Greenhero
#14 – Plant-based restaurants for everyone w/ Veggie Grill Founder T.K. Pillian
Today on the Greenhero Podcast, Rikard is talking with T.K. Pillian, Founder and Chairman of the plant-based restaurant chain, Veggie Grill. T.K. is on a mission to help people eat more plant-based food by making it more accessible and delicious. Veggie Grill has grown to more than 34 locations and expanded into Stand-Up Burgers and Mas Veggies Vegan Taqueria.
T.K. was not a restaurateur by trade. In fact, he got his degree in engineering from MIT and picked up an MBA along the way. After growing and exiting a company he started in the tech space, he was ready to consider what the rest of his professional career would look like. Driven by his passion for health and wellness and to combat our dependency on pharmaceuticals, obesity, and heart disease, T.K. wanted to help make a difference. Having experienced personal health benefits after going completely vegan, he asked the question “how can we get people to eat better? And how can we make it convenient, delicious and healthy?” He found that with the right products, the right techniques, and the right branding, vegan and plant-based foods could do what Starbucks did for coffee, what Whole Foods did for organic food–bring it to the mainstream.
To do just that and to maximize impact, Veggie Grill was designed to be a chain from the onset as opposed to being chef-based. From there, it was developing the right strategy, utilizing the plethora of newest and best products that were then becoming more and more available, and scaling.
In today’s media, T.K. feels it’s a lot less about educating the population about plant-based food, and more about breaking habits, making healthy food available, and helping people start and progress on their plant-based journey. The proof is in Veggie Grill’s customers, who vary from those who are trying their first vegan meal, people who are looking for a healthier option, to people who have been vegan most of their lives.
As far as branding goes, Veggie Grill’s concept started with the experience. They wanted to take a top-down view of what it was like to eat at the restaurant before they moved on to anything else. The goal was for the experience to be fun, friendly, and approachable, as well as clean, crisp and contemporary. This was to help encourage people who may be skeptical of a vegan restaurant, or those who have other perceptions of what it might be like, try out a healthier food choice. During the pandemic, Veggie Grill pivoted to expand into two smaller, more flexible brands, focused on burgers and tacos, respectively.
T.K. primarily sees the plant-based food boom in larger metropolitan areas with a higher density of college-educated people, whose reasons for eating plant-based varies from animal protection, environmental impact, and health. T.K. sees the future of plant-based eating as an opportunity to include in today’s market, not to compete with meat products. As an investor, he can see the next generation working on the form factor of these plant-based foods, which gives him hope for the industry.
Things you’ll learn
The key to maximizing the impact of plant-based foods is making them accessible.
Introducing plant-based foods starts with the experience of eating at a plant-based restaurant.
The next step in the plant-based food industry is the form factor.
Links
https://veggiegrill.com/
Today on the Greenhero Podcast, Rikard is talking with T.K. Pillian, Founder and Chairman of the plant-based restaurant chain, Veggie Grill. T.K. is on a mission to help people eat more plant-based food by making it more accessible and delicious. Veggie Grill has grown to more than 34 locations and expanded into Stand-Up Burgers and Mas Veggies Vegan Taqueria.
T.K. was not a restaurateur by trade. In fact, he got his degree in engineering from MIT and picked up an MBA along the way. After growing and exiting a company he started in the tech space, he was ready to consider what the rest of his professional career would look like. Driven by his passion for health and wellness and to combat our dependency on pharmaceuticals, obesity, and heart disease, T.K. wanted to help make a difference. Having experienced personal health benefits after going completely vegan, he asked the question “how can we get people to eat better? And how can we make it convenient, delicious and healthy?” He found that with the right products, the right techniques, and the right branding, vegan and plant-based foods could do what Starbucks did for coffee, what Whole Foods did for organic food–bring it to the mainstream.
To do just that and to maximize impact, Veggie Grill was designed to be a chain from the onset as opposed to being chef-based. From there, it was developing the right strategy, utilizing the plethora of newest and best products that were then becoming more and more available, and scaling.
In today’s media, T.K. feels it’s a lot less about educating the population about plant-based food, and more about breaking habits, making healthy food available, and helping people start and progress on their plant-based journey. The proof is in Veggie Grill’s customers, who vary from those who are trying their first vegan meal, people who are looking for a healthier option, to people who have been vegan most of their lives.
As far as branding goes, Veggie Grill’s concept started with the experience. They wanted to take a top-down view of what it was like to eat at the restaurant before they moved on to anything else. The goal was for the experience to be fun, friendly, and approachable, as well as clean, crisp and contemporary. This was to help encourage people who may be skeptical of a vegan restaurant, or those who have other perceptions of what it might be like, try out a healthier food choice. During the pandemic, Veggie Grill pivoted to expand into two smaller, more flexible brands, focused on burgers and tacos, respectively.
T.K. primarily sees the plant-based food boom in larger metropolitan areas with a higher density of college-educated people, whose reasons for eating plant-based varies from animal protection, environmental impact, and health. T.K. sees the future of plant-based eating as an opportunity to include in today’s market, not to compete with meat products. As an investor, he can see the next generation working on the form factor of these plant-based foods, which gives him hope for the industry.
Things you’ll learn
The key to maximizing the impact of plant-based foods is making them accessible.
Introducing plant-based foods starts with the experience of eating at a plant-based restaurant.
The next step in the plant-based food industry is the form factor.
Links
https://veggiegrill.com/