Tell us about Banh Mi Thao. What are the goals/purpose for your pop-up?
Vegan Banh Mi Thao is an all vegan Vietnamese sandwich pop up based in Long Beach and greater Los Angeles. My recipes are plant based whole foods and I actively avoid meat substitutes with high sodium and fat. I wanted to replicate the recipes I felt nostalgic for but vegan. A lot of the Vietnamese vegan food I have access to are heavily soy based or the menu only has one vegan option and the protein is mainly tofu. I started this pop up to offer access to classic Vietnamese flavors at an affordable price. My message to communities eating my food is that you can enjoy a plant based meal full of savory taste without processed meat substitutes. I am very community based and it fulfills me to feed the people. VBMT strives to offer access to whole food meals at a reasonable price.
Long Beach as a city and community loves supporting small businesses. There's so many vegan small businesses in Long Beach and I love the vegan community here.
Let's get to know you. How did you get started, and how has your vegan journey been so far?
VBMT was an idea I always had and I wanted to start it when I got older and wiser. My relationship with myself and money began to shift during the pandemic and with the encouragement from friends and my therapist, I started VBMT in May 2020. My first pop up was at Shop Silver and I only had 3 weeks to figure out the branding and my menu. The first pop up was a success and more vending opportunities began falling into my lap. The demand and opportunities for VBMT began to overwhelm me and I had to quit my full time job to fully focus on this business. I am still trying to catch up with this fast growing business today, but I think that is a good problem for a small business to have.
My vegan journey has been a rollercoaster. The idea of being vegan began my sophomore year of high school in my AP Environmental Science class where I learned about carbon footprint and pollution. I have always been a little rocker and in college I went vegan because my group of rocker friends were vegan/vegetarian and educated me about the importance of being plant based for self and world (fuck pollution and the meat industry!). During my third year in college, I decided to stop being vegan. I had 18 units of classes, an internship, and a full time job. I had no time to prepare meals that would fuel me through my super busy days and no money to buy vegan take out food. Once I completed college and obtained a stable job I had an ovo-vegetarian diet, no dairy but ate eggs. I went fully vegan again not too long ago in 2019. With today’s access to vegan food and ingredients, it’s way easier to be vegan now!
I was not really exposed to the vegan community until I began my pop up. I was always in my own world of friends and family and did not know about vegan pop ups and only had a small circle of friends who were vegan. Since VBMT I have met so many different vegans!! I learned that there’s a broad spectrum of vegans. There’s OG vegans, advocate vegans, foodie vegans, environmental vegans, the list goes on.
Is there anything you would do differently if you could rewind time?
If I could rewind time, I would take the word ‘Vegan’ out of my business name. I have always been in my own corner about my vegan diet and didn’t know about the negative connotation the word ‘vegan’ has for many non-vegans. The goal for my business is to feed plant based food for everyone, not strictly vegans/vegetarians. I dislike that for some people I am under the category of ‘vegan food’ and not just ‘food’. I trip out on this taboo around vegan culture and how some non-vegans put all vegans under one umbrella. Like I said earlier, there is such a broad spectrum of vegans and we are all different.
From time to time having the word ‘Vegan’ in my business name makes me insecure. I can’t help but want to be accepted by the food industry and I sometimes feel that I am instantly rejected and/or made fun of because I am vegan. Vegan shaming is real y’all. Every other time I visit Trader Joe’s, the cashiers make a vegan joke or make a passive vegan comment on food I am purchasing. Every time someone makes a vegan joke I think, “damn, I am so sorry that my choice to reduce my carbon footprint so the earth doesn’t burn down is hilarious to you.”
Surprisingly it goes both ways, some vegan people can be very mean too. For some vegans, there is a vegan Olympics and I have seen vegans arguing with other vegans for not being vegan enough. Those people scare me honestly. I have this childhood trauma of not being good enough and when I am on vegan reddit or on a vegan news source page I get so triggered seeing vegans bashing restaurants and businesses for not being vegan enough.
Anyways….. I always think about where I would be if I did not have the word ‘vegan’ in my business. Would vegans find me or even love me? Would I be more accepted by non vegans? Those thoughts are running through my mind weekly.
How does Vegan Banh Mi fit into the overall Long Beach scene?
Overall, Long Beach as a city and community loves supporting small businesses. There’s so many vegan small businesses in Long Beach and I love the vegan community here! I can’t imagine myself starting my business anywhere else.
Before VBMT I was in the music industry for 9 years. The local music scene in LB is constantly moving and thriving. I love that I can mesh the music community and food community together for some of my pop ups. Community is SUPER important to me and I am happy that LB is so welcoming and prioritizes community too! I feel so supported and loved by the LB scene (except some of the Trader Joe’s cashiers, haha).
What's next for you and your project?
I want to pop up in places I haven’t before! Like San Diego, Inland Empire, even SF and NY! Traveling outside of LB and LA for my pop ups is challenging because I am really single handedly running a business with the occasional help from my partner and friends. I do everything from developing and prepping all the food, setting up the pop ups, being on the line during pop ups, washing dishes, bookkeeping, marketing, and more!! Over time I would love to build a team because that would help me pop up outside of LB and LA more often.
