CLEVELAND — Andrew Taylor-Shaut opened his restaurant SomethinGood to Eat three months ago, and although he is a new business owner, he is no stranger to this community. 

“I am from Shaker Heights. Five minutes down the road, literally down this road, and grew up here, left for a few years for undergraduate and then came back here because there's no place like home,” Taylor-Shaut said.

And home is where Taylor-Shaut first learned about plant-based eating.

“In 2021, coming up on my fifth year of making the change to actively wanting to eat vegan,” He said.

Pieces of his childhood and his new-found eating habits are reflected on the restaurant's menu. 

“All the menu items are things that I actually ate growing up, and things that (I) just intuitively wanted to eat. We have burgers, smoothie shakes and sides — traditional sides such as fries, mac and cheese with our homemade cheese and nuggets,” he said.

The burgers are black bean and lentil based, and the menu's “good nuggets” are a chickpea-based substitute for chicken nuggets. The shakes are filled with fruits and vegetables.

‘We also have pineapple, mango butternut squash and turmeric in it. "

SomethinGood to Eat is the vocal point of Taylor-Shaut ’s SomethinGood wellness brand. He is a mindfulness-based, stress-reduction teacher and said the brand will eventually provide holistic and accessible care resources to the community. 

“Mindfulness, meditation or yoga classes, as well as doing sessions on environmental awareness and consumption or financial literacy," he explained.

Taylor-Shaut said opening SomethinGood to eat during the coronavirus pandemic came with its challenges, but it also gave him the time to focus on what could make people feel good in such a stressful time, and he said feeling good starts with what you eat. 

“I just noticed the lack that there was in Cleveland and decided it was enough time waiting for somebody else to do what I knew we needed here, and so, here we are,” Taylor-Shaut said.