As a woman-owned business, we love spotlighting fellow female-powered companies, especially during Women’s History Month. And one of our personal favorites this year is Hey, Sunshine Kitchen. The Los Angeles vegan restaurant, owned by the radiant sister duo, Heather Golden Ray and Jenny Engel, serves up fresh, vibrant bowls, salads, tacos, and more. And we’re not the only ones who favor this spot—Hey, Sunshine Kitchen was recently named number one on Yelp’s 25 “Hot and New Woman-Owned Restaurants to Visit in 2024.” Read on to learn about the sisters’ journey to restaurant stardom.
VegOut (VO): What inspired you to open Hey, Sunshine Kitchen?
Heather Golden Ray & Jenny Engel (H&J): In some ways, we feel that Hey, Sunshine Kitchen is part of our life mission. Through this concept, we want to make a positive impact for animals and our planet, in a fun and uplifting way. We came up with the idea for Hey, Sunshine Kitchen as a way to promote healthier eating within our community so we can make a positive impact on the world. We wanted to create a space where everyone—no matter their dietary preference, could enjoy flavorsome, innovative, and hearty plant-based meals. Through Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, we hope to showcase how delicious and satisfying plant-based food can be.
We believe everyone on this planet has unique gifts no one else has. It is up to each one of us to find these gifts, cultivate them, and give them to the world. Hey, Sunshine Kitchen is exactly that. Jenny’s culinary talents and Heather’s ability to market our passion and love, have culminated to this moment in time.
We were raised by an art teacher mom who grew up in LA by two hard working parents and by a dad who grew up in Brooklyn, a TRUE self-starter. They taught us to always be in charge of our own destiny. Dad didn’t ever want us going up to someone and asking for a raise. He wanted us to do this life thing on our terms, no matter how difficult.
Courtesy of Hey, Sunshine Kitchen
VO: What is it like to run a business alongside your sister?
H&J: For many years, as sisters, we lived together (Echo Park, Silver Lake, Los Feliz) AND worked together at an environmental non-profit organization called TreePeople. We built a life around spending time together. We always knew we wanted to work for ourselves and own a sister business. We can’t imagine trusting someone more than each other. It’s the ultimate dream to work next to one another. We wish there were more sisters so we could put them to work too!
VO: Have you experienced different treatment as female business owners?
H&J: Oh, we love this question! So far we’ve been very lucky and when people find out we are sister entrepreneurs they are very happy to support. Perhaps it’s Culver City, perhaps it’s that a plant-forward community is loving and kind. We’ve been very fortunate to feel lots of support. The biggest push-pull feelings we’ve had as female business owners comes from our role as moms of young kiddos. As any mom that runs their own business knows, it’s very tricky to have that life-work balance. So teaching our children that it’s important for mommy to follow her dream too, and also be a great mom, is a constant lesson.
Photo by VegOut Team
VO: What other women-owned restaurants would you like to shout out for Women’s History Month?
H&J: The vegan food space is full of strong, capable, caring and inspirational women who own many restaurants that we frequent. We LOVE Chef Tanya from Chef Tanya’s Kitchen—she’s such a wonderful human and awesome vegan innovator. We adore and go to Satdha Thai owned by Chef Gunn Pankum as often as humanly possible. You will also find us regularly at Pura Vita owned by Chef Tara Punzone—especially at the Redondo Beach location. In Little Ethiopia, you’ll find Rahel Ethiopian, owned and operated by the one and only beautiful Rahel herself. For vegan cakes for all occasions (and sometimes we just make one up so we can get cake), we hit Cara Mia Baking Co. owned by a local mommy named Stephanie. We cheer on Chef Babette Davis no matter what she’s doing and cooking up at Stuff I Eat in Inglewood. We also love Jewel in Silver Lake!
Through connecting with all of these lovely humans, we feel the strength to keep pushing further and making our own impact through our business.
VO: Anything else you’d like to share?
H&J: We want to shed some light on a program we created called our Pollinator Project. On Pollinator Mondays, come by any Monday and with the purchase of a meal, you will take home a pollinator-friendly plant. Bees, moths, and butterfly populations are in decline and as a community we can help them thrive! We started this program the week we opened in August 2023 and so far we’ve given out over 450 one-gallon plants so far thanks to a changing quarterly corporate sponsor. These plants will provide hosts to our pollinators and also nectar. From native sages and milkweed to lilies, St. Catherine’s Lace, and Seacliff buckwheat, we are putting plants in your garden because our pollinators are part of our community and need attention too! One in every three bites of food we eat is thanks to a pollinator, so they’re deeply connected to our food supply. As a restaurant we are all non-GMO and have many organic offerings, to help take a stance for our pollinator friends.
For more information, visit HeySunshineKitchen.com and follow @heysunshinekitchen on Instagram.
