(From left) Ratha Chhay, Celicia Hartridge, Tee Neal and Samuel Veney of Philly Vegan (Photo by Tayler Butters)
Philly born and Virginia raised, Samuel Veney operates the Philly Vegan eatery alongside Virginia natives Celicia Hartridge and Ratha Chhay. The trio began the business in August of 2019 as a pop-up vendor for markets and events. As their cheesesteaks grew in popularity, they moved to a shared restaurant space in Bon Air in February 2020, and in June 2021, they excitedly reopened in their new, larger South Side location at 1126 Hull St. While their plant-based menu draws in customers from vegans to Whiz-heads alike, the owners' main goal is to build strong ties in the community.
Richmond magazine: How did this restaurant come to be?
Samuel Veney: One day, we [the owners] were just sitting at our table, and we’re like, “We want to do something to create some type of legacy and generational wealth for our children, and to stop working 9 to 5 so we can spend more time with our children.” So we were like, “Why don’t we do something that we love?” And I’m from Philly, so I’ve been making cheesesteaks since I could walk. [Laughs]
RM: What made you want to run a restaurant?
Veney: It’s the love. All of our owners come from nonprofits. Before we started Philly Vegan, from a three- to four-year period, we fed over 10,000 families for free. We are rooted at spreading love and bringing people together.
RM: How does your spirituality play a role in running the restaurant?
Veney: We go through a process that we actually meditate every time when we're making the food. We send love to the food with the intent that it'll help whoever eats it to be the best version of themselves. We put that into our food, and when people eat it, sometimes they don't even know why they love it so much. But it's because we literally put in the love from our heart and into our food every day. The love is what really inspired us. The love for our children, the love for our community, the love for ourselves and the love to want to bring people together.
RM: What do you use as meat replacements?
Veney: Mainly mushrooms. Then we use fresh green peppers and onions, and then a little bit of Beyond Meat. In Philly, when they make Philly cheesesteaks, they don’t use cheese. They use Cheez Whiz. So what we did was, we created our own cheese sauce. We also make our own spices. Everything that we make is [made] in house, including our ice cream.
RM: What is the pay-what-you-can program?
Veney: Once a month, customers can come to our restaurant and pay whatever they can [for a meal]. If they can’t pay anything — no questions asked. It’s important for us to be able to do that and give back to the community. So that’s something that we’re going to do here. For every Philly Vegan that opens up, because this is definitely the first one of many, there’s going to be a required pay-what-you-can [day] at least once a month to give back to the community. That’s what we stand for. It’s a random day every month. We make sure we rotate it; that way everybody gets to participate in it. We could always make money, but we need to make change.
