René Guzmán sat in his living room in mid-2020, tears forming in his eyes. The 24-year-old had sold order after order of his vegan Latin food all day out of his North Omaha home, and his sister, Gennesis, thought the day was a success. But watching her brother, she saw he still looked defeated.
Guzmán began building his business Little Ve’s in December 2019 to see if Omaha had an appetite for a vegan version of the Latin food he grew up eating in his family. Despite the spread of COVID-19 shutting restaurant doors in March 2020, Little Ve’s took off —and Guzmán had been spending the majority of his time since then selling food for pick-up from his home kitchen.
But his sister said that particular day, months after the restaurant’s inception, was tough; her brother hadn’t made nearly as much profit as he had hoped to.
As Gennesis recalls, she and her mother sat down with Guzmán.
“We said, ‘There’s gonna be hard days, but the goal is to not give up,” Gennesis said. “‘We’re here as a family; we’re here supporting you no matter what.’”
Something in Guzmán clicked after that. The next day, Guzmán introduced two new dishes to the menu. He began marketing himself on social media more. A couple weeks later, he told his family and girlfriend, who had each helped him with multiple curbside pick-ups since business first began, that it was time for Little Ve’s to find a bigger space.
Now a little over a year later, Little Ve’s is completing its month-long stay at The Switch, a Blackstone food hall, and Guzmán’s social media posts continue to draw people to try his food at other local pop-ups. For him, the motivation to move forward always goes back to family, building his business for the community and staying true to his Latino roots.
“I’m a vegan, but I’m doing it for us,” he said.
“I like that I’m always breaking stereotypes.”
People have told René Guzmán that he doesn’t look like the “common hipster vegan” — and he knows that he doesn’t. He’s young, brown, a father of children and has tattoos across his arms and face, including a Little Ve’s logo inked in red on his cheek.
“I’m like, what is a vegan supposed to look like?” Guzmán asked. “I like that I’m always breaking stereotypes.”
Employing staff and working in a commercial kitchen for the first time at The Switch was a change for Guzmán, whose only culinary experience before he began Little Ve’s was cooking vegan Latin food for himself.
Guzmán had no trouble finding that kind of food while traveling in cities like Los Angeles and Miami. There, vegan and vegetarian Latin American food was more accessible and affordable than the Americanized and expensive vegan options he saw back home.
“Omaha was lacking Latin vegan food,” Guzmán said. “I wanted something that really tastes like the real deal.”
As he experimented creating his own vegan dishes, Guzmán asked friends and family to try his dishes to see whether he truly captured the flavors and culture of the originals. Eventually, his salsas and soy and nut-based “meats” tasted like the real thing.
Soon, he began cooking orders from his home for curbside pickup, and even earned the nickname “Vegan Demon” for sometimes selling his food long past midnight.
Guzmán has found a way for his recipes to preserve the taste and culture of the Latin American dishes he loves, from birria tacos to ceviche, while “veganizing” them — making them meatless and plant-based.
He cooks all types of Latin American dishes to honor his Latin roots and represent the wider Latino community — a desire that impassioned Juan Simón, a Guatemalan American and seasoned Omaha service-industry employee, to join the Little Ve’s team.
“It’s Bigger Than Just Omaha”
“I like [that I] to get to be a part of this, because it’s bigger than just Omaha,” Simón said. “It’s bigger than just the Blackstone area. It’s bigger than just the diet of veganism. There’s something that needs to be said about Latinos and the food we make.”
In Omaha the Latino community makes up 13.9% of the city’s population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and includes recent immigrants and longtime residents whose families came from Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Simón feels ventures like Little Ve’s represent the strength and resilience of his community.
For Guzmán and his employees, the unique challenge as a vegan startup is to work against people’s prevailing diets.
“We are in a ‘red’ state, as in red meat,” Simón said. “Because we live in this state, the idea of veganism just seems far-fetched, not normal, a taboo or stigmatized.”
Though there’s a growing vegan scene in Omaha that includes Modern Love, Fauxmaha and Naughty Buddha Burger, Omahans and Nebraskans aren’t typically herbivores. Many immigrants see that first-hand working in Nebraska’s meatpacking facilities that keep Nebraska and the country’s grocery stores stocked with chicken, beef and pork.
Guzmán also understands vegan food can be expensive and inaccessible for many people, and getting customers to adopt a strict, vegan lifestyle isn’t his main goal.
Growing up, the Guzmán siblings watched their parents work hard to make ends meet and put food on the table. According to Gennesis, her family bought what they could afford, and a lot of times processed food was more abundant and cheap than fresh, healthy options.
“To adapt into a healthy lifestyle, your income has to match it,” she said. “René’s mentality has always been: ‘How can I make this something families can access that is an affordable option, a healthy good option that anyone can eat, that also takes away the stigma, mentality and mindset of what vegan food is?’”
Guzmán’s last day as a pop-up at The Switch is set for July 18, but with it will come new opportunities to adapt and continue showing the diversity and strength of Omaha’s Latino community through the way he runs his business.
There are new challenges every day, chief among them figuring out how to keep prices low as he moves from a family home to a commercial kitchen. But there’s also the possibility in of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant of his own one day. The dream Guzmán first had — to make healthy, authentic Latin food more accessible in Omaha — feels like it’s just getting started.
No matter what comes next, there’s no doubt Guzmán’s sister will continue reminding him of that day in Little Ve’s infancy when they sat together with their mom in their living room.
“Whatever sparked inside of you that day,” Gennesis said, “never forget that commitment you made.”