Rise and shine, Columbia, South Carolina — Peace of Soul Vegan Kitchen now offers vegan breakfast Wednesday through Saturday. That means servings of gluten-free French toast sticks, a vegan breakfast platter, organic grits, and plenty of good coffee before heading to work.
While the pandemic shifted a lot of restaurants from dining room to takeout only, for Folami Geter, the owner of Peace of Soul Vegan Kitchen on Main Street, the shift was permanent. Takeout-only and contactless ordering made sense for efficiency for the family business and also kept cars from overflowing out of the small parking lot. And while she asserts that she was making it work without dine-in, she says, “We definitely saw a decrease in customers”
So she began considering, as many restaurateurs have during these past few years, another shift of her business model, a way to maximize the time she was open and scale back the days open to give her time to book her popular food truck for events.
I didn’t think that hard about it once I thought about breakfast. I was raised vegetarian — been so all my life — and I’ve never been able to find vegan breakfast here. So I just went for it. The food I cook here is the food I’ve been eating all my life, so I added breakfast into that mix.”
Folami Geter, Owner of Peace of Soul Vegan Kitchen
Like many vegan spots, Peace of Soul includes a lot of meatless copycats of popular proteins, and so far, the most popular menu item is the breakfast platter, which comes with pancakes or waffles and a choice of “sausage” or “eggs.” The gluten-free French toast sticks have been a hit too, but that’s possible because customers have yet to find her “chicken biscuit,” a breakfast version of the deep-fried seitan served on a pretzel bun that keeps the lunch customers coming back again and again.
