Stephen Montoya
Belen Hernandez and Eduardo Garcia.
What started out as dietary choice made by 10-year-old Eduardo Garcia several years ago has blossomed into one of Fort Worth’s most interesting culinary success stories.
Belen Hernandez has partnered with her son Eduardo to run Vida Café, an Italian companion to Hernandez’s popular vegan Mexican food spot Belenty’s Love.
This new spot is just two doors down from Belenty’s at 3522 Blue Bonnet Circle, most recently sandwich café and take-out shop Lettuce Cook and before then Greenwood’s, and, for years before that, the Hong Kong Restaurant. It is set to open Aug. 18.
“We chose the name Vida because its means life,” Garcia says. “When people come in to eat here, I want to them to feel like they are alive, like they can just enjoy themselves and relax.”
The ambiance that surrounds this 3,000-square-foot restaurant is filled with vibrant colors and murals. The southwest wall is lined with three unique sections that look like a series of gazebos adorned with pillows and flowers. There are also two sitting areas set up with overstuffed couches on each end of the restaurant where patrons can pause and enjoy a hot or cold drink.
Vida Café’s current menu consists of a handful of tried-and-true vegan recipes that include a vegan take on a classic Monte Cristo — Garcia’s favorite — to a simple bowl of homemade marinara sauce served with spaghetti and vegan meatballs.
Though the menu has taken on an Italian bent at the outset, that doesn’t mean it won’t change or be modified.
“We are so creative. We will be updating the menu all the time,” Hernandez says. “We don’t want to say we are this, or we are that. We opened this spot so we can be free to try new menu items.”
The vegan part of the equation is set in stone.
It was Garcia who set in motion Hernandez’s evolution. Garcia at that very young age was a vegan convert on the very spot after watching a documentary on how chicken nuggets were made.
That decision had a ripple effect.
Hernandez at the time was running the first Belenty’s Love restaurant in Granbury and, she says, having just moderate to, at times, no success. She was serving authentic Mexican food using traditional recipes.
After making the decision to follow her son’s example and become vegan, Hernandez says she decided to take a risk and change her model to vegan-only Mexican cuisine. The concept caught on through word-of-mouth and social media.
By 2020, Belenty’s Love became so popular that Hernandez and her husband and co-owner Marcus Hicks were inspired to open a second location, in Fort Worth on Blue Bonnet Circle.
“When we made this lifestyle change it was hard at first,” Hernandez says. “We did a lot of research and tried a lot of recipes. What we found success with are the recipes that I thought tasted good. Apparently, our customers agree because they keep coming back.”
Hernandez says she estimates that 90% of her clientele aren’t practicing vegans. They simply like the food.
“People gravitate toward good food regardless of stigma,” Hernandez says. “We had a bit of a learning curve when we first opened, but I feel like we are hitting our stride now.”