Saxon + Parole And Public Will Soon Serve The Bleeding Veggie Burger

Two more New York restaurants are hopping on the bleeding veggie burger train. Chef Brad Farmerie will be adding burgers made out of the plant-based product from Impossible Foods to the menus of his downtown hit Saxon + Parole and Michelin-starred Public this week. They will be the fourth and fifth restaurants in the city to use the ingredient from the Silicon Valley darling, after David Chang’s Momofuku Nishi and Ssam Bar.

Saxon + Parole, at 316 Bowery, will start serving its version on Thursday at dinner and then at weekend brunch. The typically meat-heavy restaurant will offer the Impossible Burger with either a mushroom sauce, a truffle sauce, braised onions, and oyster mushrooms, or with lettuce, tomato, and onion. It will come with fries.

Public and its sister bar The Daily, at 210 Elizabeth S., will serve their version of the Impossible Burger at the bar at weekday dinner and in the dining room at weekend brunch. That one will come topped with a hot pepper aioli, white cheddar, watercress, frisee, and relish on a seeded bun. Once it debuts, Public will be the only Michelin-starred restaurant to serve the plant-based meat alternative.

Biochemist Patrick O. Brown first created the company in 2011 to make veggie-based burgers that “bleed,” aka look and feel like a actual beef. It’s an attempt to create a more environmentally friendly alternative for people who eat meat. Impossible Foods has since raised more than $150 million from big names like Bill Gates and Google Ventures. Competitor Beyond Meat, another bleeding veggie burger company, is also available in New York but only at retailers.

Momofuku Nishi was the first restaurant in New York to offer an Impossible Burger, and after the debut in July, people descended on the restaurant in hordes to sample what’s being called the meat of the future. Now, Chang and chef Matthew Rudofker are using the meat alternative in the classic spicy rice dish at Ssam Bar. San Francisco restaurants Jardiniere and Cockscomb also offer versions of a bleeding veggie burger.

Initial rollout has been limited, but Impossible Foods will be producing more and more meatless burgers in 2017. Expect more restaurants and even chains to start offering the product this year.