Inside the crowded We Suki Suki food market stall in East Atlanta, Greg Anthony stands near the front window waiting for his order from his new favorite barbecue joint, Grass VBQ. Anthony sees this small, modern restaurant as a welcoming sight for a man of his taste because this is one of the first barbecue joints in Atlanta that is entirely plant-based.

“The first time I came, I got the oyster mushroom sandwich. As I read more about it, I read about it and saw how it was smoked and cooked like how people would cook regular meat. I saw that the flavor is there,” said Anthony.

Anthony, who has been a vegetarian for the last three years and has a vegan son, is one of the thousands of people in Atlanta who have been looking for restaurants that offer plant-based alternatives for the food that they love. Until recently, the need for a meatless option for barbecue had not been met but changed when Chef Terry Sargent introduced Grass VBQ in East Atlanta Village in September 2019.

Sargent, who made an appearance on Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay” brings 19 years of culinary experience with him to Grass VBQ. The last six of those years have been spent focusing on introducing plant-based cuisines to Atlanta after he decided to start living a plant-based lifestyle.

“It was definitely for health reasons I owned a catering company about six or seven years ago. It was very taxing on my body, so I needed to make a change,” said Sargent. 

“I started to develop certain ailments like tendentious and things like that. After a while, I started to watch a few documentaries and decided to make that change in my life. After I did that, everything changed,” he said.

After finding the joy and benefits of a vegan diet, Sargent wanted to share what he saw with his customers and decided that another change was needed, and soon the inspiration for Grass VBQ followed.

“Still working in restaurants and cooking meats and dairy, still working with those items. I didn’t want to do that anymore,” says Sargent.

“I thought that if I’m going to live this lifestyle, then I’m going to live it 100 percent. So, I quit my job and open this place up after I did a Fourth of July event with some barbecue, and it was a huge success,” he says.

Sargent is not alone in his need to share a plant-based cuisine with the outside world. Akeem Bumpass has been a vegetarian and then a vegan for a combined seven years. Before Grass VBQ, he would do vegan pop-ups with his roommate that gave him a creative outlook to share the joys of a plant-based diet with his friend and family. 

“I get excitement from cooking for people. Cooking for people makes me happy. Especially if somebody eats meat and I can introduce them to an alternative that is healthier, and they can enjoy that fulfills me,” says Bumpass. 

Grass VBQ is only in its third month of business, and Sargent is already thinking ahead for the next step for himself and his new company.

“We are looking for a second location. Not looking to franchise anything but honestly, stay local and not take this thing beyond what it is,” says Sargent. 

“Open up a vegan fine-dining spot because there’s nothing like that here. Also, a vegan breakfast spot because there’s no vegan breakfast around here except for like one place. It’s just more so filling a need,” he says.