Brothers Tim and Luke Burrows quit the corporate world in 2016 to start a vegan food truck, Wiseboys.
Starting from a food truck built out of recycled materials, they've gone on to open two burger restaurants in Auckland and developed a range of vegan retail sauces.
Luke and Tim Burrows, founders of vegan business Wise Boys. Photo: supplied
Tim, an engineer, and Luke, a lawyer, say they were on the lookout for tasty vegan meals, having turned away from meat and dairy after watching the documentary Cowspiracy.
“It was sort of the first time I'd ever really considered the effects of industrial agriculture,” Luke tells Kathryn Ryan.
“We were largely just disappointed with what was out there to eat, you know, it was sort of salads and smoothie bowls, this is five or six years ago.
“So we thought, well, why don't we just have a go at making something a bit more kind of indulgent I suppose or a bit more meaty, for want of a better word, and so that's what we did.”
Neither had any experience in hospitality, but they saw burgers as an achievable challenge, Tim says.
“We just put my sort of limited building and engineering skills to the test and built a food truck ourselves and then jumped into it and it kind of took off.”
But having spent all their savings on the truck, made mostly from recycled parts, meant they had to resort to cheap kitchen equipment, he says.
“I'd saved a small amount of money and so I had about $12,000, Luke had about $2000, and we used that, poured that into building our food truck.
“We just had this like real cheap $300 little grill and a $300 deep fryer, and it was just so tiny and couldn't really cope with the proper pace of actual hospitality and busy, busy days.”
With the help of the Good Food Boost programme, a crowdfunding campaign, and a loan from the bank, they were able to refit the truck after six months, he says.
"Still, when we opened our first store in Grey Lynn, a lot of it we actually built ourselves. We just saved up a bunch of money and we borrowed a little bit of money from Dad and then just built it ourselves 'cause we just had no cash.”
Their labour of love has been all about trial and error as they tried to create a vegan patty that people could actually appreciate, he says.
“You have to substitute out eggs and so we were using like linseed to help bind the patties and then obviously we want to make them gluten free so ... often people use breadcrumbs to help burger patties bind, so we were trying out different gluten free flours and things.”
They went from just two burgers and patties - a Mexican bean style one and a Kiwi beetroot one – to now having 10 different varieties.
"They've gone from quite basic like beetroot and black bean burger to ... incorporated different proteins - soy proteins and pea proteins and kind of actual protein isolates now,” Luke says.
“And we sort of combine those with lentils and mushrooms and different things.
“So we kind of have what is actually kind of a first in New Zealand, I think, is this vegan smash patty ... which sort of crisps up really nicely, then you smash it nice and thinly on the grill and you can sort of melt some vegan cheese on that and it has the juice and the bite of a meat burger and it kind of has that oiliness, and that sort of fatty feeling in the mouth.”
Wise Boys' sauce has become so popular they launched their own range. Photo: Wise Boys
The response has been so good, they say, with their products winning awards and popular demand spurring on the launch of a sauce range.
“People [are] saying, yeah, these are sort of the best vegan aioli and mayonnaise out there but also just interesting flavour variations and interesting sauces that are hard to find anywhere,” Luke says.
“So a lot of what we've done has been in response to a demand, I suppose.”
There’s no doubt having a business in Auckland downtown’s Commercial Bay has taken a bit of a toll, Luke says, but their core values keep them going through the hardships.
"Over the past couple of years as well, we've had personal tragedy and we've had health issues and I think we're probably both quite existential at the best of times and so we’ve constantly had to sort of think, why are we doing this and if it was just a business, you know, if it was just a money-making thing, we definitely wouldn't still be doing it.
“But it's more about that purpose and what Tim was alluding to earlier like we actually feel like it's a good business, we're working with amazing people.
“We've got a really diverse staff team, including neurologically diverse, and I think we really feel committed to what we're trying to achieve at a very holistic level, you know, sustainability angle, the vegan angle, but also kind of creating a workplace where people want to be and feel valued.”
