The Largest Vegan Sports Bar in the World is Coming to Boston

EAT

Apr 7

The menu will feature veganized versions of sport-fan favorites such as Buffalo wings, loaded nachos, and pizza.

A 100% vegan sports bar is set to open in Boston, Massachusetts directly across the street from the baseball stadium, Fenway Park. PlantPub will debut its new 8,000 sq. ft. this Spring, as a collaboration between international celebrity chef Matthew Kenney and PlantPub’s co-owners, serial entrepreneur Pat McAuley, vegan investor Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni, and head chef Mary Dumont.

The fully plant-based concept will serve traditional sports bar staples, including Buffalo cauliflower wings, loaded nachos, and pepperoni pizza, fried chicken, alongside animal-free desserts such as cream pies, sundaes, and ice cream sandwiches. The location will also offer a wide variety of New England-based craft beers, cocktails, and mocktails.

“We are mimicking all of the flavors that people know and love in a complete plant-based form,” says Dumont. “We have an opportunity to expose so many people to a new way of eating that is becoming more and more mainstream.”

“I loved what they were doing — the product, the brand, it just seemed like a perfect fit,” Kenney told The Boston Globe. “We always develop locations based on where we think there’s an unfulfilled need and where we think guests will really appreciate [our restaurants]. Fenway is ground zero in Boston and we couldn’t think of a better location to showcase the fact that plant-based cuisine can be really crave-able and fulfilling and satisfying. We feel confident that we’ll be able to fulfill the expectations of Boston sports fans, guests, university students, and of course the local community.”

PlantPub’s flagship bar launched in Cambridge last year. Now, their second location, equipped with nearly 300 hundred seats, marks a huge step forward for the plant-forward brand. Award-winning chef Dumont, previously of Harvest and Cultivar, is thrilled with the new, much larger location and the access to a larger kitchen that will allow her to create new menu items, including veggie hot dogs “with all the toppings.”

“We are expanding our menu with more health-forward things like bowls and more entrée-style dishes that we don’t really have the space to make in Kendall Square [in Cambridge],” Dumont told VegNews. “And we’re expanding our dessert menu to include Boston cream pie and something we’re going to call ‘pub tubs’— beautiful sundaes with all of the toppings. We are going to have lots of variations of soft serve ice cream, too, which is super nostalgic. It’s a New England thing.”

Kenney had already signed the lease on the Fenway building, which was formerly a Boston Beer Works restaurant. But after learning that McAuley and Dumont were looking to expand, he decided to collaborate with PlantPub “rather than create a new concept” for the space.

”I loved what they were doing — the product, the brand … it just seemed like a perfect fit,” Kenney told the Globe. “Fenway is ground zero in Boston and we couldn’t think of a better location to showcase the fact that plant-based cuisine can be really crave-able and fulfilling and satisfying.”

The famed chef who is considered a pioneer in plant-based cuisine now owns, co-owns, or operates 60 restaurants around the world. He has also released 12 cookbooks and one memoir and recently debuted a completely vegan restaurant at London-based department store, Selfridges.

Evelyn Kimber, president of the Boston Vegetarian Society, said she is “delighted beyond words” about the new PlantPub and the collaboration between its founders and Kenney.

”I think we’re going to open people’s eyes to what’s possible,” McAuley said. “They’ll see that you don’t have to sacrifice anything to make better choices for yourself and for the world — and [they] can still enjoy a few beers.”

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