Tropical Smoothie Café: Beyond Meat Here to Stay

With 340 cafés across the US and an expansion plan of 25 additional locations, Tropical Smoothie Café announced it has now added Beyond Meat’s vegan chicken to its permanent menu. The soy- and pea-based protein can be ordered with any menu item in place of conventional chicken at no additional cost, and Tropical’s CEO Mike Rotondo aims for 10 percent of the food chain’s chicken sales to be Beyond Meat. “We’ve always had vegetarian options, but this was new for us to step up and say we’re committed,” he tells Nation’s Restaurant News. Tropical Smoothie Café chose to partner with Beyond Meat because of its closely imitated, meat-like product, and hopes to attract new veg or health-conscious customers with the plant-based option.