Dr. Quebe Merritt, owner of Montgomery’s first (and for a time, only) vegan restaurant, has a prescription for you: Eat more (and mainly) veggies. Her PhD may be in education, but she knows first-hand how a plant-based diet can improve health. “When I was nursing my second daughter, she was having tummy issues, so I started working to figure out the cause,” she says. At the same time, Merritt’s cholesterol was climbing, and the combo sparked her exploration of veganism. She began by cutting out meat, then dairy. “It worked. I felt better and realized how much we can all do to take control of our own health,” she says.
The educator in her was itching to teach what she’d learned, so she organized a few conferences. Because she couldn’t find vegan food for the events, she catered them herself. “I didn’t plan to go into the food business, but people loved my dishes.” Early fans couldn’t get enough of her black-bean chili and “tuna” salad, which subs butterbeans and chickpeas for the fish and relies on vegan mayo, plus the soft butterbeans, for creaminess. When she felt her following could support it, she opened Plant Bae in 2020 and today, her offerings include the Plant Bae Burger (a meatless patty built in-house from black beans) and veggie-full takes on nachos and tacos as well as Southern specialties like her silky, smoky collard greens, cornbread and Call Me Bae wings, made with battered and fried cauliflower florets that are the spitting image of chicken wings.
Merritt is proud that folks enjoy her food but spreading her “power of plants” message thrills her. “We have so much power over our own bodies, and I feel like Plant Bae is positivity impacting my community’s health by making vegan delicious,” she says. This commitment to wellness manifests in more ways too; last year, she partnered with other organizations to hold Covid-19 testing and vaccination clinics at Plant Bae and gave away free buffalo “chick’n” sandwiches to attendees. Expanding her work beyond human health is a 2022 goal, with plans to update packaging to be more environmentally responsible. @plantbaemgm
