Vegan Gastropub The Beer Plant Will Be ‘100% Plant Derived’

Farm-to-table eating and drinking now applies to bars with the impending opening of vegan-friendly The Beer Plant, where everything will stem from greenery. The "100% plant derived" gastropub aims to only offer herbivore options, with no meat in sight.

According to a press release, they are looking to "highlight the celebratory and sensual aspects of plant-based eating." Menu items will potentially include vegetable pot pies, Irish lager stew, and curry bowls. The bar will offer a range of craft beers, highlighting sour, farmhouse, and session beers. Also included are local wines and greenery-focused cocktails.

Co-owner and Austinite Ray McMackin will run The Beer Plant with his wife, Sarah McMackin. She also works for Oldways , a nonprofit focused on food and nutrition education. The team includes McMackin’s brother, Blaise, who ran Tap 41 and another plant-focused restaurant The Green Bar, both in Florida.

The bar/restaurant will be located in Tarrytown at 3110 Windsor Road, taking over the former Austin Java. The McMackins aim to open The Beer Plant by late summer. The full press release follows below.

Coming To Austin 2015:
The Beer Plant
The First Plant-Based Gastropub

(AUSTIN, TX – March 20, 2015) Austin will soon be home to the first gastropub where all menu and drink options are 100% plant derived (vegan). The Beer Plant will combine craft beer, wine and cocktails with a menu of hearty, artfully prepared plant-based fare. Knowing Austin’s love of great food and drink, healthy living and environmental awareness, The Beer Plant’s creators know it’s the perfect location.

"We wanted to create a place where craft beer and vegetables could share the spotlight," says co-owner Ray McMackin, who’s called Austin home for the last 35 years. "A place where folks can eat clean and drink clean. Austin is the ideal spot for a concept like this."

Ray and his wife Sarah McMackin are currently in the designing, permitting, hiring, and menu-development phase.

The Beer Plant aims to highlight the celebratory and sensual aspects of plant-based eating, "We are avid craft beer drinkers who love great food," says Ray. "At home, we enjoy turning guests onto vegetables prepared in new ways and paired with a pint. We’re flavor enthusiasts and we’re always in the kitchen." This will not be a "fake meat" type of place; think pickled, smoked flavor-forward pub fare such as savory vegetable pot pies, Irish lager stew and unique curry bowls.

Discover Your Roots
"We’ve seen the ‘farm to table’ eating trend explode with a heavy emphasis on meaty fare; we want to offer a more ‘garden to table’ dining experience – all the plants minus the meat," says Sarah, a health counselor and program manager for the nutrition education nonprofit Oldways. Sarah has helped to spearhead nutritional cooking programs that celebrate traditional foods and diets of cultures from around the world and oversees 90 sites in the US that teach traditional plant-based cooking. "My palate has certainly been influenced by my work, both in my travels and studies of cultural diets. I’ve been amazed to find that most traditional eating patterns, worldwide, are naturally more plant-based than today’s standard American diet. Vegetables, grains, beans, nuts and seeds – traditional cuisines use these ingredients in remarkable ways for timeless dishes, and that’s what we plan to do at The Beer Plant."

The Bar
The Beer Plant will feature exciting beers from the front lines of the craft beer revolution, with a particular emphasis on sours, farmhouse styles and session beers. It will also offer a well-curated wine list, including local wines on tap. For the more spirit orientated, there will be a full bar with an emphasis on fresh and creative cocktails using botanical mixology.

The Team
The Beer Plant team includes Ray, Sarah, and two other partners in Fort Lauderdale, Steve Cogswell and Blaise McMackin (Ray’s brother). Blaise brings an impressive track record of successful restaurant experience to the team including Tap 42, a now legendary craft beer bar & kitchen in Florida, and The Green Bar, a plant-based restaurant. "In some ways, The Beer Plant will be a hybrid of these two successful concepts", says Blaise. "A cool twist here is that the restaurants I opened in Florida were partially inspired by Austin places, and I love the idea that Ray and Sarah will bring it full circle."

Location
The Beer Plant will be located on Windsor Road, in old west Austin. The Beer Plant team aims to be a vital part of the Austin and old west Austin communities, delivering a unique dining and drinking experience to Austin and a friendly neighborhood eatery/pub to a part of the city that has been somewhat underserved for eating and drinking establishments.

Choices
Famed chef Jose’ Andres claims that, "vegetables are the new bacon"; whether that’s true or not, The Beer Plant will bring home the "new bacon" to a town that already has plenty of amazing places to sip a craft beer and enjoy the old bacon. Austin is a city that enjoys having an enviable array of choices to drink and eat – and The Beer Plant will be bringing a new one to the table.