Powerhouse Coffee Shop and Vegan Food Truck Are Teaming Up in North Loop

Essential vegan food truck the Vegan Nom is teaming up with great coffee roasters Barrett’s for a new joint restaurant in North Loop. The new spot, which will have the name Vegan Nom, will take over the former Mediterranean restaurant Phara’s building at 111 North Loop Boulevard, with a slated opening before the end of the year.

The new restaurant will feature classic and new items from Barrett’s and the Vegan Nom. “Coming from a food trailer background, it’s exciting to work in a much larger space and have new toys to use in my culinary ambitions,” said the Vegan Nom owner Chris Rios. In addition to breakfast tacos, nachos, and burritos, new items he’s planning to include roasted root vegetable tacos, flautas, mole wings, and more.

There will also be a bar with frozen cocktails and mocktails, draft cocktails, and beers. From Barrett’s expect excellent coffee drinks. The restaurant will be open from morning until late at night.

Logistically, the restaurant will have dedicated windows for Barrett’s and Vegan Nom services, where customers will able to order any item from either window, as well as order from their phones at the table (Rios described the setup as similar to that of Sour Duck Market). It will give away free tacos and coffee at the North Loop Block Party on Saturday, October 15.

Rios, a native Austinite, opened the Vegan Nom as a food truck in North Loop in 2012. In 2016, the truck moved to East Austin, and in 2020, it established and moved to a food truck park with its new sibling food truck, Nom Burgers (which is also vegan). The Vegan Nom is known for excellent tacos and breakfast tacos, and has been teasing a North Loop location for over a year.

Barrett’s started as a retail and wholesale coffee roaster before opening a cafe in Highland in 2017. One of the essential coffee shops in Austin, it’s known for creative drinks like a chocolate orange blossom latte and seltzers.

This is the first joint venture for Rios and Barrett’s owner Travis Kizer, though the two have been friends for years as their wives used to work together. “[North Loop is] where we got our start,” said Rios. “It’s our return home. I can’t wait to get it up to running.”

Phara’s, which was known for Mediterranean specialties and hosting belly dancing shows, closed in March 2019, after a few years of struggling to stay open. The space has sat vacant since then.

Similarly, Austin barbecue sandwich restaurant Slab BBQ and brewery Nomadic Beerworks are teaming up to open a restaurant and beer bar in Sunset Valley starting next week.

(H/t to Eater tipster Ben Zweig)