Breaking Down the Beetbox
Like traditional beatboxers, BeetBoxers Randon Moore and Gwyn Hiesterkamp don’t need drumsticks to serve flavors that resonate, and not only with herbivores. When Dr. Lisa Slevitch of OSU’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management saw an oddly long line for their food truck outside Homeland, her curiosity grew insatiable. “Learning it was vegan food just added to my amazement,” she remarks. Soon, she and her team launched a study analyzing the BeetBox and two other OKC concepts, Nabati and the Red Cup, to determine the recipe for meatless success in meat-centric markets.
One key ingredient is offering vegan twists on craveable comfort foods like veggie burgers—but that market was oversaturated when the BeetBox began. Its specialty, “Chickless Sandwiches” and 20+ vegan remixes of popular sauces like a Cajun-style hot honey, emerged from adversity: Randon’s diagnosis of median arcuate ligament syndrome. As a chef and vegan, Gwyn suggested the diet after reading it could offer relief. “Okay,” he replied reluctantly. “But only if I can still eat fried chicken.” It took a year to perfect a recipe, but once they got there, they had to share it, and after one Snapchat story, a line formed at their doorstep.
Surprised vegan plates sold like Shortcakes stacks at 2 a.m. in Still-water? So was I, and I grew up nearby. As an ex-football player fresh out of business school, Randon also knew it’d be a hard sell, so they kept the meatless part a secret at first.
Understanding the local market is another best practice from the findings, which is easier when you are your ideal customer. The entrepreneurs are often underestimated for their age, yet they’ve clearly leveraged youth as an asset, plus the social media chops that tend to come with it (a third success marker). As a marketer, I was impressed by their clever use of Instagram stories to collect customer feedback, and Slevitch also noticed their high engagement level, adding, “They value customers and emphasize building relationships with them.”
This highlights a fourth driver of success: cultivating a welcoming, nonjudgmental space, which you’ll find at this brick-and-mortar spot, but which isn’t always guaranteed. In my own herbivore days, I bartended at a raw vegan concept, and a friend came by one time wearing head-to-toe camo with a rawhide wallet in hand. Based on the looks he got, you’d think he’d performed a live animal sacrifice on site—a vibe that can alienate the veggie-curious among us before they take a bite. Randon’s own journey helps him empathize with guests who aren’t exactly champing at the bit to try a Chickless Sandwich, but when they do, they almost always come back for more. Take it from my husband, a fast food aficionado who exclaimed after one bite, “How much was this?! Because I could eat it all the time!”
The BeetBox, 7101 NW
Expy #300, OKC
(580) 748-3223
beetboxtruck.net
@beetboxokc
