Gangster Vegan Organics now has signs up and is preparing to open in Riverdale Park soon.
Owner Taneea Yarborough told the Hyattsville Wire the eatery is finishing construction and then will wrap up the county inspection and final permits to open by mid-February at 6202 Rhode Island Ave., Suite 105, in the space downstairs from the Bikram Yoga Works and next to Banana Blossom Bistro.
Gangster Vegan has three locations in Philadelphia, where it started as a pop-up that often worked with yoga studios. A former principal, Yarborough and her husband James opened a franchise in Baltimore’s Cross Street Market in September 2019.
As it turned out, that was just two weeks before she underwent major surgery for breast cancer, which she spoke about in an interview with Essence last year.
Yarborough considers her plant-based diet to be part of her recovery effort, and hopes her experience inspires customers to try something new.
“If someone isn’t ready for an all-raw plant-based diet that Gangster Vegan offers, they can start small,” she told Essence. “Adopt one plant-based meal a week and slowly increase that number. … We can’t control everything, but we do control what we consume.”
Gangster Vegan joins a growing number of vegan restaurants on the Route 1 corridor, including Sweet & Natural in Mount Rainier, NuVegan Cafe in College Park and the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt. Two more vegan restaurants, Journey to Health Wellness Café and Juice Bar and Dodah’s Kitchen Cafe, are slated to opening in Mount Rainier this year.
In addition, you can also find vegan dishes at Busboys and Poets, Shagga, Banana Blossom Bistro, SeoulSpice and Pizzeria Paradiso, among other places.
Also, since Jan. 1, District Taco now offers a protein called Itza – Beyond Carne, made with Beyond Meat, a vegan, gluten-free, plant-based meat alternative.
