Healthy Substance

Our story begins nearly a decade ago when founder Patricia Gonzalez first turned vegan for health and wellness reasons. Two years after that Patricia's husband was diagnosed with lung cancer.

When she heard the devastating news she began researching ways to help her husband. What she found was that a vegan diet paired with proper treatment can do miracles and she was in desperate need of one. However her husband was a restaurant owner/operator of a popular Mexican Taqueria that served steak, chicken, and pork every day since 1970. Switching him to a vegan diet wasn't going to be easy, so Patricia got to work. She started by making his favorite dish Al Pastor tacos - and to avoid preconceived notions - she didn't tell anyone her plans. Soon after, Patricia hosted a family dinner where she served the vegan al pastor.

She waited until everyone started eating to then get up and serve herself a plate. One of her sons asked, "Hey aren't you vegan? You cant eat this!" She laughed and said "Actually this is vegan!". Patricia's husband was pleasantly surprised, and in support of his healthy change, our family turned vegan along with him. From that moment on our journey to open a vegan Mexican restaurant in the south side of Chicago began, and the rest is history.