Crossroads Launches Taco Pop-Up to Preview Kite Hill’s New Vegan Queso

Today, Los Angeles-based vegan restaurant Crossroads Kitchen is launching taco pop-up Crossroads Tacos. The new concept offers a menu of vegan street tacos, nachos, and burritos featuring vegan brand Kite Hill’s new vegan queso—which will launch at Whole Foods Markets in March. Kite Hill was co-founded by Crossroads Kitchen owner and celebrated vegan chef Tal Ronnen, along with Impossible Foods founder Pat Brown, and chef Monte Casino. The queso has been in development for more than a year and is one of Ronnen’s favorite products to date. 

On the menu
The pop-up menu features meals such as the Five Layer Burrito (seasoned Impossible beef, Kite Hill queso, refried beans, Kite Hill sour cream, and cheese) with chips and salsa; Crunchy Tacos (Impossible beef, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and Kite Hill sour cream) with rice and beans; and Loaded Nachos (corn tortilla chips, Impossible beef, pinto beans, Kite Hill queso, pickled jalapenos, tomatoes, Kite Hill sour cream, green onions, and olives). 

Three concepts in one
With the addition of Crossroads Tacos, the upscale restaurant is now operating three different concepts. Earlier this month, Crossroads Kitchen launched plant-based pizza concept Crossroads Pizza, which offers a variety of appetizers, pizzas, and desserts, while still offering takeout options from its regular menu. 

“The pizza pop-up has been a huge success and people really love the pizzas, so we hope this taco pop-up will be received with the same enthusiasm,” Ronnen told VegNews. “Being a fine-dining restaurant during a pandemic, a lot of our [Crossroads Kitchen] dishes don’t travel well. If you look at all the restaurants that are doing well, unfortunately, it’s fast-food restaurants—most of the independent fine-dining restaurants have closed temporarily or permanently. So offering comfort food or fast food has been a game changer for us. It’s also pushed us to create things that we never thought possible, like our new house made pepperoni.”