By With fast-paced lifestyles, Long Beach State students often eat meals on the go and sacrifice healthy options. Plant Power Fast Food is geared to work against this cycle.
The chain has seen a rapid growth and is at the forefront of a revolution for vegan and eco-friendly fast food options.
Plant Power Fast Food’s menu offers a variety of fast food favorites with a vegan twist and Californian flair. The menu’s newest offerings include the ‘hippie patty,’ sweet potato fries and a pumpkin pie ‘milkshake’.
What is most impressive about this place is not just the focus on a plant-based diet, but also on promoting and catering to an eco-friendly lifestyle.
“That’s our motto,” assistant manager Colin Schneider said.
“We try saving the world one burger at a time. So everything we do here, we try to make it just eco-friendly.”
Operating out of 10 locations in California and one in Nevada, the Long Beach location situated at 5095 E. Pacific Coast Highway, has established itself as a community favorite since opening in 2019.
Just two miles from campus, it is no wonder why it has become a student favorite. With the influx of millennials following vegetarian and vegan diets in 2023, Plant Power Fast Food is here to stay.
According to their website, each location is furnished with tables and booths that were made from renewable bamboo. The chairs were also up-cycled using recycled waste and reclaimed wood fiber for more eco-friendly furniture.
The first location opened in San Diego back in 2016, paving the way for the company’s success and marketing capability.
One of their capabilities is shown at their Hollywood location where Plant Power Fast Food had a collaboration with comedian Tim Robinson. Robinson had an exclusive ‘Coney Island Hot Dog’ on the menu and related merchandise that sent the profits to Genesis Butler’s Youth Climate Save.
“Those are the sorts of things that I know they try to do for all the restaurants,” Schneider said.
Long Beach’s location is complete with an outdoor patio, a pond and a drive-thru.
One item on the menu that may look familiar is the ‘Iconic Fries’ which mimics In-N-Out’s animal-style fries through a vegan rendition. The other plant-based options includes various hamburgers and different styles of chicken sandwiches, as well as a couple of salads and wraps.
The outdoor patio of Plant Power Fast Food offers plenty of scenery for customers’ enjoyment with an array of plants and a pond full of fish. Photo credit: Matthew Gomez
Fast food can be convenient, but vegan fast food, like the kind that they serve at Plant Power Fast Food, offers the youth conscious eating habits that can last for a lifetime.
