Pay-What-You-Wish Vegan Brunch Debuts in Brooklyn

Vegan eatery Sol Sips opened last month with the mission of providing affordable, locally sourced, and healthy plant-based meals to lower income communities. Twenty-one-year-old student/owner Francesca Cheney partnered with her mother, a vegan nutritionist, to turn Sol Sips (a popular pop-up café) into a brick-and-mortar location in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Cheney expanded the Sol Sips menu beyond homebrewed “potions”—unique herbal tea mixtures and beverages offered at the pop-up—to include sandwiches, smoothies, and bowls. Brunch is served on the weekends and features chickpea omelettes, garbanzo bean pancakes, and turmeric-infused granola. “To balance costs, everything on our menu is only made with four ingredients or less,” Cheney told media outlet Grub Street. “So, it’s a minimalist approach because it’s simple food, but it’s also a budget approach.” A meal (which includes a beverage) ranges in price from $7-16, with a pay-what-you-wish sliding-scale model available on Saturdays.