Le Botaniste packs flavor in its plant-based dishes | Neighborhood Eats
SOHO, Manhattan (WABC) -- In Neighborhood Eats, we're talking about a restaurant that specializes in plant-based food but promises it doesn't skimp on flavor.
"Le Botaniste" started in Belgium before its five locations opened in New York City.
Eyewitness News headed to their SoHo location to see what they're whipping up for this summer.
"We're at The Botanist in SoHo. I'm the co-founder and CEO of this place," Laurent Francois said.
"My wife and I decided to take a whole career change 12 years ago and started from scratch here in New York. This is where I met Alain, the founder of this place, my partner, who really created that idea of the vegetable side of it and I grew into it," Francois said.
"Alain is the creative genius behind the concept. He's been traveling all around the world for his other baby which is called Le Pain Quotidian. He was 'missing vegetables when I am traveling.' Vegetables are always the side dish and I really want to do something vegetable-focused, because it's not just good for you, it's good for the planet," he added.
It's not just good for you, it's good for the planet.Laurent Francois, Co-Founder, CEO
Their goal is to provide different taste pallets.
"We have a curry, Tibetan Mama, we have a Chili San Carne, we have a Mediterranean Bowl, a tajin, food inspired of the world," Francois said.
"The Tibetan Mama is brown rice, coconut peanut butter curry, kimchi, steamed greens, and some fresh herbs," said Joe, an employee.
"We're making the chili. The chili is going to be some brown rice here, we've got some mixed beans: chickpeas, lentils & kidney beans. We've got some quinoa just in here and we top it off with some of our vegan chili here, which gives us a nice vegan protein, super filling. It's personally one of my favorite bowls," he said.
"We've got the turmeric onions, we've got some of the sour cream, which is with coconut, all plant-based top it off again with some fresh herbs," Francois said.
Le Botaniste is also gluten-free.
"The beauty of what we're doing at The Botanist is that it's just not about the vegetables. It's also about the desserts. Vegetables are fun seen as 'eh, it's not as fun,' so now in talking about the desserts, we call them guilt-free because we're trying to be as good as possible," Francois said.
The beauty of what we're doing at The Botanist is that it's just not about the vegetables. It's also about the desserts.Laurent Francois, Co-Founder, CEO
"There are plenty of things we can do the way we can motivate them is 'to give it a try, just trust me on this one you'll be surprised, not ask you to come again.' We have customers who say, 'I didn't really want to come in, were dragged in, actually this could be one of my routines I could do this weekly' and this is where great, vegetables and the mentality and the way people thinking is changing pretty significantly," he said.
For more information visit: https://lebotaniste.us/
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