SOUTHEASTERN, N.C.—Meat-eaters beware, it looks like vegans are taking over town.
Several area restaurants have added the “Impossible Burger” to their menu just this month. A plant-based, vegan alternative to real burgers has local vegetarians saying black bean burgers have nothing on the Impossible Burger.
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Whether they be black bean, quinoa or soy, vegetarian burgers have been around for decades. The arrival of the impossible is apparently making a much larger impact on the market and in customer’s spending habits in the Cape Fear Region.
Winne’s Tavern has been around for over five decades and is a primarily meat-based business. Its owner, Wendy Fincher-Hughes, said Winne’s will stick to what it does best but has recently opened up its offerings to make room for vegans.
“I’ve seen the food programs on Netflix,” Fincher-Hughes said. “I managed to go vegan for about three days. It didn’t hold for me but I understand what beef does to the planet.”
A product of Impossible Foods, the Impossible Burger uses 1/200th of the land and one-fourth of the water required to produce burgers made from cows, according to its website. The company’s key ingredient is heme, a molecule that gives meat flavor and aroma. The Impossible Burger’s heme is plant-based and supposedly gives the patty its magic touch.
Last week, Winne’s introduce the Impossible Burger, along with vegan mayonnaise and vegan cheese to its kitchen.
We’re trying to incorporate those folks that felt they couldn’t come to Winnie’s,” Fincher-Huges said. “There are people who come in every day who ask for the Impossible Burger.”
Though the restaurant hasn’t had the chance to add it to their menu, the Impossible Burger will soon become a permanent fixture at the railroad-side tavern.
Beach Bagel’s three locations ordered Impossible Burgers this month to test and see if the plant-based burgers would sell on a bagel. What started as a May special will likely be added to the restaurant’s permanent menu.
“It has been selling pretty good,” Beach Bagel’s manager, Zach Isidro said. “There’s been a lot of people that have been coming in saying that they’ve seen it on a Facebook food group.”
The same story applies to Epic Food Co., a restaurant that already offers multiple vegetarian and vegan options. Epic Food Co. started offering the Impossible Burger two weeks ago and has not yet had the chance to add it to its permanent menu.
With vegan buying power apparently on the rise, Wrightsville Beach Brewery was a few months ahead of this food trend.
“I think we were the first in town according to our food rep,” Wrightsville Beach Brewery’s owner, Jud Watkins, said. “It’s selling like wildfire.”
Watkins – a self-described “highly carnivorous person” – said the burger has tricked a vegan customer into thinking they were served meat.
“He immediately asked for the manager because he believed he had eaten meat,” Watkins said. “He was really worked up.”
The plant-based burger includes beet juice, which bleeds red.
“The two things that set it apart is one the texture,” Watkins said. “The other thing that makes it creative is it has a decent amount of beets that effectively make it look like its been cooked mid-rare.”
For more information on the Impossible Burger, visit Impossible Food’s FAQ page here.
Johanna Ferebee can be reached at johanna@localvoicemedia.com or @j__ferebee on Twitter
