My Vegan Journey: Ditching Meat for a Completely Vegan Menu with Kenny Annis (vegan)

On today’s show, we meet the valiant Kenny Annis, a musician who courageously turned his once-famous meat restaurant, “Nick’s Kitchen,” into a vibrant vegan restaurant.

“One of my early childhood memories I was three years old at my grandparents' house in Maine and a truckload of pigs came by and I thought they were so cute with their snouts. Apparently, I could hear them right down the street, and there was a slaughterhouse, and I could hear that. After that, I never would eat bacon - any pork - in my life. Because I thought that was just horrible, because I thought they were so cute.”

It was during this time as a young teenager that Kenny discovered the horrid truth about food production and how wasteful it can be. It was only much later in Kenny’s life that he ventured into the culinary industry with his partner Reina Montenegro who happened to be from the Philippines. Together they bought an existing Filipino meat restaurant called “Nick’s Kitchen.”

At first, Kenny and Reina were concerned about changing an existing meat restaurant into a 100% vegan eatery; however, when they saw just how much support they received when they did, all their fears evaporated. “But we didn’t really have a choice: It was either go out of business, or switch to the vegan menu. The next thing you know, we’re running out of food, and there are lines out the door! That first week we were open as a vegan place, I was in the corner crying because I couldn’t believe the support. Going vegan literally saved our business.”

For many decades, our Beloved Supreme Master Ching Hai has urged the food industry and other enterprises to turn vegan. In recent years, more restaurants are ditching meat for plant-based menus. As a fine example of this trend, Kenny considers vegan to be the lifestyle people need to choose in order for our planet to survive.