Albreuna Gonzaque and Dominique Raney originally called their plant-based kitchen Just Veg, but when the couple upgraded from selling meal preps and items at Scissortail Park and moved into their own storefront, they decided to commit to a rebrand inspired by two of the biggest inspirations. in their lives.
Now called Betty’s To-Go3604 N May Ave., Suite E, the plant-based restaurant features what the pair calls healthier versions of comfort-food classics, largely inspired by and lovingly named for the two Bettys in their lives — Raney’s grandmother, Betty Marie, and Gonzaque’s grandmother, Betty Jean.
The path to Betty’s is paved with plant-based intentions
“We’ve always had a passion for food, I think like growing up anyone does, but we wanted to challenge ourselves to eat better,” Gonzaque said.
The pair started trying to integrate more vegetarian and vegan foods into their diets, but quickly realized there were not many options for reliable, readily available and delicious plant-based meals in the city.
“If [a restaurant] isn’t open, then we don’t know what we’re doing,” she said. “And then you just kind of get in the kitchen and try to re-create things that are your favorite, so it just started like that.”
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From making food for themselves and posting photos and recipes online, Gonzaque and Raney saw a chance to bring plant-based options to more people in a less intimidating way by expanding to provide meals for others.
“It was more of a way for other people to try vegan food and not feel like it was just ‘oh so foreign,’” Gonzaque said. “We wanted a way for it to be accessible and tasty and not so like ‘There’s tofu’ And what is seitan?’”
And while they offered meal preps during the pandemic that gave people healthier food choices, the couple were not billing themselves as healthy food. Gonzaque said their meal preps did not include counting macros like some other options available on the market, but just used plant-based eating as a way to improve overall nutrition.
We don’t look down on people who still consume meat or do things like that, it’s a very open thing of like we just want your base to be more plant-based, you know the base of what you need to really fulfill you and nurture your body,” Raney said. “Definitely not trying to turn you into something. We want people to just enjoy the food.”
Soon their business spread to selling at the Farmers Market at Scissortail Park, and the couple saw other businesses seeking them out to do collaborative pop-up events. Raney, who has experience with farming, was working with more local farms and community supported agriculture groups (CSAs).
All of their growth and a continued gap in the market led the pair to make a big decision.
“We would look on Google and you would see that there’s not too many options past a certain time for you to be able to eat,” Raney said. “We eventually looked at each other like ‘hey, we need to eventually open up and make this thing happen so people can actually have an option of vegan food late at night.’”
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Classic dishes, authentic flavors, plant-based recipes
Along the way, the Bettys provided Raney and Gonzaque with help — in the form of advice, taste-testing and even some chopping.
“[Betty Marie] would tell us, ‘Hey, just give me the cutting board,’ Gonzaque said. She taught me how to make so many things that we serve here. You know, like our Southern Bowl — the cabbage, the black-eyed peas — she was the one giving me input.”
Betty Jean still provides tasting notes to Gonzaque, and Raney and Gonzaque give Raney credit for creating some of the restaurants signature items like smoked spaghetti and the vegan cookies. But the cinnamon rolls are her own, and the overall menu ends up being a collaboration.
Re-creating foods the duo loves as plant-based versions hasn’t been all fun and games. Trial and error has led to more than a few items being reimagined several times before making it to the menu.
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“Unfortunately he has tried so much bad food. So much food that I was just like ‘This is it!’ and he’s like ‘This is not it. I’m so sorry that I’m having to tell you this tastes bad,” Gonzaque said. “I mean, it took years and when I say years, I really do mean years, but I have a passion for cooking, as well as he has a passion for cooking.”
With more new menu items, including peach cobbler, expected to roll out over time, Gonzaque said she is excited to continue bringing the things she learned in the kitchen as a child from Betty Jean, and the lessons learned from Betty Marie before her death to more people through recipes that “come from the heart.”
We wanted to give back to those who have really inspired us in ways that we could never even express with words. He always says it’s like giving people their flowers while they’re here,” Gonzaque said. “It’s something that we wish we could have done for Miss Betty Marie, but we know that she’s in the kitchen with us all the time telling me ‘Hey, you missed that or you need to put a little bit more of that in there.’ ”
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