.
“I think the best place to start is always listening to your customers. If some customers are asking for something, try it out and see if it has more general appeal,” Mendelson suggests. “If customers have not expressed an interest in plant-based alternatives, try plant-based interpretations of some more popular menu items and see if there is any demand. While it may seem appealing to try and follow the trend, you need to balance the increased inventory and labor involved in adding plant-based options with the increased profitability of such items. If there isn’t sufficient demand, the costs may outweigh the benefits.”
Dominguez agrees that getting input from customers is crucial, and advises asking team members for input, too. “Then feature one [new] item per day for four weeks,” he says. “Focusing on only one item allows team members to learn the product, and cooks learn how to make one item at a time.”
Once that experiment is over, Dominguez suggests adding the three most popular items to the menu while continuing menu development and team training.
Mullane approaches the task this way: “Ask your customers if they would be interested in your establishment offering an alternative to your regular menu. But do not suggest these items would be healthier than your current offerings. This could be shooting yourself in the foot. Just say you would like to offer an option if they would be interested.”
Starting with the appetizer menu first is Mullane’s preference; he says it will reveal if your customer base will embrace a plant-based menu. “As I said, we had a lot of couples with one diner who suggested they would enjoy their experience more if they could eat similar plant-based menu items as their partner enjoyed our regular meat-based menu,” he concludes.