On September 12, celebrity chef and restaurateur Spike Mendelsohn will open vegan fast-casual eatery PLNT Burger inside Whole Foods Market in Silver Spring, MD. The restaurant will focus on serving indulgent burgers such as cheeseburgers and mushroom-bacon topped burgers featuring Beyond Meat patties, crispy herbed French fries, seasonal chopped salad, fresh-brewed Honest Tea, and oat-milk-based soft serve created exclusively for PLNT Burger by the founders of Dolcezza Gelateria. Mendelsohn—who has appeared on reality competition series Top Chef and other cooking shows on Bravo TV and the Food Network—first discovered Beyond Meat after meeting the company’s executive chairman, Seth Goldman, while participating on a panel. Goldman slipped Mendelsohn a cooler of Beyond Burgers to try with his family and he was “blown away” by how good they were—deciding then to make a business out of them. “Americans consume around 50 billion burgers a year, and in the US, they rank as the number-one selling item on 80 percent of menus they appear on,” Mendelsohn told VegNews. “With increasing consumer concerns around the negative health and environmental impact of conventional meat, there’s an insatiable demand for products that provide the same flavor and experience as traditional burgers, but are derived from plants. I saw this business as an opportunity to diversify my restaurant portfolio and create a huge impact.” Mendelsohn’s first vegan concept, PLNT Burger aims to provide the full flavor experience of the classic burger that Americans love. “A delicious burger is a delicious burger, no matter where it comes from,” Mendelsohn said. “We are committed to cooking a burger that isn’t just indistinguishable from animal meat, but is better—better for you, better for the planet, and better for future generations.”
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