After an unexpected coffee meeting in 2020, then-chef de cuisine of Southern Pressed Juicery, Brian McKenna, found himself a food truck owner of a completely different dining concept.
“One day I received a Facebook message from Sandy, the owner of We Got The Beets, asking if I would meet her for coffee (something we had never done before),” Brian says. “She told me she needed to move cross-country to care for an ailing parent and that they would not be taking the food truck. She said unless I was interested in buying the business, they would be shutting it down. In other words, there was no one else they wanted to continue the legacy other than me.”
Shocked and honored by the gesture, McKenna immediately called his partner, Brandon Kerins, and they decided together to take over the We Got The Beets food truck so Greenville could retain its unique plant-based mobile option.
“It feels like food trucks, in general, get a bad rap for being super unhealthy, greasy fried foods,” McKenna says. “That may be true of some, but it’s not true for us. The majority of what we bring to the table is 100 percent scratch-made and whole-food plant-based.”
When McKenna and Kerins relaunched the truck under the new ownership, the goal was to improve on the foundation already laid. “I worked tirelessly to take what we had been given and make it better, improving upon the recipes and making them my own,” McKenna says. “We had a solid foundation, for sure, but wanted to build upward and outward.”
The fruits of McKenna’s labors are evident in the food truck’s most popular menu items— quesadillas loaded with veggie goodness and his scratch-made Cashew Nacho Cheeze, a signature sauce he hopes to offer as a retail product eventually. Another fun one is the WGTB Burger, a house-made whole-food veggie patty.
Next came a rebrand as a result of a connection through the Upstate LGBT Chamber. After meeting with Sean Walsh of Secret Society Goods, the duo kicked off a full brand refresh. The resulting update rolled out in early 2024 and includes McKenna and Kerins as The Beets Boyz on the truck wrap, along with a number of playful vegetables. “The truck is as colorful as our food is, as colorful as our personalities are,” McKenna says.
Because of the quality of offerings and enticing aesthetic, We Got The Beets is well-established within the local plant-based and vegan community, but their success isn’t limited to just that segment of diners.
“For us, though, the greater achievement is establishing ourselves within the non-veg community as a viable option [for] delicious food,” McKenna says. “It may come as a surprise that the majority of our customers are not plant-based/vegan.”
Find them on Instagram @WeGotTheBeetsFoodTruck
Fan Favorites
WGTB Burger: Signature house-made sweet potato beet burger topped with spinach, orange bell pepper, and house-made “fancy” sauce, on a grilled hard roll with kettle chips
Philly Cheezesteak: Rosemary garlic seitan, house-made mozzarella, grilled peppers, and onions on a grilled hoagie
Quesadilla: A tortilla stuffed with tofu scramble, pimento, spinach, house-made Cashew Nacho Cheeze, guacamole, and house-made cashew crema.
