OKLAHOMA CITY — You knew the Great Chicken Sandwich Wars of the early 2020s was out of hand when Taco Bell decided to toss its deep-fried chicken hat in the ring. And while the hostilities have largely ceased, amid the détente diners can still find fried chicken sandwiches from OGs like Popeyes, KFC, and Chick-fil-A, as well as at also-rans like Jack in the Box, Arby’s, and Carl’s Jr. and seemingly every other fast food chain in existence.
But for those who don’t want poultry to be in a panic, there is a local restaurant serving up their own vegan version of the beloved staple: The Beet Box.
Bootstrapping the business
Owners Randon Moore and Gwyneth Hiesterkamp started their business the way all the greats do: illegally serving food out of their apartment.
“It didn’t stay underground for very long,” Hiesterkamp said of the restaurants’ early days in Alva, when she and Moore were students at Northwestern Oklahoma State University.
She was a practicing vegan, and he was a business major and football player with a rare disease called Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome, or MALS. As she was convincing him to change his diet for better health, he told her, “The one thing I can’t give up is fried chicken.”
Spoiler alert: they created an alternative using Hiesterkamp’s proprietary seitan protein blend which became the basis for The Beet Box’s best-selling item, the Chickless Sandwich. And they sold it to the students at NWOSU in such great numbers that the authorities got involved.
They either had to go out of business or get licensed, which involved moving the cooking out of their apartment and into a trailer. But the demand was obvious.
“If you saw these big football players chowing down on our sandwiches, it was clear we had hit on something,” she said.
Food trailer, then, a storefront
That was the beginning of a nomadic restaurant lifestyle, first in the trailer in Alva, then to Oklahoma City where they served at breweries and street festivals, and finally moving into a series of ghost kitchens. Even as the pandemic took hold, orders continued to pour in for their vegan sandwiches, but finding a “forever home” has proved elusive.
The Beet Box is currently serving out of a storefront in Oklahoma City’s Plaza District, but Moore and Hiesterkamp know they need to find something more permanent in the near future—ideally with a drive-thru window.
Creative vegan versions of familiar standbys
As an omnivore who is quite partial to fried chicken sandwiches, I feel comfortable saying that the Chickless Sandwich at The Beet Box is not going to fool most chicken sandwich enthusiasts. But that’s not really the point, as the owners made clear. For dyed-in-the-faux-wool vegans, the ideal dish is not something that tastes just like meat but isn’t, it is something that reminds them of the food they used to enjoy while clearly being vegan.
I am fascinated and impressed by their ability to create a vegan sandwich that overcomes many of the drawbacks in other vegan dishes. The seitan blend used at The Beat Box doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste. And the texture of the sandwich avoids the squishy sponge-like consistency of other meat substitutes.
But, perhaps most important, the crispy fried exterior of the chickless patty performs EXACTLY as it would on a real fried chicken sandwich. It’s not falling off after every bite, but holding fast to the patty and staying crunchy well after the heat of the fryer is gone. The crust has lots of craggy bits designed to hold on to the staggering selection of vegan mimic sauces the chefs have created. Paired with the soft brioche bun and a generous helping of lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onion, the patty does as it intends to do by giving diners many contrasting textures, keeping every bite interesting and inviting.
If you are looking for a closer approximation of the usual fast food fried chicken sandwich, I recommend leaving most of the salad on the side and instead loading the sandwich up with pickles and a heavy pour of sauce. But if you are looking for the most bang for your buck, it’s great to have so many fresh and crunchy vegetables in every bite.
Aside from the Chickless Sandwich, the menu at The Beet Box focuses on fresh fruit lemonades, faux seafood tacos and sandwiches, and sides like loaded French fries, fried pickles, and fried cauliflower bites.
Using hearts of palm to ape the texture of shrimp and fish is smart, as it retains a kind of glossy tenderness like most fried seafood. The crust—a choice of a coconut covering or the standard—stays mostly glued to the hearts of palm, though not quite as well as on the Chickless patty.
Similarly to my advice for the Chickless sandwich, these have A LOT going on, so consider paring back the toppings (or keeping them on the side) as you figure out what you really want on your Bang Bang or Coconut Shrimpless Tacos.
I definitely understand the drive to put more, more, more onto everything. The Beet Box’s sandwiches and tacos are not cheap, but the portion sizes are large enough to make sure diners don’t leave hungry. The trick going forward will be finding a way to balance the cost, the portions, and the combination of toppings to maximize the impact while keeping guests coming back.
For now, you can find The Beet Box in the Plaza District, but if Randon and Gwyneth’s Christmas wish comes true, a more permanent location will arrive soon. Wherever they are, I’ll be stopping in again to see what other vegan wizardry these two can create.
The Beet Box
1738 NW 16th St. in OKC
(580) 748-3223
Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday noon-8 p.m., Friday-Saturday noon-9 p.m.
Long-time food enjoyer Greg Elwell writes about food, restaurants, and trends. He has his own blog "I Ate Oklahoma" and has written for The Oklahoman, The Oklahoma Gazette, and others.
