By Mark Woolsey<\/p>\n
The Big Fat Vegan, an unusual mother-daughter collaboration dedicated to tasty plant-based food, has set up shop along Powers Ferry Road near I-285, an area thick with apartment complexes and corporate tenants.<\/p>\n
Mother Tanetta Ellzey is non-vegan, describing herself as pescatarian while daughter Iyonna Poags Is thoroughly committed to a plant-based lifestyle.<\/p>\n
What links them is a dedication to bold, engaging flavorings and a desire to bring comfort food to their clientele.<\/p>\n
Both indicate the road that led them to start a food truck which operated off Howell Mill Road in Atlanta, then a brick-and-mortar location in Cobb, sprang from several factors, not the least of which was a fondness for jerk seasoning.<\/p>\n
Tanetta says her daughter, vegan since 2014, started making her own meals in 2018 \u201dand I didn\u2019t understand that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI said just tell me what to cook and what not to cook,\u201d she says. Ellzey whipped up mushroom tacos and then plant-based \u201cchicken\u201d tacos and her daughter pronounced them\u00a0 \u201camazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said \u2018you don\u2019t understand. We\u2019ve got something big,\u2019\u201d Ellzey says,<\/p>\n
Poags had had her own formative experience in the vegan foodspace. She attended went to culinary school (under the vegan banner) for a time in her early 20s, and took the school\u2019s meat-based recipes, experimenting and converted them to plant-based alternatives.<\/p>\n
The mom and daughter put their heads together to craft other vegan offerings, utilizing jerk seasoning (a family favorite) and a combination of spices and flavorings that neither wants to disclose. That led to their successful food truck.<\/p>\n
Poags \u00a0says since throwing open the doors early this month they\u2019ve made believers out of a lot of people-family members and others-who initially shied away from their bill of fare, thinking It might taste \u201cnasty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow a lot of my family members eat vegan,\u201d she says. \u201cTheir minds have been opened up to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their adventurous menu includes\u00a0 burgers, jerk tacos, a Philly cheesesteak, chicken and waffles, \u00a0and a barbecue meatloaf with two sides.<\/p>\n
To help wash it all down, they feature a matcha lemonade along with a non-dairy cookie butter espresso along with other drinks.<\/p>\n
The pair says that\u00a0 on the horizon are an expansion to breakfast and also a search for investors who could help fuel a further expansion of the brand. More locations could be in the pipeline.<\/p>\n
Their website stresses that food is 100 percent wholesome, 100 percent plant based and 100 percent packed with flavor.<\/p>\n
That sort of fits in with the Big Fat Vegan name.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur food is not really, I want to say health-conscious because that\u2019s not our goal here, pretty much. Our goal here is comfort,\u201d says Poags.<\/p>\n
And they say that not just vegans are flocking to them, they\u2019re also attracting a lot of people who just appreciate solid, tasty comfort food.<\/p>\n
As Marcus T in Atlanta put in a post on the company\u2019s website, \u201cI\u2019m not even vegan and this is the best burger I\u2019ve ever had. No cap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Big. Fat Vegan is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7\u00a0p.m.at\u00a02110 Powers Ferry Road, Suite120. The restaurant seats about 50, indoors and outside.<\/p>\n
Visit the Big Fat Vegan website for more information.<\/p>\n
Read more food and restaurant coverage in the Cobb County Courier by following this link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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