A new burger joint in Guelph is looking to offer comfort food the vegan way.
Boon Burger will open downtown in early October.
It will offer all the ooey, gooey goodness of a regular diner using entirely vegan products.
"We wanted to take vegan food and move away from the reputation of it being something about sprouts and seeds that get stuck in your teeth," said Tomas Sohlberg, who founded Boon Burger six and a half years ago with his spouse Anneen DuPlessis.
"Vegan food has come a long way. It's not that food that had the bad reputation of being something that doesn't taste great anymore."
Sohlberg said people ordering burgers at Boon Burger sometimes don't even realize it's vegan.
"If it doesn't taste good, what's the point?" he said, adding that Boon Burger sells good food that just happens to be vegan. There is no sermon. Just good food and healthy eating.
There is no deep fryer in Boon Burger. Even the fries are baked and the burger patties are made on-site, baked, then finished on the grill.
Cremini mushrooms, brown rice, chickpeas, tofu, black beans and a variety of spice blends are used in creating Boon Burger's four signature burgers.
There's also baked fries in various forms and vegan coconut-milk based soft serve ice treat.
Tomas Sohlberg and his spouse Anneen DuPlessis started Boon Burger in Winnipeg a little over six years after seeing how well the burgers sold at another vegan restaurant they had started in British Columbia.
High overhead costs in Vancouver led them back to their home of Winnipeg.
One quickly led to two locations and following an appearance on the popular Food Network show You Gotta' Eat Here, a request came in for a franchise in Barrie.
"Every time that episode runs we get inquiries about franchises," Sohlberg said.
The couple had always had the idea about franchising their concept, but had "no idea what we were doing."
A copy of Franchising For Dummies still sits on Sohlberg's bookshelf as a reminder of how far they've come.
Guelph will be the fifth Boon Burger location. One opened earlier this year in Burlington.
Guelph location owner Margaret LeSage, a Winnipeg native, loved Boon Burger so much she got the franchise then started looking for a place to put it.
"I was a regular at Boon Burger in Winnipeg and I remember telling a friend that if there was ever a franchise opportunity I wanted part of it," LeSage said.
When the opportunity arose she scouted several cities and settled on Guelph.
"I just loved the energy here," she said. "There's a great energy, a great vibe."
Boon Burger is located in the old Nat Mirotta men's clothing store on Quebec Street, where renovations are well underway.
"It's a great spot," Sohlberg adds about Guelph. "It's a great city and the time, the city, the food are all right for this."
