Five years ago, Kirsten Ussery-Boyd, 38, and her wife Erika Boyd, 43, discovered that a vegan diet could help them avoid the health problems that ran in their families, like diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer. Boyd, who ran her own natural hair salon, was an experienced home cook who prepared the southern soul food recipes she’d learned from her grandmother. She and Ussery-Boyd, who worked in public relations, decided to launch a business offering food they called “vegan soul.” At first, they sold one-off meals from a website. They made deliveries in person and catered weddings and other events. In 2013 they opened their first restaurant, Detroit Vegan Soul, in the city’s West Village neighborhood, a residential area dotted with vacant storefronts. Along the way they got help from multiple Detroit non-profits that support local entrepreneurs, including the Build Institute and Hatch Detroit, where they were finalists in a business plan competition. Another non-profit, Revolve Detroit, helped them negotiate their first lease. They now have 50 employees, they hope to break $1 million in revenue this year, and in August they opened a second restaurant, again pioneering a Detroit neighborhood with no healthy dining options. In this interview, which has been edited and condensed, Ussery-Boyd talks about how they established the restaurant and the surprise visits they got from celebrities.
Susan Adams: Did you open the online business as a way to test the market for a restaurant? Or did the restaurant just happen?
Kirsten Ussery-Boyd: We wanted to test the market. We made enough money to keep going while we gained a large following of people who became regulars at our restaurant. We found Detroit was ready for this kind of option.
Adams: How did you raise your initial funding?
Ussery-Boyd: We got a $5,000 grant from the Village Community Development Corporation and I took some side consulting work to make extra cash. Erika ran her salon until we opened the restaurant. We put in a lot of sweat equity and Erika’s brother, who’s a contractor, donated his labor.
Adams: What was the toughest part of starting the business?
Ussery-Boyd: We had no idea what we were doing. I had written a business plan at the Build Institute. But we had to go through a permitting process, learn about electrical and HVAC, about hiring staff. The whole thing was a learning curve. Then on our grand opening day, when we anticipated 150 people might come through, we had a line around the corner.
Susan Adams: Did you run out of food?
Ussery-Boyd: Yes, we had to close the doors.
Susan Adams: Did the restaurant stay busy in the weeks and months that followed?
Ussery-Boyd: Yes. We opened in September, and though we had one of the coldest winters in Michigan that year, we hit our projections and continued to grow.
Adams: What kind of marketing did you do?
Ussery-Boyd: Everything was word of mouth and earned media and we got a lot of publicity for being in the Hatch competition.
Adams: You also got publicity for hosting Stevie Wonder and Bill Clinton. What was that like?
Ussery-Boyd: A woman came in and asked if we had any seating for VIP guests. We’re a 32-seat restaurant and we only had some bar seating at the window. She came back with Stevie Wonder and we were like, “Oh my god!” Stevie Wonder had the coconut BLT wrap and he ordered a bunch of cookies and a couple of wraps to go. We didn’t know about Bill Clinton until 20 minutes before he arrived. A couple of his people came in first and said he was coming. The restaurant was packed and we were super busy but when he walked in, everything went silent. Then he came around the counter and started telling me about being vegan. He ordered carry-out.
Adams: Did those celebrity appearances help your business?
Ussery-Boyd: We posted pictures on social media and we got a good rush because everybody wants to see if the celebrities are going to come back.
Adams: What kind of hours did you work early on?
Ussery-Boyd: We came in at six or seven and left at 11. We were closed Mondays and Tuesdays but we worked on those days.
Adams: How did you set prices?
Ussery-Boyd: We learned about that in our class at Build. We considered food costs and labor costs and we looked at what other restaurants were charging for vegetarian food.
Adams: How hard has it been to find good employees?
Ussery-Boyd: It’s a challenge. Detroit isn’t like New York or L.A. where restaurants have been part of the culture.
Adams: Did your restaurant have an impact on the West Village neighborhood?
Ussery-Boyd: It’s become one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city. There’s a dinner-only American-style restaurant now and next year there will be two more restaurants and a bar.
Adams: Is the first restaurant profitable?
Ussery-Boyd: Yes.
Adams: How did you decide it was time to open another one?
Ussery-Boyd: We wanted to build on our momentum and the new neighborhood called out to us.
Adams: How did you choose the location?
Ussery-Boyd: It’s in a neighborhood where there is every kind of fast food you can think of but no healthy food and no sit-down, full-service restaurant.
Adams: How are you financing the new place?
Ussery-Boyd: We got a $100,000 loan from the Detroit Development Fund. A neighborhood non-profit, the Granmont Rosedale Development Corporation, was excited to have us, so they bought the building we wanted and sold it to us on a land contract, which means we didn’t have to go through a bank. The total cost of everything, including the build-out, is $300,000.
Adams: Where is the rest of the money coming from?
Ussery-Boyd: We got a $60,000 grant from Motor City Match, a program through the mayor’s office. We’ll pay the rest over the next few years.
Adams: People always talk about how tough it is to open a restaurant and how many fail. What advice would you give someone just getting started?
Ussery-Boyd: Do your homework. There’s so much involved, from managing to knowing plumbing and electrical. Be patient and diligent. Definitely test the market. You can do festivals, pop-ups, catering. That process built our following and it allowed us to refine our food.
Adams: How does the business affect your marriage?
Ussery-Boyd: We’re together all the time and it’s hard not to bring work home when work is pretty much non-stop. In order to deal with the work, you have to deal with the whole relationship. It’s forced us to concentrate on improving our communication. And it’s helped that where I’m weak, she’s strong and vice versa.
Adams: What’s your most popular dish?
Ussery-Boyd: By far the $14 soul platter. It’s a traditional dish that has candied yams, black-eyed peas and rice, cornbread and collard greens. And our signature burger, made with millet. A lot of people say it’s the best veggie burger they’ve tasted.
