Maciel’s Plant-Based Butcher Shop, a vegan restaurant co-owned by husband and wife Joe Egender and Maciel Bañales Luna, was featured in an Only In Your State ranking of “The 50 Best Sandwich Shops Across the U.S.,” coming in at No. 1 in California and No. 5 nationwide. The restaurant, located at 5933 York Blvd., is known for its plant-based meats and cheeses made in-house, according to the restaurant’s website.
According to Senior Editor of Only In Your State, Marisa Roman, the publication wanted to highlight Maciel’s Plant-Based Butcher for thinking outside the box.
“Being a ‘plant-based butcher and deli’ is so wildly cool,” Roman said via email. “They’re stepping outside the mold of what we’ve, as a culture, always known delis and butcher shops to be.”
Roman said selecting Maciel’s was not a challenge, as the shop is doing something really special.
“Creating a vegan sandwich that’s truly craveable [is] rare, and it’s absolutely worth sharing with our audience,” Roman said via email.
Egender said neither he nor Bañnales Luna currently eat meat, but he grew up eating a lot of it in Kansas City.
“I think there‘s a misconception that vegans and vegetarians don’t like meat, […] but I think a lot of people love the taste of meat; it’s delicious and humans have been eating it for a long time,” Egender said.
According to Egender, Bañnales Luna, who has both a master’s and PhD in nutrition, cares deeply about the environment, animal rights and food.
“For a long time, vegans and vegetarians had one or two options in the grocery store that weren’t necessarily very delicious,” Egender said. “[Bañnales Luna] thought, ‘Why can’t there be really good, delicious plant-based meats that are healthy for you and […] come close to looking, tasting, smelling like, real meat?’”
According to Egender, their meats are mostly legume-based with seitan added for extra protein. Egender said figuring out the techniques for making their meats was a challenge.
“Some of them were steamed, some were cooked, some were in the oven,” Egender said. “We have someone that comes overnight, kind of like a bakery, and makes the meats.”
Egender said Bañales Luna started making meat at home when they were living in New York. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“COVID changed everybody. It made everybody go: ‘Am I looking at my life the way I want to be looking at my life?’” Egender said. “People made bigger decisions around COVID, and that’s certainly what we did.”
Egender said the couple decided to open their shop in LA because, after previously living in the city and knowing people in its restaurant scene, they had a strong foundation here. Egender said they also wanted to be closer to Mexico.
“Maciel is from Mexico, so we’re closer to her family. There’s also some Mexican elements to influence [our food],” Egender said. “We thought that it made a little bit more sense in Los Angeles.”
According to Roman, Only In Your State looked for restaurants paying respect to their heritage when creating its ranking.
“When it came to naming the best restaurants, we looked beyond buzz,” Roman said via email. “We also considered accessibility, inclusivity, affordability, hours and overall value — while giving extra credit to spots that balance creativity and innovation with respect for their culinary roots.”
Egender said initially, the idea was to sell plant-based meats, but they wanted to escape the small bubble of vegetarian and vegan customers. Now, Egender said customers can get hooked on the sandwiches and come back to buy just the plant-based meat products. According to Egender, customers sometimes come in skeptical, but once they try a sandwich, they return for the plant-based turkey or bacon.
“We needed to make sandwiches so people could come and experience the meats and then come back and start buying [the other products],” Egender said.
Returning customer Crystal Newcomer said she keeps coming back because the food is really good and she strives to support local businesses.
“We get something different every time,” Newcomer said. “The food is fantastic […], and we’re big fans of the restaurant.”
When new customers walk into the shop, Egender said they do not always know it is a vegan sandwich shop. Egender said they try to be conservative with branding, sticking to classic names for their sandwiches like ‘Reuben,’ ‘Philly Cheese Steak’ and ‘Fried Chicken Sandwich.’
“The twist is that it’s vegan,” Egender said.
Contact Amelia Darling at adarling@oxy.edu
