QSR October 2022

DEPARTMENT ONES TO WATCH

PLNTBurger Celebrities get behind the growth of a category-defining upstart. B Y B E N C O L E Y

had at least one vegan option. “The interest and willingness is there,” Mendelsohn says. “I think we’re experi encing a shift in our system from what we grow and how it travels and what we eat, and people are becoming a lot more edu cated about it. From that stance, I see it as very popular and moving quite quickly.” “… One of the things that we’re also doing with our brand is really democratizing plant-based foods because that’s where the importance is for the diets, wherever people need to eat less meat and salt and suffer from obesity or things like that,” he continues. Global retail sales of plant-based foods are predicted to reach as high as $162 billion by 2030, an increase from $29.4 billion in 2020, according to the Bloomberg Group. At that level, the segment would take up 7.7 percent of the global food market. PLNT Burger aims to be a part of that signif icant runway. The concept owes its beginnings to a conference panel discussion in 2017 where Goldman and Mendelsohn were speakers. Goldman placed a cooler of Beyond Meat under Mendelsohn’s chair, which he took home and cooked for his vegan wife. “I saw how excited that burger made my wife, and to me, I was like, ‘This is just good as anything that’s out there,’” Men delsohn says. “my wife was the one that was like, ‘No, this is legendary.’ So I followed up with an email to Seth the next day.” PLNT Burger’s menu is simple, with the PLNT Cheeseburger, PLNT Burger, MushroomBBQBacon Burger, DBL PLNT Burger, Baja Burger, Crispy CHIK’N Sandwich, and Spicy CHIK’N Sandwich. Mendelsohn says there are plenty of oppor tunities for innovation within the space, as well. PLNT Burger previously had a chicken sandwich made from parts of a mushroom that were originally labeled as food waste. The restaurant sourced CONTINUED ON PAGE 102

FOUNDERS: Spike Mendelsohn, Seth Goldman HEADQUARTERS: Bethesda, MD

aware of. Since, trial has been massive, espe cially from some of the biggest brands in fast food—Burger King ( Impossible Whopper), McDonald’s (McPlant) , KFC ( plant-based nuggets) , and more. The demand is clearly present, Goldman says, which is why PLNT Burger has grown from one to 12 restau rants after starting in 2019. Spike Mendelsohn, cofounder and chef, shares his partner’s sentiment, saying culi nary leaders have spent years transforming vegetables into center-of-the-plate products. The movement has been backed by a num ber of celebrities; Beyond Meat’s roster of ambassadors includes Kim Kardashian, Kevin Hart, and Snoop Dogg. And the impact is worldwide. Mendelsohn remem bers traveling to Greece this past summer and being amazed at how many restaurants

YEAR STARTED: 2019 ANNUAL SALES: N/A TOTAL UNITS: 12 FRANCHISED UNITS: 0

THE RISE OF PLANTBASED MENUS CAN BE described as nothing short of “incredibly quick,” says Seth Goldman, cofounder of fast casual PLNT Burger and chair of Beyond Meat. From what he recalls, three years ago, the segment nearly didn’t exist. It was on the cusp of being something people were

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OCTOBER 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com