“Moonburger has never been dogmatic,” says Jeremy Robinson-Leon of the quietly meatless burger brand he founded in 2021. “The goal of Moonburger was always to help people to reduce their consumption without trying to tell anyone to do that. We wanted to see if the product could be so good that it could make someone want to eat this instead of something else.”
The non-evangelist approach worked, attracting everyone from die-hard animal rights activists to blue collar construction workers to enjoy a classic cheese burger with pickles, lettuce, crispy onions, special sauce…and an Impossible patty. Three years later, Moonburger has four locations (Kingston, New Paltz, Poughkeepsie, Brooklyn) and has sold hundreds of thousands of plant-based burgers, outperforming most restaurants in America in sales growth.
Beyond not alienating people through proselytizing, the gentler approach has recently shown another strategic advantage: Robinson-Leon never backed himself into an ideological corner.
“We need an all-of-the-above strategy to attack the challenge of factory farm commodity beef,” he says. “I fully believe that anyone who is only advocating for one solution—plant-based meat or regenerative beef or less meat more vegetables—holds a shortsighted perspective. We need all of those things.” That is not to say that any one company or organization can’t take on a single aspect of the multipronged approach—as evidenced by his first efforts with Moonburger—just that all approaches are needed.
As is a nimble mindset to continue meeting a dynamic challenge in an evolving landscape. So, as of today, October 9, Moonburger will be offering their classic cheeseburger with a regenerative beef option alongside the plant-based patty option—for the same price of $7.59 for a single-patty cheeseburger, $10.59 for a double.
“Whether anyone likes it or not, the fact is that recent studies show Americans are eating as much meat as ever, with more identifying as meat eaters than when we started,” says Robinson-Leon. “When I look at that, it’s pretty simple for me. If folks are going to eat more meat, then we are going to give them the best possible meat we can. In that way, every burger is a win, whether someone tries a new premium beef option or the plant-based burger.”
All four locations have been set up with a second grill to handle the new meat option and avoid cross-contact. The beef comes from a cooperative of regenerative beef farms in Seneca Falls, one of which Robinson-Leon and his GMs visited by road trip earlier this year. “This is some of the best, most sustainable, most delicious beef you can get anywhere,” he says. The farms employ tactics like rotational grazing, soil conservation, nutrient recycling, runoff reduction, and cover cropping and rotation, while raising their livestock without antibiotics or added hormones and paying living wages to employees.
“I’m excited for this and the team is really excited—it’s a lot of moving parts, but we are ready to go,” Robinson-Leon says. “Did I expect we’d be at this point right now when I started the company in 2021? No. But I’m really happy and grateful that we have the ability to evolve and meet the world where it is as it changes.”
With a raucous opening in Brooklyn earlier this summer, celebrated in the pages of Eater, NY Magazine, and The Infatuation, the timing is right to make a big change. “Although I am really optimistic about plant-based meat in the long term, it is totally true that short- and medium-term, the future is very uncertain,” Robinson-Leon says. “Now is the time to do something bold to meet the market, and we certainly want to do that when we are ascendant and can make the greatest impact.”
With the cost factor taken out of the equation, the meat/plant-based breakdown of future orders at Moonburger will be a telling gauge of people’s taste preferences and habits, while ensuring that the brand can meet demand wherever they’re at. “Aside from getting to work with this team, the thing I’m most proud of is that Moonburger has done something with plant-based meat that no other restaurant has done in America,” Robinson-Leon says. “I want Moonburger to continue at every point to be a leader. Right now, this is the best way to set a new model.”
