My dad was the oddball from an accounting background, and I always joke that I grew up in a Grewish family. Mendelsohn: My mother is a rockstar chef-she’s a big restaurateur and comes from Greek restaurateurs, and she’s been in food her whole life. Did you grow up with home-cooked family meals from both those traditions? Your mom is Greek and your dad is Jewish. LIVEKINDLY: You come from a restaurant family. We chatted with Mendelsohn about how he created the perfect formula for a vegan fast-food restaurant that could trigger a plant-based revolution. Whole Foods rapidly licensed Mendelsohn to open eight other PLNT Burger locations across the mid-Atlantic region in just two years, where the instantly identifiable classics like double cheeseburgers, spicy fried chik’n sandwiches, sweet potato fries and soft serve won rave reviews. Mendelsohn’s fast-food vegan burgers were instantaneously craveable, even during a pandemic.
In 2019, he and Seth Goldman of Honest Tea opened their first plant-based concept, PLNT Burger, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Food Policy Council, which unites community leaders and government staff to further the sustainability, health, and access of D.C.’s food systems. In 2015, Mendelsohn took on the role of chair of the D.C. “The food policy boot camp makes chefs realize the voice that they have.”Ĭhef Mendelsohn has opened the first PLNT Burger in New York City. “Chefs are taking on a new role in the world-one that goes beyond your restaurant’s four walls,” Mendelsohn says. He soon found willing mentors in not only Nischan, but also Andrés and Tom Colicchio. Instead of quaffing wine and networking, Mendelsohn and 14 other chefs rolled up their sleeves and brainstormed creative solutions to food issues, from sustainability to food insecurity. His life was upended when he attended the Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change, hosted by food equity advocate Michel Nischan in Pescadero, California. Good Stuff sourced from local farms, planted trees in Brazil’s Caraíva River Basin with The Nature Conservancy, and donated labor and funds to José Andrés’ crisis relief organization DC Central Kitchen.īut it wasn’t until 2014 that a lightbulb went off for the former Top Chef. In 2008, he opened his Capitol Hill restaurant, Good Stuff Eatery, which quickly became a favorite hub for politicians and changemakers, including Former President Barack Obama and Former First Lady Michelle Obama.įor Mendelsohn, the restaurant’s political location became a springboard for joining the urgent national conversations surrounding farming, food access, and sustainability. Surrounded by politicians and staffers advocating for change in their respective sectors, Mendelsohn felt inspired to apply a similarly activist attitude to what he cared most about: food systems.
to launch his own restaurant that he started to understand the political power of food. One of the foremost food policy chefs in America today, Mendelsohn grew up in a family of philanthropic restaurant owners. We spoke with former Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn about the Greek and Jewish comfort foods that built his early palate, how surfing inspired his plant-based shift, and why he champions fast food. On January 24, the first PLNT Burger in New York City-and the chain’s first standalone location-debuted in Union Square.
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