Meet Monica Flores | Phyto’s Vegan Eats Co-Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Monica Flores and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Monica, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
We wanted to start a business that aligned with our moral standing but also with our current careers. My husband has been a chef for 10 years while I have experience in customer service, and both my husband and I are vegan and animal/climate activists. Because of this we thought that creating an all vegan food pop-up would be our way of contributing towards our goal for compassion and climate awareness for the planet. We started our business in early summer of 2018 and had our first pop-up at Las Vegas VegFest in September of 2018. We create several styles of vegan gourmet hot dogs such ranging from toppings such as Japanese curry, vegan hot cheetos, mac & cheese, and more.Our most famous hot dog is our Crispy Cowboy which has crispy onions, white onions, fakin’ bacon, and bbq sauce, it was awarded one of the best vegan hot dogs in the nation in 2019 by PETA. Las Vegas has been our main city to pop-up in however we have also popped up in Southern California a few times throughout the years. We have catered to celebrities such as Kevin Smith, Billie Eilish, Jackson Galaxy, and Penn Jillette, as well as large music festivals such as Life is Beautiful. It has been a rollercoaster of a ride but we are truly happy with what we have built between just my husband and I and we can’t wait to see where we go from here!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
We are Phyto’s Vegan Eats, the very first all vegan hot dog pop-up in Las Vegas. Everything on our menu is 100% vegan and cruelty free. When we first started out in this venture we had only been vegan for about a year and a half so it was a bit difficult going into it with a business point-of-view, however once we started networking through events and animal/climate activism rally’s we were able to create a good reputation amongst our community. We have learned several lessons but have embraced any failures from the past to fix our mistakes and come forth stronger than before.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If friends were coming to Las Vegas for a week long trip here is are some of the places I would recommend hitting up:

Definitely come down to Downtown Las Vegas and stop at Vegas Test Kitchen, it is a multi-restaurant concept that allows small business owners to open their menu to the public. There are several great concepts with amazing vegan menus!

Next I would head across the street to Atomic Bar, one of the oldest bars in Las Vegas that has some of the best drinks!

I would then take some time to drive a few miles south and check out the National Atomic Testing Museum, it is super interesting and has some incredible history regarding Nevada’s Atomic Testing.

I would also head a bit further south to our favorite comic book shop Alternate Reality Comics owned by Ralph Mathieu, a fellow vegan and huge comic book fan.

If you’re up for a good time The Pinball Museum is the next place I would recommend, boasting hundreds of pinball machines and arcade games.

If you have time for a show then I would head over The Smith’s Center which offers different Broadway plays and productions throughout the year, it is a beautiful building that anyone will enjoy.

Last but not least I would of course recommend the Las Vegas Strip, loaded with tons of restaurants, shows, bars, spa’s, pools, and exciting activities that allow tourists to enjoy a classic Las Vegas trip.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Both my husband and I would like to shoutout to our family for always supporting us and being there when we needed them most. We also want to thank the incredible Las Vegas and Southern California community who have always supported us throughout the years, without our customers we would not be doing what we love so we just want to say thank you all so much! Also a big thanks to Shoutout LA for covering our story! <3

Website: https://phytos-vegan-eats.business.site/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral

Instagram: instagram.com/phytosvegan

Twitter: twitter.com/phytosvegan

Facebook: facebook.com/phytosvegan

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/phytos-vegan-eats-las-vegas

Other: tiktok.com/phytosvegan

Image Credits
Photo’s by: Alex White, Cameron White, and Louiie Victa.