Tree Hugger: Plant-Based Kitchen is run by Phil and Mandy, a husband-and-wife team who moved back to Kansas City after years running a Hawaiian shave ice truck in Los Angeles. About five years into eating vegan themselves, they built a food truck, The Tree Hugger Truck, and spent a year and a half serving vegan street food out of a steel box parked outside the Black Box Theatre in the West Bottoms before opening this brick-and-mortar location in Riverside, MO.
The menu leans into greasy bar-food comfort rather than salad-plate vegan cooking: jackfruit nachos loaded with nacho chz and black beans, reuben fries piled with sauerkraut and house-made thousand island, buffalo cauliflower bites, loaded tater tots, and tacos built around marinated hearts of palm or walnut chorizo. Dairy and egg are off the menu entirely, with gluten-free, nut-free, and soy-free options built in throughout.
IN Kansas City included Tree Hugger on a list of the city's plant-based spots.
The menu leans into greasy bar-food comfort rather than salad-plate vegan cooking: jackfruit nachos loaded with nacho chz and black beans, reuben fries piled with sauerkraut and house-made thousand island, buffalo cauliflower bites, loaded tater tots, and tacos built around marinated hearts of palm or walnut chorizo. Dairy and egg are off the menu entirely, with gluten-free, nut-free, and soy-free options built in throughout.
IN Kansas City included Tree Hugger on a list of the city's plant-based spots.