WEST NORRITON >> Gangster vegan?

Like jumbo shrimp, the two words are contradictory and seemingly incompatible.

After all, vegans are peace-loving, sandal-wearing hippie types, and gangsters are hoodlums who are prone to violence, so the two breeds have no business ever hooking up in any sensible world.

Welcome to Vince DePauls world.

The Norristown native admitted he set out to bedevil the traditional vegan stereotype by naming his specialty raw food market in Jeffersonville Gangster Vegan Organics. But playing around with incongruities is only a small part of DePauls story.

When I was living in California I was going to vegan restaurants, where the conceptualization of a vegan is a soft, feminine, barefoot, tree-hugging hippie. And here I was all tattooed up, listening to rap music and going to these restaurants and they said, Oh, you dont look vegan. What does a vegan look like? Gangster and vegan are two strong words. When you say vegan to a gangster hes like, Get out of here. And when you say gangster to a vegan, they will tell you that gangsters are bad. So its a tricky play on words and it has people questioning what it is. My role is to make it fun and hip.

Whether a customer pops into his shop for one of the famous wellness shots made of such health-enhancing ingredients as ginger, cayenne and apple cider vinegar, an alkalizing juice of cucumber, kale and cilantro or a broccoli burger to go, the amiable DePaul is more than willing to share the story of his own incredible transformation through a vegan lifestyle.

DePaul remembers his success as a wholesaling T-shirt entrepreneur living on the West Coast for a dozen years as ultimately creating his downfall.

I was hanging out with rappers, drug dealers and entertainers, partying all the time, and then my business went bankrupt and I hit rock bottom, he said. I was morally, emotionally and physically bankrupt. Then God came into my life and at that moment I stopped smoking cigarettes, eating [junk food] and was introduced to my first glass of fresh juice at 29 years old. Up to that point I thought of juice as Tropicana and Minute Maid thats what I would drink every day.

Juicing was only the beginning of his metamorphosis, DePaul recalled. Continued...

Originally posted here:
Gangster Vegan Organics in Jeffersonville aims to change lives with raw, organic food