Brooklyn, NY’s famed Barclays Middle has welcomed its first vegan vendor, fast-casual vegan barbecue restaurant Pure Grit BBQ. That is the primary growth for the eight-month-old restaurant, which opened in Manhattan, NY’s Flatiron District final yr.
At Barclays, Pure Grit BBQ is serving its in style, award-winning house-smoked Jackfruit Nachos and two unique sliders (Home Smoked Jackfruit Sliders and Smoked Not possible Reduce Brisket) served on cornbread waffles alongside house-made barbecue chips.
Pure Grit BBQ is a part of the Barclay Middle’s Brooklyn Market idea, a coveted area the place three to 5 manufacturers are chosen as distributors, with a possibility to maneuver as much as the majors by securing a everlasting presence on the concourse.
Pure Grit BBQ
“Folks have been very excited to seek out contemporary vegan options on recreation night time,” Jenny Mauric, co-founder of Pure Grit BBQ, instructed VegNews about their opening night time.
Bringing Texas vegan barbecue to NYC
Based in 2019, Pure Grit BBQ began by promoting vegan barbecue necessities—a barbecue sauce, sizzling sauce, and a spice rub—accompanied by cooking and smoking tutorials. This was quickly adopted by the opening of a brick-and-mortar eatery the place it provided vegan and gluten-free smoked barbecue mains equivalent to fried rooster and waffles; pulled jackfruit, Not possible burgers sandwiched between cornbread waffles; and traditional sides equivalent to coleslaw, baked beans, potato salad, and mac and cheese.
The whole lot is smoked in-house and ready with the model’s signature sauces and rub, that are additionally accessible on the market together with its branded merchandise.
Based by Mauric and Kerry Fitzmaurice, the Pure Grit BBQ idea was born following a visit to Austin, TX the place Fitzmaurice skilled the notorious Texas barbecue scene. When she couldn’t discover vegan choices at native barbecue joints, she had an “aha” second and determined to fill the void herself.
Pure Grit BBQ
Upon returning to New York Metropolis, the place she lives, Fitzmaurice confided in colleague and now enterprise associate Mauric about her want to carry vegan barbecue to NYC—and that’s when Pure Grit BBQ was born.
To create the menu, the duo collaborated with vegan chef Nikki King Bennett, who was beforehand head chef at shuttered vegan restaurant Pure Meals and Wine and featured within the Netflix sequence Dangerous Vegan. Whereas Bennett labored to excellent the edges, the founders tapped nationally-renowned pitmaster Daniel Jacobellis of Prime Gun BBQ to make sure the authenticity of barbecue in each dish.
To high off the dream group, they welcomed educated vegetarian chef and Hell’s Kitchen contestant Emily Hersh, who beforehand labored at famed NYC vegetarian restaurant Grime Sweet and moved again to New York Metropolis from her native San Antonio to helm the restaurant.
Vegan barbecue for all
By pop-ups and tastings, the group knew NYC was the appropriate place to introduce plant-based barbecue. “Barbecue is household. Whether or not it’s gathering for a yard barbecue or queuing up at your favourite native spot you’ll get pleasant faces, scrumptious meals, and many laughter,” Fitzmaurice instructed VegNews. “It’s that sense of belonging that drove me to create Pure Grit BBQ: an area the place everybody can pull up a chair.”
Pure Grit BBQ
Though the model initially deliberate to begin in foodservice in 2020, due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, they pivoted to retail, promoting vegan barbecue sauces and rubs on-line and in choose shops. Final yr, Pure Grit BBQ obtained a money infusion from an angel investor to not solely open their flagship NYC location, but additionally operationalize their idea for scale and fast development, in addition to streamline and develop their retail choices.
“We serve scrumptious, satisfying meals that occurs to be vegan, gluten-free, and principally soy-free. We name this BBQ for all,” Fitzmaurice stated. “Our first location is in our up-for-anything, all the time genuine NYC, however our plans are to develop throughout the nation, sharing our desk with anybody who desires in.”
Southern plant-based barbecue
Pure Grit BBQ isn’t the primary model to tackle the problem of veganizing traditional Southern barbecue dishes. In 2021, vegan meat model Barvecue opened the world’s largest plant-based smokehouse, known as the Carolina Smokehouse. Situated in Cornelius, NC, the ten,000-square-foot facility began with an preliminary capability of manufacturing 800,000 kilos of the model’s meats, together with Pulled BVQ (vegan barbecue pork with unique sauce), Chopped BVQ (a gluten-free model of the Pulled BVQ) and Bare variations of each (calmly seasoned with no sauce).
Barvecue
Based in 2017, Barvecue is on a mission to create the world’s best-tasting plant-based barbecue meats. “Because the plant-based meat market surges, so, too, does the demand for our wood-smoked, plant-based Barvecue,” Lee Cooper, Barvecue founder and CEO, stated in a press release. “As we develop to maintain up with demand for Barvecue merchandise, we determined that it was time to develop manufacturing and cleared the path within the plant-based barbecue market.”
In close by Atlanta, GA, vegan barbecue eatery Grass BBQ Joint opened its first brick-and-mortar location in 2020 after working as a neighborhood grab-and-go pop-up. With a objective to “present conventional southern Q, with out the guilt,” Grass BBQ Joint cold-smokes its vegan meats and slow-simmers its sauces for a number of hours earlier than utilizing them as bases for menu gadgets such because the VicRiib Sandwich (with smoked vegan pork), Groveway (which options pulled jackfruit), Sloppy Joe (made with “veef” brisket), and Nashville Scorching Chick’n.
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Nicole Axworthy is the Information Editor at VegNews and creator of the cookbook DIY Vegan.
