Face Plant: Portland Vegan Fast-Food Restaurant in a Former McDonald’s Out to Change the World

Pejorism, the belief the world is getting worse, is a widely held sentiment. Can fast food make it a bit better? Matt Plitch, CEO of Face Plant — Portland’s newest drive-thru restaurant — and Molly Baz, who adds Face Plant shareholder and head of culinary to her role as big-time influencer, think so.

After four years of planning and recipe testing, Baz and Plitch have finally launched their flagship location of Face Plant, a plant-based restaurant with three goals: serving enjoyable, affordable food; providing stellar customer service; and supplanting Ronald McDonald.

On a Saturday in March, just two months after the restaurant’s somewhat subdued debut, three friends and I had a belated birthday dinner at Face Plant. The shiny, classic interior and friendly staff made it a surprisingly great spot to celebrate a 30-something. The children drenching fries in ketchup only added to the nostalgia. Face Plant feels like fast food before you knew about politics or climate change, before you worried about germs in the ball pit and just dove in. Luckily, at Face Plant, instead of a ball pit there is a stocked coloring station.

Anastasia Sloan

Our party of four ordered one of each menu item. Face Plant’s burgers are either “red & yellow” (think American cheese, pickles, ketchup) or “fancy” (lettuce, tomato, onion, special sauce). Two of us got doubles (two patties) while the others made their meal a combo (fries and soda). We also split the 10-piece nuggets. Our total bill was $44.50, less than $12 each.

The burgers are familiar, but, even without that quintessential fast-food meatiness, I’d be a fan. The patties have the right hint of char, the sauces are drippy, the veggies crisp, the buns toasty soft. Baz and Plitch, who I spoke to after dining twice, have cooked up the perfect combo of umami, salt, fat, and tang that makes food craveable. Face Plant’s fries are a bit larger than McDonald’s, which surprised Baz since McDonald’s fries were her north star. But during myriad blind tastings, she realized she liked them “a bit girthier” in order to achieve the perfect ratio of “crispy exterior to mashed potato, fluffy interior.” The second time I dined the fries stayed crisp despite the rain and photo-taking, and without all the ketchup and birthday excitement I noticed a uniquely satisfying flavor. Their seasoning blend, Baz says, includes a bit of vinegar. It’s really subtle, no one would mistake them for salt and vinegar fries, but it works. Face Plant’s tender nuggets come with a mustard-y barbecue sauce, reminiscent of Carolina gold, and even just writing about it makes my mouth water. The sodas were all bubbly and cold (ICYDK: Barq’s Root Beer, a fine pairing bev, has caffeine).

And very soon, Plitch and Baz promise, handspun shakes will be available. Hot and iced coffee are still in the works. Baz, who spent four years on the menu and a year on the vanilla shake alone, says the journey has been challenging. Chocolate, strawberry, and coffee shakes all satisfied Baz’s palate with oat milk as their base, but since “vanilla is such a subtle, clean flavor and other flavors shine through” it took her longer to perfect. After tasting every base currently on the market, they decided to create their own proprietary blend using pea milk. Plitch mentioned this might sound a little strange, but since I just came back from visiting family in London — where veganism reigns and pea milk is often found in coffee shops — it makes perfect sense to me. The shakes will run $4.99, and I’m eager to try them alongside an order of fries. But I, a vegan who is a burger and fry connoisseur but one who doesn’t frequent fast-food establishments, am not their target audience. The goal, says Baz, “is to capture people who eat beef on the regular.”

Anastasia Sloan

According to online reviews and friends who eat meat, they’re succeeding. “This concept doesn’t work if people who love fast food don’t love it,” says Plitch. Plitch, who lives five minutes away and expedites nightly, has enjoyed getting to know Face Plant’s repeat customers. He says sometimes people come through the drive-thru for lunch and then return to sit for dinner. After being open for just over two weeks, one man came in 10 times. Plitch celebrated this by comping the man’s 10th meal. Even animals have become regulars with “one brave cat who visits the drive-thru through on a dashboard, and a dog who comes through wearing goggles.”

Many of Face Plant’s customers are people who live and work on Swann Island, a hub for distribution and manufacturing and the home of a 430-acre industrial park less than five miles from downtown Portland. Since members of the staff come up to drivers’ windows to take drive-thru orders à la In-N-Out, Plitch knows some 1/3 of vehicles that drive up are trucks.

Baz, who has 809,000 followers on Instagram, still hasn’t publicly announced her participation. She wants to make sure the flagship location’s staff has sea legs before adding more customers to the mix. Still, they’ve been busy since day one, and as Baz mentions, “Restaurants are extremely hard to operate and there’s always something going on.” When they’ve met hiccups throughout the opening, like machine malfunctions and incorrect deliveries, they’ve compensated customers for the inconvenience. They offer vouchers or extras when something goes awry. “Fast food is the greatest way to take care of people,” says Plitch. “You bring your whole life to a drive-thru.”

According to Plitch, since more than a third of American adults consume fast food on any given day, Face Plant provides an opportunity to reach more people with great food and service and to change the environment. “If you disrupt over a gigaton of carbon, you change the arc of history,” says Plitch, who abashedly admits to wanting 40,000 Face Plants. As wary as I am of the McDonaldization of society and market-based solutions, Plitch and Baz have struck a chord; I’m already dreaming of stopping by future Face Plants on road trips, mixed CD blasting, cold vanilla shake and crisp fries in hand.