If you give a mouse a cookie, society has been groomed to assume the rodent will consequently demand a glass of milk. But what if said cookie giver doesn’t carry dairy products?
While probably best known for its vegan burger, burrito, and taco offerings, Dreamers Vegan Takeout in Lompoc offers a rotating menu of delicious desserts as well, including cookies—whether they’re intentionally or unintentionally vegan, co-owner Lauren Velazquez explained.
“We’ve done deep-fried Oreos, because Oreos are accidentally vegan,” Lauren said. “And I’ve taken my family’s secret recipe for homemade chocolate chip cookies—which we’re locally famous for. But I re-created that recipe and substituted things to make it vegan.”
Founded in January, Dreamers Vegan Takeout began with Lauren’s husband, David, who dreamt about bringing quality vegan comfort food to Lompoc, even while working full time at an unrelated job. As big fans of both Ziggy’s in San Luis Obispo and Rascal’s Pop-Up in Santa Barbara, David and Lauren often wondered why it was so hard to find vegan vendors closer to home.
“Literally between Santa Barbara and SLO, they’re aren’t any options,” David said. “I mean, maybe you can get like a black bean burger somewhere, or potato tacos and put some lettuce on it and ‘you’re good to go,’ but no ‘real’ vegan options.”
During the week, you will probably find the couple at their respective day jobs (David is a sales rep for Verizon, and Lauren is a graphic designer for Allan Hancock College). While their weekends are now usually reserved for hosting Dreamers events, David and Lauren used to spend their free days traveling either up north or down south to attend the vegan pop-ups that inspired them to start a similar business of their own.
“So many of the best vegan options are either in LA or way up north, there’s nothing in between really. Especially in Lompoc, there’s just no vegan options, period,” Lauren said. “We’re the closest thing to a vegan restaurant, even though we’re just a pop-up.”
Throughout 2020, David and Lauren discussed the possibility of starting their own pop-up business. At the end of December, David decided the potential venture would be his New Year’s resolution for 2021.
“It was New Year’s Eve, and I remember thinking, ‘It’s now or never, I’m done with just thinking about it, let’s just do it, let’s launch it,’” said David, a DACA recipient who chose to name the company Dreamers as a loving tribute to “all of those who have come to the U.S. to make a life for themselves and their loved ones.”
David woke up early the following morning, New Year’s Day, with his resolution in mind.
“I woke up at 8 a.m. and started the Instagram page, and followed a bunch of friends—from there it just exploded.”
“We had 100 followers within a day, 1,000 within a week, and it’s just been growing steadily ever since,” Lauren said.
David and Lauren brought their longtime friend—who David has known since third grade—and fellow vegan foodie, Andrew Smith, into the business. It was during high school, in fact, that David and Smith became vegetarian at the same time, after finding peta.org and becoming passionate about animal rights. They later went on to become vegan together.
During the trio’s pop-up events, which they’ve hosted at venues in Lompoc, Santa Maria, and Arroyo Grande so far, Lauren handles customer service while David and Smith—each equipped with their own grill—divvy up the orders.
The first venue to host the Dreamers pop-up team (or “the Dream Team,” as Lauren calls them), was the Royal Healing Emporium in Lompoc, back in February.
“We showed up expecting that it might be kind of slow, thinking people didn’t really know who we are yet,” David said. “Literally an hour in, we were completely sold out. It was insane, it was really exciting to see.”
The Dream Team is heading back to the Emporium on Sunday, July 4, for its next pop-up event (scheduled from noon to 4 p.m.).
Over the past seven months, one of the group’s favorite parts of running the business so far has been simply introducing people to vegan comfort food, especially those who assumed the term only applied to salads, smoothies, etc., Lauren explained.
“It’s so much more than that. Vegan comfort food is such a growing industry right now, especially with the boom of Impossible meat and Beyond Burgers,” Lauren said. “It’s picking up traction in the United States right now, which is really cool to see.”
“We wanted to bring that [option] to our little sleepy small town where people don’t really try new things,” Lauren continued. “It’s been really cool to see a lot of new faces at every pop-up, and we’ve already got regulars that we know by name.”
Mr. Sandman, send Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood a dream at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 1-8, 2021.