Honest Tom’s will soon reopen as Honest Tom’s Plant Based Taco Shop. After ten years serving meat, cheese, and all of your favorite animal products, the taco truck turned brick–and–mortar restaurant, will become entirely vegan in July.
The decision to switch to 100 percent plant–based ingredients, announced in an Instagram post on June 25, was met with mixed reactions in the comment sections. While some praised the restaurant’s new approach, others reacted with disbelief and anger, fitting for the untimely death of a dear friend or lover. One user complained the restaurant had “forsaken us,” while others asked if they could “bring their own meat” in an attempt to sabotage the supposed disaster.
Much to the sadness of heartbroken meat lovers, the decision to go vegan appears permanent, and courts are unlikely to accept appeals that your favorite taco shop no longer serving steak and sour cream qualifies as a “crime against humanity.”
According to an article in Philadelphia Magazine, the choice to stop serving animal products follows the owner and namesake, Tom McCusker’s, unplanned switch to a vegan diet last year after visiting family in central Pennsylvania with his wife. There he found the dining options limited to unhealthy, mainly meat–based restaurant chains.
After returning to Philadelphia, McCusker decided to mix things up by eating salads and smoothies for a few days. After what turned into weeks abstaining from animal-based foods, McCusker casually decided, “I guess I’m vegan now.”
McCusker quickly started incorporating elements of his diet in Honest Tom’s menu, testing out meat alternatives like “walnut taco meat” as daily specials. After receiving positive feedback, McCusker began contemplating a complete menu change that would replace carnitas with “slow cooked carrots and lentils” and chicken with “Tinga style chickpeas and plantains.”
Honest Tom’s will close in early July and reopen a few days later with an entirely vegan menu, already viewable on the restaurant’s new website.
