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Tiny Vegan will open a brick-and-mortar takeout restaurant at 104 S. Sheppard St. in Carytown on May 11. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Tiny Vegan owner Kasie Hull (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
If you’ve attended local festivals and markets, frequented breweries or observed Meatless Mondays, chances are you’ve probably spotted Tiny Vegan’s vintage green camper, dubbed “Honeydew,” around town. Helmed by Kasie Hull and sporting fruit and veggie shades in the windows, the meat-free venture will soon plant roots in Carytown. On May 11, Tiny Vegan will debut a takeout restaurant at 104 S. Sheppard St.
A vegetarian since 15, Hull has been making food for herself and navigating the ever-evolving world of plant-based eating for more than half of her life. With a varied background in restaurant work, including working in the kitchen and waiting tables, Hull originally debuted her food cart in Greenville, South Carolina, in October 2020.
“I wanted to open bar-venue-restaurant, but then COVID happened, so I pivoted to a food truck,” she says. “I was living in South Carolina and literally just making a mess in our kitchen making vegan cheese out of cashews and anything I could make from scratch. Mostly in my kitchen at home is where I came up with my recipes. I don’t know how many pounds of lentils I went through before I figured out what tasted good.”
Returning to the river city after previously living here for a decade, Hull introduced Tiny Vegan to Richmond on a snowy day in February 2022. Despite the weather, she had a lengthy line. Since, the fairly adorable food truck has amassed a following of vegan and non-vegan eaters alike seeking Hull's signature “Cash Wraps,” a riff on a popular fast food chain’s Crunch Wrap featuring cashew nacho cheese, or her biscuits and gravy, laden with lentil sausage and oat flour gravy over drop biscuits. Both will be on the menu at her brick-and-mortar.
“I essentially started out as a vegetarian,” says the 32-year-old Florida native. “I started off as doing it for the animals and then kind of graduated to [doing it] for my health, for the planet and hundreds of other reasons why anyone should be vegan or integrate [vegan food into their life].”
In the past two years, Hull has been consistently logging an average of three events a week, making appearances at Outpost, Starr Hill Brewery, RVA Makers Market and holding a Sunday residency at Black Hand Coffee. She found her forthcoming location by happenstance when visiting the nearby bakery Sugar & Twine. A former beauty parlor, the less-than-300-square-foot building was a DIY project, so Hull has spent the last five months outfitting her slightly retro eatery dotted with daisies. Aiming to create approachable comfort dishes but with a more health conscious touch, Hull believes in meeting people where they’re at on the vegan spectrum — whether fully dedicated or merely dabbling.
In the kitchen, almost everything is made from scratch, from the cheese sauce to the faux meats and the biscuits, allowing her to steer clear of many processed vegan options. “My thought is, yes, you can be vegan because you don't want to kill an animal or be cruelty-free, but why not do that and treat your body right too,” says Hull, who previously worked at Millie’s Diner. “I just want my menu to be something I can stand behind. Just because it’s vegan, doesn’t mean it’s good for you. With that being said, lentils are a great source of nutrients in place of that brick of fried soy. I really like doing my spin on things.”
Tiny Vegan's catchphrase is “Enjoy the Lentil Things,” and the legume is the main, protein-packed meat substitute Hull cooks with. Open for breakfast and lunch, Tiny Vegan will kick off the morning with a breakfast burrito featuring lentil sausage, tofu scramble, black beans, seasoned potatoes and “TV sauce,” a pickled jalapeno sour cream made from almonds; a platter with silver dollar pancakes, fresh fruit, tofu scramble and hash rounds; a bacon (made of rice) tofu scramble and cheddar biscuit sandwich; and her famed biscuits and gravy.
For a midday meal, diners can order seitan-based sandwiches, including a "turkey" sub with micro rainbow sprouts, rice bacon, garlic hummus and TV sauce; a "beef" and cheddar with crispy fried onions and house-made nacho cheese; along with a pimento patty melt on Texas toast. Hull also plans to offer baked goods, such as muffins, cookies, cupcakes and a specialty dessert. Meals range from $7-$12.
“With my menu in general, my [thought was], what do I want to eat that I don’t want to cook for myself after a long day. That’s kind of what I went with,” she says. “All of these things will be good for you, you won’t feel full and sick afterwards and you won’t go broke eating my food — that was another huge thing, and something I really wanted to be able to do. Everything I do, I want it to be something I'm proud of.”
Tiny Vegan will be open Thursday and Friday from 9 to 4 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 9 to 5 p.m. Breakfast will be served from 9 a.m. to noon, lunch from noon to 4 p.m.
