Bee Appetit: Vegan Mob went from soul searching to vegan soul food gone viral
When we were building out our roundup of vegetarian and vegan eats in the Sacramento region, I happened to notice an Instagram post from vegan food truck Vegan Mob that announced they were popping up in Sacramento.
I’ve known about Vegan Mob since their inception. I was still living in San Francisco at the time, and they got a lot of buzz when they launched. Yet, seven years later, I had still never sampled their wares.
Owner Toriano Gordon was pursuing his masters degree in psychology. It was during that time that he had an epiphany.
“They tell you to soul search when you do a therapy program. In my soul searching, I figured out that I actually didn’t want to be in the program anymore, and I wanted to open a restaurant,” he said.
Toriano and his wife are both vegan. He had been on the hunt for vegan barbecue, to no avail.
“I just started to do recipes and post on social media after I got my business license and name all secure,” he said.
Much to his surprise, Toriano had tapped into a deep well of demand.
“So immediately people started going pretty crazy. And then I gave out food one day, and then one day I just did a delivery. Went crazy,” he said. “Another day, my daughter told me to stop working and just deliver food. So I listened to her, and the first day we did, you know, 50 orders, $800 an hour — and I sold all of my deliveries. And then, I never turned back.”
Gordon launched a food truck, and not long after opened a brick and mortar in Oakland. It ultimately closed in 2023 because his lease ended, and the owners plan to tear the building down for redevelopment. The current truck was launched in 2024.
Gordon took his vegan barbecue on the road to Sacramento because he said people demanded it.
“I did one pop up in Sacramento at a bar, and it was crazy. And then I did one in Stockton, at a food festival maybe a couple months later, and that was crazy,” he said.
I went to the truck on a drizzly Sunday afternoon. It was parked in front of a dispensary in a nondescript strip mall on Bruceville Road in Valley Hi. I ordered ahead, worried I’d have to fight off lines, but the rains kept the crowds away.
I had ordered one Mob Plate ($25.30), choosing hot links as my main and candied sweet potatoes and greens as my sides, and a Louisiana fried chicken plate ($25.30) with Tasha’s slaw and “Smackaroni” as sides.
My order was ready and waiting. As I drove it home in the spitting rain, my car filled with rich aromas, sweet and savory. Not a bad start.
The alt meats were surprisingly good. Gordon is currently using a soy protein for both the chicken and the links, and both offered pretty good textural approximation. The “meat” of the chicken had a shreddy texture not unlike breast meat, and the links had the gravely texture of real sausage.
Unfortunately, not everything ate so well. The candied sweet potatoes were more candied than sweet potato, and the greens were palate-burningly salty, perhaps in an attempt to recreate collards cooked with ham hocks. The mac and cheese delivered on creaminess, but otherwise ran short on flavor.
The beans were good, indistinguishable from Bush’s, which I have no problem with, and the slaw was crunchy, creamy perfection. Had I not known it was vegan, I would have assumed it was made with mayonnaise.
So overall, a good effort, and if the sides were to come into balance, it could be a standout experience.
Vegan Mob
Address: See Instagram for locations and hours
Phone: 888-708-3426
Website: veganmob.biz
Vegetarian options: Everything is vegan
