A plant-based "fried chicken" and "bacon" sandwich from Evolution Fast Food

A certain fried poultry chain garnered buckets of free press last week for announcing it will be serving vegan chicken options at its restaurants. Really, KFC is just the latest fast-food brand to make hay out of partnering with Beyond Meat, one among the buzzy new genre of tech companies that employ scientists to create plant-based meat substitutes.

You see, the announcement roughly coincides with the launch of a new, Beyond Chicken line. The company has been steadily been looking beyond its burger success, and has now fashioned an approximation of white meat from pea and fava bean proteins, plus a variety of starches and glutens.

I can’t lie: I will be eager to try it. But will vegetarians?

Two years ago, the founder of Beyond Meat made the claim that 93 percent of the people who bought its products in grocery stores also shopped for animal proteins. In effect, that Beyond’s market isn’t strict vegetarians, or vegans, as much as it is omnivores who wish to broaden their dietary diversity.

Banker HIll's usually busy vegan drive thru

I could pretend to be shocked by this, but it’s almost like Beyond is reading my diary. I’ve been the one who wants it both ways: to eat less beef while eating the same number of burgers. Meanwhile, for all the tens of millions companies like Beyond have invested in developing veggie patties “that bleed,” it might be that people committed to plant-based diets were pretty happy with the meat substitutes they’d already been eating for decades.

So, instead of rushing out to a Kentucky-fried drive-thru to try the new, sci-fi styled chicken tenders, I steered toward Bankers Hill, to pay a visit to San Diego’s own, original vegan drive thru: Evolution Fast Food.

Vegan food doesn't have to equal health food: burger, fries, and a non-dairy milkshake.

Since 2006, Evolution has been making plant-based beef and chicken alternatives cooked up in a kitchen, not in Silicon Valley. Along the way, it’s debunked the misconception that vegans are only interested in health food — one of its most popular menu items is a buffalo chicken sandwich!

I’ve found it to be one of the city’s most consistently busy drive-thrus that isn’t named Starbucks. Though its burgers-and-fries-led menu is modeled after fast food (down to the non-dairy milkshakes), a wait upwards of fifteen minutes is common, even when cars aren’t backed up into the street. I’ve had occasion to joke that my biggest challenge to giving up meat is the drive-thru line at Evolution.

For those determined to go, it’s quicker and easier these days to place an order online for pick-up. But my point is, people are determined to eat here, despite all the well-documented advances in food-tech. Many remain compelled by a choice of tempeh, black bean, or “beefy” soy-based burgers ($8-10) — fare that never generates headlines.

Or, like me, they go for the faux-chicken sandwich ($10). Even without the Buffalo sauce, ranch dressing, or other house-made adornments, it’s tasty and filling. Even without the tempeh bacon add-on — which looks more like a limp sock than actual pork, but lends a fatty sensation that allows you to feel like your breaking all kinds of new year’s resolutions. The alt-meat’s chew hardly resembles chicken, though I’ve had bigger qualms with the texture of a few fast-food chicken sandwiches in the past.

As for the future, when I do get around to trying the new-tech-marvel phony chicken, Evolution is what I’ll be comparing it to.