Face Plant: Portland Vegan Fast-Food Restaurant in a Former McDonald’s Out to Change the World | Eater Portland
"A newly opened Portland flagship drive-thru that is explicitly plant-based and was four years in the making, built around three goals: serving enjoyable, affordable food; providing stellar customer service; and supplanting Ronald McDonald. Led by CEO Matt Plitch and culinary head/shareholder Molly Baz (who has 809,000 Instagram followers but hasn’t publicly announced her participation yet), the team spent years testing recipes and refined details down to a proprietary pea-milk blend for a vanilla shake after Baz found chocolate, strawberry, and coffee shakes worked with oat milk but that “vanilla is such a subtle, clean flavor and other flavors shine through.” The menu centers on fast-food classics reinvented: burgers offered as “red & yellow” (think American cheese, pickles, ketchup) or “fancy” (lettuce, tomato, onion, special sauce), available as doubles or combos, plus a 10-piece nugget served with a mustard-y barbecue sauce reminiscent of Carolina gold. Fries are deliberately a bit larger than McDonald’s—Baz realized she liked them “a bit girthier” to achieve the perfect ratio of “crispy exterior to mashed potato, fluffy interior,” and their seasoning blend includes a subtle bit of vinegar; the reviewer noted they stayed crisp in the rain and had a uniquely satisfying flavor. Sodas are cold and bubbly (Barq’s Root Beer is available and caffeinated), and handspun shakes (priced at $4.99) plus hot and iced coffee are coming soon. The reviewer’s party of four ordered one of each menu item (including fries and a soda combo and a split 10-piece nugget) and spent $44.50 total—less than $12 each—finding the patties to have the right hint of char, sauces that are drippy, veggies crisp, and buns toasty soft; Baz and Plitch aim to hit the “combo of umami, salt, fat, and tang that makes food craveable.” The operation emphasizes a nostalgic, family-friendly fast-food vibe (shiny classic interior, stocked coloring station, friendly staff, kids drenched fries in ketchup) and a drive-thru experience with staff coming to windows à la In-N-Out; many regulars are local workers from nearby Swann Island industrial and distribution hubs (about one-third of vehicles are trucks). The founders stress service and community—Plitch notes, “This concept doesn’t work if people who love fast food don’t love it,” and that “Fast food is the greatest way to take care of people,” adding an ambition to scale with, “If you disrupt over a gigaton of carbon, you change the arc of history.” Early operations have been busy since day one despite a somewhat subdued debut two weeks earlier; the team has handled opening hiccups (machine malfunctions, incorrect deliveries) by comping meals, offering vouchers or extras, and even celebrated a repeat customer by comping his 10th visit. Small, charming details—like a cat on a dashboard and a dog coming through wearing goggles—underscore the neighborhood feel, and while the reviewer (a vegan) notes they’re not the target audience, Baz says the goal “is to capture people who eat beef on the regular.”" - Anastasia Sloan
