“Eat real food, not too much & mostly plants.”
– Michael Pollan
Lexi’s Healthy Eatery is a mostly vegan, whole-food restaurant.
At Lexi’s we are striving for the most sustainable, conscious, moral and nutritious way of living. We believe eating a vegan diet, limiting use of plastic, sourcing locally and ethically is one way to chart the course to a better world. At Lexi’s we encourage eating mostly plants, very little processed food and excluding animal products to the best of your ability.
We’ve added a free-range meat and fish option to our menu to accommodate those flexitarians out there – not everyone’s journey is the same. We’re not perfect, but we believe we’re successfully taking and encouraging others to take the steps towards a healthier, sustainable, cruelty-free life.
So, whether you are vegan, vegetarian, banting, paleo or just trying to make small healthier, more moral and eco-friendly choices everyday, remember that in the end there are no rules. Eat to make yourself feel good and in a way that makes you proud of what you are putting in your body.
Image by Linda Engelbrecht at Lexi’s Rosebank
Charmaine Moyo, waitress at Lexi’s Healthy Eatery
We’ve drawn some hard lines in the sand around what we stand for. However, sustainability is a journey – one we are constantly learning and growing through. While we may be imperfect, we are proud of where we stand at the moment.
We avoid plastic at all costs. We use only bio-degradable packaging, stock only tin, cardboard & glass drinks in the bar and source from suppliers that too avoid unnecessary plastic.
Our cleaning supplies are all earth-friendly and chemical free.
We exhaust the food waste in the kitchen by using off-cuts in stocks, sauces or other recipes.
We use small, local suppliers where possible and choose to always support small local businesses over mass-corporates.
The idea behind Lexi’s Healthy Eatery is really simple. How could we make a plant-based, more sustainable lifestyle a little bit more accessible and convenient for our community?
It’s no secret that the planet is in a state of emergency. Sea levels are rising, temperatures changing, over population, deforestation – the list is endless. It’s also no secret that, despite the world population being at an all-time high, there are more deaths from dread disease than ever before. Cancer. Aids. Diabetes. Heart Disease. Yet, prioritising climate change, an ethical lifestyle or even our own health is not easy. That’s where we wanted to try get a small butterfly effect going.
Let’s look at some facts: The animal agriculture industry (meat, dairy and eggs) contributes 15% of the global greenhouse gases. 70% of the agricultural land is currently being used for animal farming. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, biodiversity loss and water pollution. Food packaging contributes to 60% of household waste. It takes 15415 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef. That’s 3000 toilet flushes to put meat on the table for a family dinner of 4 people.
With that in mind – our mostly vegan menu means for every 100 people in the restaurant eating a beetroot falafel wrap instead of a steak, we’re saving almost 400 000 litres of water. How crazy is that? We average 500 people A DAY. So we’re saving an Olympic sized swimming pool’s worth. Every single day.
Born and raised in Johannesburg, Lexi Monzeglio is the sassy little chef and co-owner of Lexi’s Healthy Eatery.
Lexi started her career in advertising after studying graphic design at UJ. After 5 years of a nine-to-five she finally had the grit to quit her day-job in pursuit of her side hustle of food.
“Lexi’s was not my childhood dream. I couldn’t even cook when I left home. I spent the first few years living independently off Nandos and my mom’s spaghetti Bolognese recipe.” Only much, much later did Lexi realise that she really enjoyed cooking, and started exploring what healthy eating means to her. She started a little food blog on the side of her aforementioned 9-to-5 and eventually people started asking her to do food styling, recipe development and food photography for them part time. That was her grand exit from corporate and entrance to the food industry.
The actual cooking started more when clients asked her to cater the shoots because it was just easier for them. “At the time I was vegan so I only catered vegan which most people weren’t too bothered by! One of my favourite responses was ‘If I could eat this every day I could be vegan’ I’d swear I’d hear it so often!” It made her realise that maybe it was time to try create a space where that was possible. And that’s how the seed was planted. In the humble beginnings of the Joburg market scene – Lexi started trialing the food. She tested the product out at pop up restaurants, a food stall she ran with a friend and a couple big catering jobs she managed to land. The response was always the same – overwhelmingly positive.
In 2018, Lexi met her business partner through a friend of a friend and they just seemed to share the same vision. Moreover – Ezio Nichele is the perfect yin to Lexi’s yang. With a shared goal, a perfectly balanced partnership and a province that was hungry for something fresh – it all happened quite quickly. We found the space, created a menu, opened up and a hurricane later and we’re now on 4 Gauteng locations plus one in Cape Town. Grateful for the journey and excited to see what unfolds next.
Lexi & Precious in the Rosebank kitchen
December, 2024
Wednesday
August 26,2019
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