New Vegan Café Aims to Decolonize Diets in Detroit 

Southwest Detroit’s vegan food truck Rocky’s Road Brew will expand to a brick-and-mortar café called Damelo next spring. The café will focus on providing the local community with healthy and accessible Latin-inspired vegan food and mocktails. “Diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, and cancer are all rampant in Indigenous and Latin American peoples,” owner Rocky Coronado told VegNews. “A mindful, decolonized diet—which, to me, entails local, organic, in-season fruits and veggies from passed-on seeds—is the best health insurance one can have.” Coronado first launched Rocky’s in 2015 in Austin, TX as a specialty coffee truck, and relocated to Detroit last year where Coronado expanded the truck’s menu to include fruit smoothies and tacos with fillings such as Southern fried tofu with kale and tomatillo-avocado sauce. Damelo will build on the food truck offerings with affordable, nourishing food; non-alcoholic drink pairing; and organic, fair-trade, air-roasted coffee. New vegan eatery Todo Verde, which is slated to open in Los Angeles, also focuses on the principles of decolonization by serving plant-based food inspired owner Jocelyn Ramirez’ ancestral traditions to help heal and feed its community.