Black-Owned Vegan Restaurants & Caterers in St. Louis

Written By Kyle Luzynski
Bougie Bites STL vegan food truck at a St. Louis outdoor market

A regularly updated directory of Black-owned vegan and plant-based businesses in the St. Louis metro area — restaurants, cafés, ghost kitchens, caterers, food trucks, pop-ups, and custom bakeries.

Last updated: June 2026

St. Louis has quietly built a remarkable concentration of Black-owned vegan restaurants in the Midwest — and it keeps growing. From a vegan soul food anchor in a community food hall in Pagedale to a luxury French afternoon tea in St. Charles, from a Ferguson pop-up built around housemade plant-based bacon to a custom cake operation reachable seven days a week, the city's plant-based scene is being shaped by Black entrepreneurs doing genuinely original work.

Whether you're fully vegan, plant-curious, or just trying to eat better and support Black-owned businesses in the process, this guide has something for you. The directory covers three main sections: brick-and-mortar restaurants and cafés, ghost kitchens and virtual restaurants, and caterers, food trucks, pop-ups, and custom bakeries. It's updated regularly as the scene evolves.

We're especially grateful to A Good Day to Be Black & Vegan — founded by St. Louis's own Ketura Wash — for inspiring this guide and for the community work that makes a resource like this possible. Ketura has generously offered her support as this guide continues to grow, and we're honored to have her in our corner.

Start eating, start exploring, and keep coming back.

Part One: Black-Owned Vegan Restaurants & Cafés in St. Louis

Adina's Vegan Cuisine

If you want to understand what Black plant-based soul food looks like at its most intentional, start here. Adina's Vegan Cuisine is owned by mother-and-daughter team Cheryl (Adina) McKinney and Vicki (Ahturah) Jordan, who spent years building a following through pop-ups, catering, and grab-and-go stations at local grocers before earning their first permanent space in 2022.

That space is inside Carter Commons, a community food hall on Page Avenue in Pagedale — an anchor of investment in a predominantly Black North County neighborhood where every vendor is Black-owned.

The menu rotates daily and covers the full range of plant-based soul food: tacos and nachos, jackfruit sliders, eggplant "Phish fry," mac and cheez, oyster mushroom po'boys, and a lemon-lime kale salad that has developed something of a cult following. There's a grab-and-go refrigerated section for salads, sandwiches, and prepared meals, plus cold-pressed juices from Pure Juice, another local Black-owned business. Desserts — apple peach cobbler, cinnamon rolls, cakes — round out the experience.

For Jordan, the work is about more than food. "We just continue to do what we love to do, which is prepare delicious plant-based food and share it with the community. Being able to bring vegan options to the area we're in is really exciting."

Bougie Bites STL

Don't let the name fool you — "bougie" here is aspirational, not exclusionary. Owner LaToya Elnora Thompson launched Bougie Bites as a food truck in February 2023 with a specific mission: to make plant-based comfort food accessible to Black and brown communities who might assume vegan food is expensive, flavorless, or simply not for them.

"I wanted to create more accessibility in the plant-based space," Thompson has said. "I also wanted to provide a space where people — especially Black and Brown communities — could access high-quality meat alternatives without sacrificing taste or cultural familiarity."

The concept grew from food truck to ghost kitchen, then into a full brick-and-mortar storefront in Overland that opened in summer 2025. The menu is built around fast-casual food that actually satisfies — vegan burgers, No Cap Eggrolls, Chick'N Nuggets, fried mushrooms, birria tacos, fries, and the signature "Bougie AF Burger" — alongside rotating nightly specials. Thompson has also put her food truck to community use: when a tornado devastated parts of St. Louis in May 2025, she joined World Central Kitchen to help distribute meals to affected residents. The food truck is available for event bookings.

Dirty Vegan Shack

Formerly known as Marie's Snack Shack, Dirty Vegan Shack leans fully into its irreverent brand. The menu names — "trash" fries, "filthy" wings, "dirty" dogs — are part of the joke, but the food is no joke: carrot hot dogs, scratch-made mushroom wing sauces (try the lemon pepper or the spicy), tacos, tater tots, burgers, and the Trash Wings made from fried oyster mushrooms that have become the signature order. Everything is made from scratch, and the owner — who typically works the walk-up window herself — is known for making every customer feel like a regular.

The walk-up window and takeout-only format, open afternoons and evenings in Dutchtown, makes this one of the most approachable entry points into plant-based eating in the city. It is the kind of place that can win over non-vegans who show up on a whim.

La Vie French Café (formerly La Vie Vegan Bistro)

Something unexpected awaits at the bottom of a staircase on Historic Main Street in St. Charles: the St. Louis metro's first fully vegan French bistro, owned and operated by a French native who grew up in the Caribbean.

Natacha Douglas — a native of Guadeloupe and holder of both an MBA and a doctorate in health professions education — opened what was then La Vie Vegan Bistro on March 14, 2025, in the former home of Peace, Love, and Coffee. Working alongside general manager Amaya Jimenez, Douglas transformed the space into a cozy, plant-based café with an unmistakably French soul: vegan croissant sandwiches, crêpes (including gluten-free options), Salade Niçoise, French onion soup, ratatouille, macarons, cheesecake, and espresso drinks made with imported L'OR coffee.

The concept is now called La Vie French Café — a fully realized vegan French bistro open every day of the week. Walking down those stairs into a crêpe-scented room somewhere beneath Historic Main Street is the kind of discovery that makes people drive back from across the metro.

La Pâtisserie Paris

If La Vie French Café is the café, La Pâtisserie Paris — in the same building, connected by a central doorway — is the dream.

La Pâtisserie Paris began its life as La Pâtisserie STL, a beloved French tea room and bakery founded by Kitt Villasis-Corbin, whose internationally trained approach to French and Asian-inspired pastries had built a devoted following. When Villasis-Corbin was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's in 2025 — a detail reported publicly at the time — she chose Natacha Douglas, already operating La Vie Vegan next door, to take ownership of the space and carry the legacy forward.

Douglas reopened as La Pâtisserie Paris in late January 2026: a profusion of pastels and flowers, a neon tribute wall to Villasis-Corbin, the original pink phone booth kept intact, and afternoon tea seatings at 10am, 12:30pm, and 3pm. The pastry case features vegan French delicacies — curated pastries, delicate teas, and treats honoring both the original bakery's legacy and Douglas's own French Caribbean heritage. St. Louis Magazine has called it a genuinely rare experience: a luxury vegan French afternoon tea in the heartland. Reserve ahead — seatings fill up.

SweetArt Bakeshop + Café

SweetArt is a St. Louis institution — and one of the most decorated plant-based restaurants in the city. Chef-owner Reine Keis launched the business as a small bakery in December 2008, before oat milk was in every coffee shop and before "plant-based" was a marketing category, and has been feeding St. Louis with 100% vegan food ever since. Netflix featured it on Fresh, Fried & Crispy. St. Louis Magazine named it an A-List winner. The New York Times has taken note. And still the food is the thing.

The menu punches above its weight at every turn: sandwiches named after Black literary icons (the Audre Lorde crispy chikn with buffalo sauce, lettuce, tomato, and housemade ranch; the Zora Neale Hurston), the Toni Morrison bowl with housemade bean chili, herbed rice, cilantro chutney, and dressed kale, and a kale salad with a dressing one reviewer memorably called "ridiculous" and "addictive." Cakes, cinnamon rolls, and cookies confound non-vegans, and the pastry case alone justifies a stop.

After 16 years in the Shaw neighborhood, Keis relocated the main café to a larger space at The Coronado on Lindell in May 2025, near Saint Louis University, and SweetArt Too opened at City Foundry STL. The Coronado location has a full breakfast menu, an in-house coffee program, and wine and cocktails available in-house. SweetArt also offers full-service vegan catering for events of any size.

"I've been proud that people's very, very first jobs have been in my space," Keis has said. "And their very, very first employer is a Black woman."

Part Two: Black-Owned Vegan Ghost Kitchens & Virtual Restaurants in St. Louis

Red Bird Vegan

Red Bird Vegan is St. Louis's standout Black-owned vegan virtual restaurant — a delivery-and-takeout operation serving a full menu of plant-based soul food seven days a week from a kitchen on Hampton Avenue. The menu reads like a plant-based answer to a classic soul food takeout order: vegan chicken, vegan fish, BBQ rib tips, Salisbury steaks with gravy, Cajun corn, burgers, fish sandwiches, smoothies, and fresh lemonade. Dishes are made with fresh ingredients, and the kitchen's seasoning draws consistent praise — customers come back specifically for the rib tips, the fish sandwich, and the loaded Not Yo Cheese Waffle Fries. If you've never ordered from a vegan virtual restaurant before, Red Bird is the right place to start.

Part Three: Black-Owned Vegan Caterers, Food Trucks, Pop-Ups & Custom Bakeries in St. Louis

This section covers Black-owned vegan businesses that operate primarily through catering, event vending, market appearances, food truck bookings, pop-up service, meal prep, or custom dessert orders. SweetArt and Bougie Bites — listed in Part One — also offer catering and are cross-referenced at the end of this section.

Big Mama's House

Big Mama's House carries a legacy that spans continents — from Chicago to the California Redwoods to the East Legon neighborhood of Accra, Ghana, and back home again to St. Louis, where owner Patricia Jones returned in 2023 to be close to family and to do what she has always done: build a following at the farmers' market.

The recipes Jones serves are rooted in her grandmother's southern cooking, veganized for the plant-based table — pineapple upside-down cake, pulled "pork" shawarma, meatless meatballs, bundt cakes, tarts, and fruity drinks — guided by the philosophy that "nothing has to die to feed you." Every market-based business Jones has built over the years started at a stall like this one. Follow on Instagram for current market schedules and catering availability.

Da Vegan Way

Da Vegan Way is a Black-owned vegan comfort food business operated by childhood friends DeVonte "DJ" Jackson and Derrick Mosley, who began serving plant-based dishes at pop-ups and catering events across St. Louis after Jackson pivoted to a culinary career during the pandemic. Their signature is deep-fried oyster mushrooms finished with sweet heat jerk or barbecue sauce — a crowd-stopper that captures exactly what Da Vegan Way is about: vegan comfort food that surprises people who expect it to be boring. The duo uses fresh, organic ingredients and pops up at various locations across the metro. Listed on the Afro-Vegan Society's directory of Missouri Black vegan caterers and covered by Feast Magazine and Blavity.

"What makes this all worth it is knowing we have a hand in positively rewriting the narrative of vegan comfort food across St. Louis," Jackson has said.

Eccentric-Eats

Eccentric-Eats is a fully vegan food and drink company founded in mid-2021 by Emilia Robertson, who developed her plant-based cooking out of love and necessity — her daughter was diagnosed with a major dairy and egg allergy in 2017, and Robertson spent four years creating flavorful, family-friendly meals that everyone would actually want to eat. The business grew from that home kitchen into a public offering: fresh-pressed juices, sea moss gel, weekly meal prep, and catering for any occasion — brunches, birthday parties, corporate events, weddings, baby showers, and holidays of all kinds.

Robertson's guiding philosophy is that being vegan isn't just "a salad and water," and the menu, with its emphasis on healthy comfort food, makes that case better than any argument could.

Sweet Vibes

  • Current status: ⚠️ Sweet Vibes relocated from its former Bridgeton storefront in early 2025 and is now operating as a virtual/pop-up business. Check Instagram for current schedule and ordering info.

  • Hours: Reported Saturday–Sunday 5–8pm; confirm via Instagram

  • Phone: (314) 722-5658

  • Instagram: @sweet_vibesllc

Sweet Vibes is a Black female-owned, 100% vegan comfort food business that built a loyal following with a menu of plant-based classics: the Nae Nae Philly, birria tacos, fried "fish" plates, vegan BBQ rib tips, breakfast skillets, burgers, fries, and peach cobbler. As of early 2025, the business relocated from its Bridgeton storefront and transitioned to virtual and pop-up operations. The food trailer is also bookable for private events.

The Vegan Cake Spot

  • Type: Fully vegan custom cakes / designer desserts / delivery · St. Louis, MO

  • Hours: Daily 8am–8pm (for orders and consultations)

  • Website: thevegancakespot.com

  • Email: thevegancakespot@gmail.com

  • Phone: (330) 238-8479

The Vegan Cake Spot is a Black-owned St. Louis vegan bakery built for anyone who refuses to choose between a gorgeous cake and a plant-based one. The tagline says it best: "Indulge at your own risk." Custom orders — layered cakes, cupcakes, celebration desserts of all kinds — are the specialty, and customers can bring their own design ideas to life for birthdays, holidays, and events. A "Petite Eats" menu also offers smaller treats for everyday orders. Delivery is available, and the team takes orders and consultations seven days a week.

Trippy Bacon / Trippy TakeOut

Trippy Bacon is one of the most original concepts in the St. Louis plant-based scene: a vegan food brand built around a proprietary plant-based bacon that is gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free, and cruelty-free — and, according to regular customers, genuinely surprising. The brand launched around the bacon itself, which means every menu item is really a showcase for what happens when you put it next to something else great.

The Trippy TakeOut operation, running out of The Garden Studio Café in Ferguson, puts that bacon at the center of a brunch-forward, fully vegan menu. Current items include made-to-order pancakes with bacon ($18), the French Toast & Bacon mashup — thick-cut bread with one side French toast, one side pancake batter, cut into dunking sticks and served with maple syrup ($21) — and the Jack, Egg & Cheese Slider packed with jackfruit sausage, Trippy Bacon, Just Egg, and molten cheese on a buttered slider bun ($9.50+). Brunch mains include the Grilled Jack & Bacon hoagie — marinated jackfruit topped with lettuce, onions, banana peppers, and Trippy Signature Sauce — and a Signature BLT in slider or XL size. Go early, go hungry, and plan to wait a little. It's worth it.

Veg Nation / Chef Nova

  • Type: Plant-based mobile restaurant / catering / private chef · St. Louis, MO

  • Facebook: @eatgreenarmy

Veg Nation is a plant-based holistic food service operating as both a mobile restaurant and a catering business in St. Louis. The concept is rooted in the idea that food and wellbeing are inseparable — that eating plants isn't a restriction but a return to something. Veg Nation offers plant-based holistic cuisine for events, private gatherings, and dinners. Reach out via Facebook for current availability and booking.

Viva La Vegan LLC

  • Type: Plant-based meal prep / catering / pop-up brunches · St. Louis, MO

  • Instagram: @viva_la_veganllc

Viva La Vegan was founded in 2018 by Tiarra Adams, a born-and-raised St. Louisan who went vegan to clear brain fog, ease anxiety, and reset her body — and found the transformation so profound she wanted to share it through food. Adams has since catered events across the city, hosted her own vegan brunch buffets, participated in community events, and built a meal prep operation for people who want the benefits of plant-based eating without the cooking. Her approach is to "cook from the soul" — to meet people where they are, turn the comfort foods they grew up with into something plant-based, and make the transition feel exciting rather than like a loss. Reach out via Instagram for catering bookings and meal prep inquiries.

Also Offering Catering & Event Services

Community Resources for Black Vegans in St. Louis

Being Black and vegan in St. Louis — or anywhere — doesn't mean going it alone. Here are organizations built specifically to support, educate, and celebrate BIPOC people on a plant-based path.

A Good Day to Be Black & Vegan

Founded by St. Louis's own Ketura Wash, A Good Day to Be Black & Vegan is a community brand and merchandise line built around a simple, powerful message: being Black and vegan is something to be proud of, not embarrassed by.

Wash went vegan in December 2017 after discovering food allergies and connecting the dots between what she was eating, her health, and the wider impact on animals and the planet. Since then, she's built an active online presence — answering questions, welcoming people at every stage of the journey — and stocked an online store with apparel and accessories that make that message visible in the world. Her openness and encouragement are exactly the spirit this directory is trying to honor.

"I not only give out information, but I make sure that I am available through social media platforms to answer questions and help people start their vegan journey," Wash has said. "My brand opens the conversation."

We're honored that Ketura is joining us as a collaborator on this guide. Her perspective and community connections will only make it better.

Apex Advocacy

Apex Advocacy is a Black-founded, Black-led national 501(c)3 nonprofit founded by Christopher "Soul" Eubanks, built on the conviction that animal liberation and human liberation are deeply interconnected. Apex runs a leadership incubator for BIPOC advocates, produces movement tools and resources, and hosts community spaces specifically for advocates of color. For Black vegans who want to connect their plant-based life to something larger, it's one of the most serious organizations in the space.

Black Veg Society

Black Veg Society (BVS) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit with roots going back to 2008 — one of the longest-running Black vegan organizations in the country. Led by co-founder and executive director Naijha Wright-Brown, BVS educates BIPOC communities on holistic health and plant-based living through a 24/7 online resource center, cooking demos, wellness classes, veg fests, and vegan restaurant weeks. Their tagline — "Meeting you where you are" — says it all.

Afro-Vegan Society

The Afro-Vegan Society maintains a national directory of Black vegan businesses and caterers, including several St. Louis entries. If you're looking for businesses not yet listed here, their directory is a strong starting point.

STL Vegan Market

The STL Vegan Market is organized by Project Animal Freedom — the nonprofit behind VeganSTL — and brings together vegan vendors, many of them Black-owned, for market events throughout the year. It's one of the best places in St. Louis to discover new businesses, sample food from multiple vendors in one visit, and connect with the city's broader plant-based community.

VeganSTL Events

VeganSTL's events page lists upcoming vegan potlucks, dinners, game nights, protests, and community events across the St. Louis metro — most of them free or low-cost, and all of them open to anyone curious about plant-based living.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I find Black-owned vegan restaurants in St. Louis?

The St. Louis metro has a growing number of Black-owned vegan and plant-based restaurants. Current options include Adina's Vegan Cuisine (Pagedale), Bougie Bites STL (Overland), Dirty Vegan Shack (Dutchtown), SweetArt Bakeshop + Café (Midtown and City Foundry), La Vie French Café (St. Charles), and La Pâtisserie Paris (St. Charles, Friday–Sunday). See the full directory above for hours, addresses, and links.

What is the best vegan restaurant in St. Louis?

There's no single answer — it depends on what you're looking for. SweetArt Bakeshop + Café is the longest-running and most acclaimed, with a menu that spans breakfast, lunch, baked goods, and wine. Adina's Vegan Cuisine is the place for rotating daily soul food in a Black-owned food hall. Bougie Bites STL is the go-to for late-night plant-based fast casual. La Vie French Café offers something different entirely — a vegan French bistro experience in St. Charles that draws visitors from across the metro. The right answer depends on your mood.

Is there vegan soul food in St. Louis?

Yes — and it's some of the best plant-based eating in the city. Adina's Vegan Cuisine (Pagedale) offers daily-rotating vegan soul food including jackfruit sliders, eggplant "Phish fry," mac and cheez, and oyster mushroom po'boys. SweetArt Bakeshop + Café (Midtown) serves iconic dishes like the Toni Morrison bowl and crispy chikn sandwiches. Red Bird Vegan delivers vegan BBQ rib tips, Salisbury steaks, and fish sandwiches daily via DoorDash and Grubhub.

Are there Black-owned vegan restaurants open for delivery in St. Louis?

Yes. Red Bird Vegan is open daily 11am–10pm for delivery and takeout via their website, DoorDash, and Grubhub. Bougie Bites STL offers delivery through Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub during operating hours.

Is there vegan catering available in St. Louis from Black-owned businesses?

Yes — several. SweetArt Bakeshop + Café offers full-service event catering (sweetartstl.com/catering). Eccentric-Eats caters brunches, weddings, corporate events, and more. Da Vegan Way, Viva La Vegan LLC, and Bougie Bites STL (food truck) also take catering bookings. Sweet Vibes is bookable as a vegan food trailer for private events.

Where can I find vegan food at a St. Louis farmers' market?

Big Mama's House, a Black-owned fully vegan vendor, is a regular presence at Tower Grove Farmers' Market (Saturdays) and the Rockwell Beer Garden Farmers' Market in Francis Park. Follow @bigmamashousestl for current market dates.

Is there a vegan bakery in St. Louis?

Yes — several. SweetArt Bakeshop + Café (Midtown) is a 100% plant-based café and bakery open six days a week. The Vegan Cake Spot is a Black-owned St. Louis vegan bakery offering custom cakes and designer desserts for delivery, reachable daily 8am–8pm. La Pâtisserie Paris in St. Charles is a fully vegan French pâtisserie and afternoon tea room, open Friday through Sunday.

Is there vegan food in Ferguson, Missouri?

Yes. Two Black-owned vegan businesses operate in or from Ferguson: Eccentric-Eats (catering and meal prep, @eccentric_eats) and Trippy TakeOut / Trippy Bacon (vegan brunch and takeout at 100 N. Florissant Rd., open Saturday from 7:30am with limited additional days).

Are there vegan restaurants in St. Charles, Missouri?

Yes. La Vie French Café (524 S. Main St., Lower Level) is a 100% vegan French-inspired bistro open daily 10am–6pm. La Pâtisserie Paris (524 S. Main St., Suite 3) is a connected fully vegan French tea room offering afternoon tea seatings Friday through Sunday — both owned by Natacha Douglas, a native of Guadeloupe.

A Note on This Directory

This guide reflects our best understanding of the Black-owned vegan landscape in the St. Louis metro as of June 2026. It is a living resource — not a complete or exhaustive list. If you know of a Black-owned vegan or fully plant-based business in the St. Louis metro that isn't listed here, contact us here.

Thank you for supporting the Black entrepreneurs, chefs, bakers, organizers, and advocates helping make St. Louis a better place to eat — and a better place to be vegan.

Kyle Luzynski
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