Iconic Vegan Cafe brings more than just the Impossible burger to plant-based eaters

Within Ann’s Health Food Center & Market on South Zang Boulevard, plants and diner booths are nestled in the back between the aisles of vitamins and organic produce, just beyond the checkout counters.

There sits Iconic Vegan Cafe.

The part-ice cream parlor, part-restaurant has been open since 2022 and recently has been asking for donations from the community to keep the spot running. Owner Otis Ross wears a lot of hats as the chef, manager, trainer, mentor, purchaser, delivery driver and marketer.

Ross launched a GoFundMe in July to help raise $12,876.29 to go toward several state sales tax filings that were unintentionally overlooked.

Though he started Iconic Vegan Cafe this decade, Ross has been scooping ice cream and eating a conscious diet himself for much longer.

“My dietary background is more of a religious beginning as opposed to health food and save the world or any of that. It was just my brother was Rastafari, and they didn’t eat any meat,” he says.

Ross was born in New Jersey and raised primarily in New York. In his youth, he moved around often and later fell on hard times.

“In my younger years, I got into a lot of trouble,” he says. “I was probably selling crack, and eventually, that led to getting caught and then having to do some significant time.”

After his release, he spent some time living with his dad in South Carolina. Then, he worked as a truck driver, which eventually led him to Texas.

He started his brand Earthy Goodness Vegan Ice Cream in Houston after quitting a job in a chemical plant to sell ice cream cakes full time. He was taking calls in the bathroom on the clock enough for the supervisor to request a doctor’s notice.

“And I’m looking at my phone like, ‘Man, today I just sold $330 in ice cream cakes. I mean you’re paying me, but this is paying me,’” he says.

Ross admits to quitting the security of that job a little too early, but making ice cream came so easily. He says he always thought it was in his blood.

Growing up in New Jersey, he remembered making ice cream in the wintertime out of snow, but more recently, he was reminded of his grandmother’s ice cream ties.

“African Americans couldn’t always eat ice cream,” Ross says. “If you were able to have it, somebody had to make it, and everybody would have to see them to go get it. And my grandmother was that lady.”

While his grandmother made ice cream for her entire community, with his brand Earthy Goodness Vegan Ice Cream, Ross made ice cream for Texas. He went across the state selling his product and found himself at Ann’s for an ice cream pop-up. Then, they asked if he would move the ice cream into the shop.

At the time, another cafe was in Ann’s, but sold grass-fed burgers and salmon. This made it difficult for Ross’s vegan ice cream-seeking clientele to come in and stay for the treat because of the kitchen smell.

So he pitched converting the cafe into his own concept. His time at Ann’s started with not only his ice cream, but his first dining concept.

“I cooked food at home, but I didn’t think I was cooking the kind of food that people would come and buy, but it turned out that way,” Ross says. “And I think the part that pushed Iconic a little faster than normal is because we really try very hard to avoid processed foods. Everything we make is vegetables, so mushroom-based or something like that.”

He notes that they don’t focus on Impossible (a processed plant-based substitute for meat) options on purpose. Even the tofu is made from beans rather than from soy. The only exception is a sausage patty used for breakfast.

When it comes to the menu, options include specialty tacos, sandwiches, baskets, wings and a selection of entrees, like the top-selling soul food plate ($24.99) with macaroni, collard greens, candied yams and choice of protein between fish (made from hearts of palm), fried shroom, grilled shroom and jackfruit BBQ. Another entrée option is “Otis’s Special” cajun plate with fried fish, two Cajun shrimp, bell peppers, and red beans and rice for $23.99.

For drinks, they have smoothies available from $9-$12.99 and recently added matcha. Dessert options include the signature banana pudding ($7.99), peach cobbler crunch bite ($7.99), New York-style cheesecake in strawberry, blueberry or pistachio ($6.99), and of course, ice cream, which ranges from $4.99 for a single scoop to $13.50 for a pint or banana spilt.

Ross says he typically has six to 10 flavors of ice cream at a time and Italian ice that starts at $3 with options to add toppings.

Not only does Ross use the restaurant as a means to provide healthier vegan options, but he says he also used the platform to help hire and push young adults.

“The idea is that this is not just a place of employment. It just shows you what entrepreneurism is like,” Ross says. “It’s not easy. Sometimes, it can be downright scary, but it is something that I do and to get them talent that they can take elsewhere. They get this teaching of how to make juice, teaching of how to make ice cream. Teach them how to make things. You can pretty much go to any community, set up your little tent and help yourself pay your way. Those are kind of the little life-changing skills I try to teach.”

Iconic Vegan Cafe, 2634 S. Zang Blvd., Ste. A, 214.440.1263