Are you tired of combing through menus looking for food your vegan teen or gluten-sensitive child can eat? The Shimmy Shack is serving up the sort of eats you’ll love at its new Plymouth brick-and-mortar family restaurant.
Here, vegan and hypoallergenic food is the only thing on the menu. Owner Debra Levantrosser knows the hurdles families with dietary restrictions face.
“I’ve been vegan for 29 years, and I’m allergic to gluten,” she says. “I would get frustrated when I went out that there was such a limited variety of what I could eat. I want to show people how good this food tastes and have it accessible.”
So she cooked up Shimmy – the company’s retro cartoon mascot – and rolled out Michigan’s first fully vegan and gluten-free food truck.
Six years later, she’s parked it in her first restaurant.
The location features the same retro ’50s design as the truck and quirky secondhand furnishings. “Part of the reason people are vegan is for the environment,” Levantrosser says. “We believe there’s enough reused items to go around, and (decor) brings character, uniqueness and a little bit of sass – and that’s what we’re all about.”
The reimagined menu offers some classic family favorites including three different kinds of “Banana Spliz” – pineapple dream, The Elvis and Strawberry Love Boat – vegan “happy meals” for kids and surprise “Freaky Friday” options every week.
The restaurant also features a kids play area decked out with toys from the 1950s, such as rainbow stacking rings and wooden pull-string cars, plus a sharing library where customers can take a book in exchange for a book donation.
Shimmy Shack is located at 1440 Sheldon Road in Plymouth and is open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Look into booking the Shimmy on a Sunday, too, when it’s closed to the public in order to host parties.
For more information about the Shimmy Shack in Plymouth, visit them online.
