Couple uses food truck to bring vegan comfort food to Fayetteville Akira Kyles The Fayetteville Observer
Robert and Yoniara Montoya are bringing vegan comfort food to the community with their food truck, The Vegan Spot.
After her love for vegan cooking helped her and her family through some hard times, a local business owner made it a priority to show Fayetteville the diversity and benefits of a vegan diet beyond just salads.
Yoniara Montoya, who goes by YoShee Vegan, found herself at one point in her life weighing 310 pounds before turning to a vegan diet and a life of fitness. After getting to a healthier weight and reducing her blood pressure, she started providing exercise and cooking services to close friends and family.
When her husband Robert, who goes by Robb Vegan, was injured at work, Montoya started earning money through selling vegan meals from her kitchen and providing fitness training. Her efforts helped the couple and their three daughters make it through a short period of homelessness.
Through selling vegan meals, Montoya started getting more creative with cooking in her kitchen. She noticed there wasn’t a place in Fayetteville that provided vegan meals like she did.
“We wanted to bring it to Fayetteville because we know that there are vegans out there," she said. “I was like well, we’re going to be the first to bring the vegan food truck around here and my husband stood behind me and everything because he knows that I love to cook and it’s nothing that’s not out of love."
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The couples’ food truck, The Vegan Spot, follows a military theme, reflecting Fayetteville’s proximity to Fort Bragg. The truck has a camouflage print on the outside. The menu features “chow" like the “Private," a plant-based beef patty, lettuce, tomato, pickles, dairy-free cheese and their special “pow sauce."
The goal for Montoya is not to push veganism on anyone which is why she has a menu consisting of veganized comfort food like their “Bomb Chili" or the “Major," a plant-based bratwurst with vegan chili and coleslaw.
“A lot of people aren’t raised plant-based so if they’re willing to come and try, they’re a trooper for doing that and that’s why I like to refer to our customers as troops whenever they come out to eat," she said. “I always let them know they’re getting recruited because I always know they’re going to come back."
Montoya also wanted people to see veganism as more than just salads.
“I would just try to think of different things to bring together so that people who are not vegans don’t think they have to eat salads all the time," she said. “That’s one of the rules at the Vegan Spot; do not come asking for a salad because you won’t get it."
The couple has been selling food from their food truck since April 1 and ultimately hope to one day have a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
As a spiritual person, Montoya said she attributes the success to her food truck so far to God and described the Vegan Spot as “a small business that we’re going to eventually turn into a big corporation."
