Downtown Indy vegan restaurant gets support from actor and comedian Kevin Hart
Black Leaf Vegan Cafe in downtown Indianapolis has got the support of actor, producer and comedian Kevin Hart.
The cafe at 335 W. 9th St. is one of 50 grantees of The Coramino Fund’s 2023 program, funded by Gran Coramino Tequila and managed by Local Initiative Support Corp. (LISC), a national non-profit community development organization. Hart co-founded the tequila brand with Domingo Beckmann.
The grant supports Black and Latinx entrepreneurs and small business owners with $10,000 awards.
Black Leaf Vegan is the only Indiana awardee.
Although the list of recipients was publicly announced in early March, the grants were awarded in December just months after Black Leaf Vegan Cafe launched.
“On a whim, I applied, not expecting much because we're still grassroots. We bootstrap everything we do,” said Derrick Slack, who co-owns Black Leaf Vegan along with his wife Taria Slack and their three young daughters. “We just told our story. We’re a family-owned business and we'd like to expand and have some cushion because the margins are thin for a family-owned cafe.”
“We want to continue to push forward with our vision and mission of helping the community with what we do.”
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The Slacks started the business in April 2021 as Black Leaf Vegan, the first licensed fully-vegan food truck in the state, selling burgers and nachos using plant-based meat substitutes at local festivals and fairs.
It was an economic exercise for their daughters, as well as a way to encourage healthier diets, which often factor into overcoming health disparities.
Compared to non-Hispanic whites, African Americans are 44% more likely to die of a stroke, 25% more likely to die of heart disease, 40% more likely to die from breast cancer and twice as likely to die from prostate cancer; and are 72% more likely to be diabetic, according to health consumer group Families USA.
The restaurant opened at the foot of an apartment building in fall of 2022 with lattes, smoothies, sweets, breakfasts and soul foods as well as burgers.
The Slacks have since left their jobs — she was a Social Security department claims administrator and he was a high school economics teacher — to work at the business full time.
The cafe hosts monthly Sunday jazz events and regular wine tastings with vegan Sip & Share Wines. Meanwhile, the food truck business continues at various outlets.
Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on Twitter: @cherylvjackson
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Downtown Indy vegan restaurant gets support from comedian Kevin Hart
