In an industrial bag of Northern Portland, Oregon, just a few minutes from the i-5, there is an old McDonald’s that had a surprising second life.
The well -known architecture is now the home base Face plant, A vegan hamburger tent that opened earlier this year and wants to become ‘worldwide’ the best fast food, “said founder Matt Plitch. It is an elevated goal – but it is driven by an even bigger one. “Fastfood is [a huge source] From meat consumption outside the house, “he says.” And so the goal is to change the process of global warming for 8 billion people. ”
Face Plant was in the making of developing a business plan for almost four years and bringing in investors to find the right location to develop an alt-meat mix that “tastes better than a Big Mac.” Plitch had a serious help on the latter front: the food efforts and cookbook author Molly Baz did all the recipe development of the restaurant.
And this work seems to be bearing fruit: in the first few months, Plitch says that they have served “dozens and tens of thousands of customers”, many expectations, with the average ticket 50% higher than they expected and more than double that of McDonald’s.
[Photo: Face Plant]
Plant -based products are part of a growing industry, one that was that valued at $ 8.1 billion in 2024more than double that of 2017. Yet there have been Headwind- Both impossible foods and beyond meat have seen the sale while they have difficulty identifying a wider customer base that goes beyond only vegans and vegetarians.
But Plitch says that his target customer is actually not at all vegan. “We have built this to serve people who love fast food and eat a lot of meat,” he says. “And although we are so grateful for vegans and vegetarians who are interested and want to support us, the whole model around stealing the McDonald’s customer is.”
[Image: Face Plant]
To begin with, this means that the sustainability of the facial plant is not broadcast. The color scheme is bright red (no greens or brown in sight); The logo is an overview of two hands holding a hamburger; The font is thick and casual – it all feels inviting and familiar, not as if it is trying to force people to change their eating habits to save the planet. What, Plitch says, is exactly the point.
This is a particularly resonating goal, especially seen where Face Plant is located. At the foot of a peninsula called Swan Island, the area is the home of a number of warehouses, port employees, UPS and FedEx facilities, a coastguard station and the Daimler Truck North -America headquarters. “It’s a bit of a different taste than your typical neighborhood Portland,” he says. (It is also part of the Superfund site of Portland Harbor, which brings an extra emotion in the hope of Plitch for his restaurant.)
What’s on tap
The Face Plant menu is deliberately small and includes a hamburger (with four different variations, depending on how loaded you want it), clogs, fries and milkshakes. “We want to do a few things exceptionally well,” says Plitch, adding that they add a vegetable chicken sandwich to the menu this fall.
The sandwiches are from the same bakery as in-n-out hamburger, while the base of the hamburger is impossible. Yet it took three years to get the taste where he wanted it. And that is where Baz came in. When Plitch grew up, Baz’s Nu-Man, Ben Willett, was one of his best friends, so after he came up with the idea for Face Plant, she was his first and only culinary call.
He says that besides Baz is ‘one of the best recipe developers in the world’, it was also important that she was an omnipresent. “It was so important to us that Molly came into the test kitchen every day and wondered:” Is this just as good as the double-doubled animal style that I had in n-out yesterday? ”
“The super power of Molly is four power. She makes things that stay with you after you have had them,” he says.
In this area he had serious help: Food influencer and cookbook Author Baz did all the recipe development for Face Plant, making the standard mix of Impossible to “something completely unique due to new food science,” he says.
Her team also developed the vegan milkshakes, which are made with PEA protein. Plitch says that while coffee, chocolate and strawberry ‘did a matter of days’, vanilla lasted a year to develop. “You can’t mask the coconut, oats or soy.”
Plitch says that BAZ still remains involved with Face Plant, not only in the development of new items such as the upcoming vegetable chicken sandwich, but also in strategic planning when they look at expanding the company.
Baz, who is also a shareholder in the company, is not the only high -profile partner. Face Plant collected around $ 4 million in venture financing, including former Patagonia CEO Rose Marcarios Rain Ventures. (Agfunder, Bread & Butter Ventures and Ceas are also backers.)
[Images: Face Plant]Why fast food?
Veganist restaurants have become popular and mixture-shatter in recent years, especially when the Eleven Madison Park in Michelin switched to a vegetable menu in 2021. Fastfood gets out in meat alternatives No resounding success. McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King have all been introducing vegetable hamburgers over the past five years, but only Burger King’s Impossible Whopper is still there in a meaningful way and even then customers have complained online that they are not widely available.
But Plitch is not eliminated by these trends. “I really have the feeling that feeding service and fast food is the best platform for hospitality in the world.” Before Face Plant, he launched a carbon neutral food brand, but he could not shake the distance between what he created and the consumer. “You do not have the relationship with the customer; you cannot control your price. You are a bit effective in the voice of Whole Foods or Fred Meyer,” he says. “One of the things I really longed for was central to terms of the relationship with the customer.”
That relationship is a priority for Face Plant. With more than 45 employees, Plitch says that they spend about eight times more hours of training them than the competition. For $ 17 per hour, the wage is also higher than many fast food connections (the minimum wage of Portland is $ 16.30).
An important part of the orientation is to view the Mr. Rogers -Documentary, you won’t be my neighbor together. “It is the biggest summary of two hours of everything we have to do as a company,” he says. “The hamburgers, the shake, the fries, these are our little Trojan horses covered with special sauce to do our real work, which I think he was looking, from showing people they earn.”
And in a clear difference with the vast majority of his fast food competitors, Plitch pushes back against automated technology instead of embracing it. ‘[Their] Believe, as far as I can see, that is that if we minimize that connection, we can reduce the work to increase profit. It is our entire task to do the exact opposite, “he says.” We are not a technology company. We are a human company. And that is the whole gamble we make. ”
A hungry audience
In the months that Face Plant has been open, Plitch says that their expectations have ‘blown away’. In the first month alone, the turnover was five times what he had expected; They are planning to continue to expand their night hours, eventually stay open until 2 am and to add delivery and catering soon.
And customers seem to be impressed so far: the vegan joint has more than 600 reviews on Google, the vast majority of them five stars. “You have truck drivers who order in addition to children from the University of Portland and everything in between,” says Plitch. In this area the location is a great help: it is a big funnel for people on their way to or from the Interstate Highway and is located in a bit of a restaurant Wasteland, which probably makes it an even more attractive option for people who work in the neighborhood.
The price is also a factor, which was Plitch’s goal from the start. He says that their goal was to just be more around a dollar than a similar McDonald’s menu item. “We spent three years to ensure that the costs can be competitive with the big subjects,” he says. “Our most expensive meal is $ 13.49.”
He also emphasizes the importance of taste and freshness compared to their competitors. The fries are made with a little white vinegar; The cold brew shakes have direct coffee crystals. Face Plant -employees cut the onions, lettuce and tomatoes every day in the house; They also make between 1,000 and 1500 pasties of the impossible meat every day with their own mix of herbs.
And as a meat eater itself (who likes to eat less meat), I was there with them when I tried the Hamburger of Face Plant (I went with the “fancy”). The sandwich was downy, the Patty had a Smashburger quality and the sauce had just enough tongs. But interesting is that what struck me the most were the vegetables: the iceberg was perfectly crispy, the onions were thinly cut and the pickles immediately sent me back to the 39-cent McDonald’s Cheeseburger from my childhood. I was eating a fast food citizen and it was good.
Although Plitch is not going to grow the menu dramatically, he has big plans to expand the presence of Face Plant. He hopes to open a second location in the next year and a half (probably also in Portland or elsewhere in Oregon or Washington), but he has worldwide ambitions that go much further. “Our goal is to become the most beloved fast food worldwide and to bring McDonald’s down,” he says. “It will be incredibly difficult, but that is hope.”
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