When Certified Pies co-owners Samantha and Kreg Stewart started getting requests from customers to make their pizzas with plant-based toppings instead of meat, they took note. “People were tagging their friends online. The vegan community stays pretty connected,” Samantha Stewart recalled.

At first, the popular Little Rock-based, Black-owned pizza company offered a few accidentally vegan options: pizzas that could be stripped down or customized. The next step for Certified Pies, which got its start in the Arkitchen ghost kitchen in the early days of the pandemic and opened a brick-and-mortar location in 2023, was to introduce the “vegan bae” pizza, made using protein from big-name store brands. But word got back that the commercial toppings weren’t winning any hearts. “They’re tolerable, but not flavorful,” Samantha Stewart said. That’s when Certified Pies decided to overhaul their vegan menu this past summer, and they knew just who to go to for help. 

Enter Utopia Deli, the cult favorite, plant-based vegan Southern comfort food company. Also a Black-owned husband-and-wife operation based in Little Rock, Utopia Deli is run by Tremell Billings and Trisha Snyder and was launched in 2019. Like Certified Pies, their cooking first took off during the pandemic, thanks to memorable dishes like plant-based fried ribs, chowder bowls and boudin balls sold direct-to-consumer. (In 2022, Utopia Deli made the leap to a food truck that mostly resides in the South Chester food truck court, and their menu has expanded to include Korean vegan “pork” tacos and weekly specials, like the Nashville Hot Chick’n served on creamy dairy-free mac ’n’ cheese).

As soon as Certified Pies pitched the idea of a collaboration to Utopia Deli, the decision was obvious: “It was a match made in heaven,” Billings said. “They wanted something local and handmade by people who have the same type of recognizability that they do.” 

‘We saw each other from across the room’

Arkansas may be the heart of meat country, but more people are eating plant-based foods, even if just on occasion. In addition to the sizable contingent of vegan consumers motivated by environmental concerns and animal rights, dairy allergies, religious restrictions and a rise in alpha-gal syndrome are driving more sales to protein alternatives and dairy-free options. 

Snyder believes that celebrities like Beyoncé dabbling in veganism is boosting acceptance, as are skyrocketing grocery costs, with families subbing in tofu and vegetables for pricier beef on occasion. “More people are looking for wallet-friendly options,” she said. 

The Black community is the backbone of the vegan food movement in Arkansas and across the country, as a higher percentage of Black Americans are vegan or vegetarian than the general population, according to a Pew Research Center survey. Little Rock alone is home to multiple Black-owned vegan food businesses, like the House of Mental Eatery (H.O.M.E.), a vegan soul food restaurant, and MeMe’s Twisted Potato, which boasts a farm-to-table menu of vegan fast food. “We’re making a huge impact,” Snyder said of the community. 

Samantha Stewart (left) and Trisha Snyder Credit: Brian Chilson

For Samantha Stewart, supporting the collaboration was simple: Provide good food to everyone. “Our goal was just to try to make these offerings available to the community as a whole,” she said. “I think that’s good for everybody.”

Alongside growing acceptance of vegan dining has come an overhaul to the subpar flavors and textures of an earlier era, as young food entrepreneurs like Billings and Snyder innovate with fresh-made creations.

The Certified Pies and Utopia Deli owners seized on this dietary shift — and tapped into a long-standing connection to pull it off. The two couples first met in a shared commercial kitchen back in 2021, where they bonded over being husband-wife teams and a shared love of decadent Southern cooking. “We saw each other from across the room,” Billings said with a laugh. “Then it budded into a full-on friendship with family time, baseball games, all that.” 

Both sides were nervous about getting the collaboration right. There were vocal corners of the plant-based community to appease — those with food allergies, strict ethics and various health restrictions. Both couples have buzzy brand reputations to uphold. Above all, they wanted the food to be great.

Kreg Stewart (left) and Tremell Billings spent hours tasting everything — plant-based ground beef, Italian sausage, chicken, steak and bacon — and testing options that would stay flavorful in Certified Pies’ 600-degree ovens. Credit: Brian Chilson

“My fear was I didn’t want to mess up their product,” Kreg Stewart said of respecting Utopia Deli’s creations. He and Billings spent hours tasting everything — plant-based ground beef, Italian sausage, chicken, steak and bacon — and testing options that would stay flavorful in Certified Pies’ 600-degree ovens.

Billings had plenty of options to choose from. He makes all of Utopia Deli’s proteins from scratch: The chicken is soy-based, the bacon blends soy and pea protein, and the steak is crafted from a Southeast Asian mushroom whose exact identity remains a “trade secret,” Billings said. “We transform it, texturize it, whatever it takes.” It’s a bonus that these toppings don’t have the “fillers and chemicals” of the store-bought options, Snyder added. 

After tinkering, the couples landed on two winners to start with: the Utopia Philly Chez Stek pie, topped with a smoky shredded mushroom-based “stek” and finely diced bell pepper, onions and Daiya Foods vegan cheese, and the Veg’n Chik’n Bacon Ranch pie, which is served on a base of herbaceous dairy-free ranch (another secret recipe made “with a lot of love”) and finished with a swirl of sauce on top. (Yes, you can order an extra side of vegan ranch for crust-dipping.) 

The Veg’n Chik’n Bacon Ranch pie is served on a base of herbaceous dairy-free ranch and finished with a swirl of sauce on top. Credit: Brian Chilson

Certified Pies also takes extra care to cook vegan items separately, changing out gloves and tools for plant-based orders. “We don’t want cross-contamination to happen,” Samantha Stewart said. Snyder added that the Utopia Deli name being attached to the collaboration means something crucial to Little Rock vegan diners: trust. Any vegan will tell you it’s a common experience to be served a “vegetarian” dish with meat in it, and at Certified Pies customers “know they don’t have to ask two or three times, ‘Are you sure this is vegan?’” Snyder said.

‘Everybody who comes through loves it’

Plenty of Central Arkansas’s pizza restaurants offer plant-based cheese and toppings, but none go as far as Certified Pies’ new menu, which rivals its standard, dairy-and-meat options in flavor and creativity. The Utopia Deli vegan proteins can also be heaped onto loaded fries and stuffed into calzones. “Even our salads can be vegan now, because you could get a chef salad with vegan chicken,” Kreg Stewart said. 

The collaboration launched at Certified Pies in July, and word spread through Arkansas’s plant-based circles on social media. For years, a “vegan pizza” at most restaurants was a sad thing to behold; think crust sprinkled with vegetables and red sauce with no cheese. The vegan frozen pizza options also leave something to be desired. Many Arkansans want meatless options, and they don’t want to eat pizzas that “taste like cardboard,” Samantha Stewart said. “They just want good food, too.” That’s a lot easier now.

The Utopia Philly Chez Stek pie is topped with a smoky shredded mushroom-based “stek” and finely diced bell pepper, onions and Daiya Foods vegan cheese. Credit: Brian Chilson

Billings and Snyder, longtime vegans who work hard to make sure the local community provides options for all kinds of eaters, said that consumers seeking out their food “just want to be included.”

Sales started slowly, but by September, Certified Pies sold a record 86 vegan pizzas in a single month and doubled the amount of protein Utopia Deli was originally making for them. Even diehard meat-eaters are giving it a try, Samantha Stewart said. “We had a customer, literally, they ordered wings and wanted to try the vegan Chik’n Bac’n Ranch, just because of the collaboration.” 

Snyder and Billings said they keep tabs on the collaboration mostly through social media, where they see the pizzas posted to their timeline. Their own customers also report back to the food truck with praise. “People are constantly coming to my food truck and telling me that they had it, that it was good,” Snyder said. Billings is busy batching up more protein than ever before, he said, but he’s found his rhythm, and he’s thrilled to expand the audience for what they’re doing. “It’s been pretty awesome.”

“It’s got its own little fire behind it now,” Kreg Stewart said. “Everybody who comes through loves it.”