A Vegan Burger With No Beyond, No Impossible — Coming Soon

Let's talk about the state of the vegan burger in Los Angeles.

Order one almost anywhere in this city and you already know what's coming: a Beyond patty or an Impossible patty, pulled from a box, dropped on a flat-top, dressed up to look like it came from somebody's kitchen. Different restaurant, different bun, same factory.

We understand why. Those patties are easy. They're consistent. They let a kitchen say "vegan option" without changing how it thinks about food.

But easy was never the assignment in our kitchen. So here's the news we've been sitting on: a burger is coming to A Grateful Plate — and there will be nothing Beyond, Impossible, or imitation about it.

The Problem With the LA Vegan Burger

Here's the quiet truth about most plant-based burgers: they're among the most processed items on the menu that serves them.

Engineered patties are built to imitate beef — the bleed, the sear, the texture — through heavy industrial processing. That's an impressive feat of food science. It's also the exact opposite of what we believe a plate should hold. Our kitchen runs on a strict whole-food philosophy: no soy, no GMO or hybrid ingredients, no processed junk, guided by Dr. Sebi's nutritional approach — the emphasis on whole, natural, indigenous foods over modern manufactured ones. (We're an independent kitchen with no affiliation with or endorsement from Dr. Sebi or his estate; his nutritional philosophy is a guide, not a partnership.)

By that standard, a patty engineered in a facility to impersonate meat was never going to make our menu. If it needs a lab to exist, it doesn't need to exist on your plate.

And honestly — this fight is personal. It's in our name.

Why This Burger Is Also the Story of Our Name

We opened as Beyond Vegan. Good name, we thought: beyond the ordinary, beyond expectations. Then Beyond Meat became a household brand, and suddenly our name was telling people the opposite of the truth. Clean-food customers — our people — would see "Beyond Vegan" and assume we were flipping factory patties. Some walked right past.

That's why Beyond Vegan is becoming A Grateful Plate. The new name says what we've always been: a scratch kitchen that treats food with gratitude — for the earth it came from, the hands that grew it, and the people we serve it to.

So understand what this burger means to us. It isn't a menu addition. It's a thesis statement. The burger is the dish where the fake-meat industry lives, and we're walking into that territory with whole food and a cast-iron conviction.

What Our Burger Will Be

We're keeping some details close while the kitchen finishes its work, but the principles are non-negotiable and we'll happily put them in writing:

Scratch-made, start to finish. The patty will be built by hand in our kitchen from whole ingredients — not thawed from a distributor's box. Same as our chowder, same as our sauces, same as everything else we make.

No soy. No tofu, no tempeh, no seitan, no soy protein isolate hiding in the fine print. Our whole kitchen is soy-free, and the burger will be no exception.

No imitation. This patty will not pretend to bleed. It won't be engineered to trick you into thinking it's beef. It will taste like what it is — real food, seasoned and cooked with intention — because we think that's more satisfying than a magic trick.

Held to the same standard as everything here. No GMO ingredients, no hybrid shortcuts, nothing processed beyond what our own hands do to it.

As for the build — the bun, the toppings, what rides alongside it — we're still tasting, arguing, and retasting. That's the fun part, and we're not rushing it.

The Kitchen Behind It

A burger like this doesn't come out of nowhere. It comes out of a kitchen that's been cooking this way all along.

Every week at our Westchester café, Cameron — the owner — picks the dishes, and the team builds them from scratch: quesadillas, tacos, sandwiches, salads, chickpea chowder, smoothies and fruit bowls. Big Maria has run cold food and prep here for about seven years; Mara has led our meal prep for about five. Between the cook-to-order menu and the grab-and-go trays in our two merchandiser fridges, this team already proves daily that whole-food vegan cooking doesn't need a factory's help.

The burger is just the next thing we're saying with the same vocabulary.

When Can You Get It?

Soon — and we mean that in the honest, kitchen-tested sense, not the marketing sense. The burger is in development now, and it goes on the menu when it's ready and not a day before. We've waited this long to do a burger right; we're not going to fumble it at the finish.

Here's how to be there when it lands:

• Join the list. Be the first to know when the burger drops — plus first word on everything else coming to A Grateful Plate. join our list →
• Come see us in the meantime. The café at 6208 W 87th St in Westchester is open and cooking — order fresh off the menu, or grab a scratch-made meal from the fridge and take it home. There's raw #JUICEBAE juice in the café to round it out. See the menu →
• Follow the rebrand. Beyond Vegan is becoming A Grateful Plate, and we're telling the whole story as it unfolds. rebrand announcement post

LA has a thousand vegan burgers. It's about to have one made entirely of food.

FAQ

Will the burger use a Beyond or Impossible patty?

No — that's the whole point. Our burger will be scratch-made in-house from whole ingredients. We never serve engineered or imitation meat products of any kind.

Is the burger soy-free?

Yes. Our entire kitchen is soy-free — no tofu, tempeh, seitan, or soy derivatives — and the burger will follow the same rule.

When does the burger launch?

It's coming soon and currently in development. Join our email list to get the launch announcement first. join our list →

What can I eat there right now?

Plenty. Our Westchester café cooks quesadillas, tacos, sandwiches, salads, and chickpea chowder to order, plus smoothies and fruit bowls — and our grab-and-go fridges are stocked with scratch-made meals in oven-safe trays, alongside raw #JUICEBAE juice. See the menu →