our story
The BE-Hive was born from a group of friends in a band called Born Empty. While living together, the band quickly stumbled upon "BE" as a very appropriate abbreviation to describe the mindset of all the members... 'Just BE' was the approach to their lives, so it was only fitting to call the house in which they lived, 'The BE-Hive'. Every several months, vegan potlucks were held there, getting bigger and bigger from the start, eventually becoming huge parties with tons of amazing food from all sorts of friends and neighbors. Food and healthy living quickly became a huge passion, specifically for Ben Stix and Eric Esters (B and E), who took the lead on the cooking and organization of these potlucks.
As time went on, the house dissipated but the party just kept growing. They began throwing weekly buffets at the local vegan restaurant the wild cow, always contributing a portion of the proceeds to local groups, charities and non -profits. This is where Ben + eric met nick davis (owner, graze nashville), honing in their cooking skills and seitan recipes. well received Pop ups at the farmers market turned into the desire to start selling their seitan for home cooks and restaurants.
after a few years of making seitan for local customers, chef diana zadlo joined the team after transitioning from full time tour management to helping ben create a broader range of products for the awesome Be-hive community. with the addition of new products and a culinary director, a plant based deli & market seemed like the next obvious step. What better way to feature the be-hive products, how fun and epic vegan eating can be, and to test out their products on a restaurant level. the be-hive deli was born and is now open 7 days a week in the heart of East nashville!
in 2020, be-hive production transitioned from their small 1200 sqft kitchen to a new 7200 sqst facility in the heart of donelson. in dec 2021, Ben Stix purchased the building housing the production facility and now fully owns all manufacturing. growing organically from the beginning, the be-hive continues to make plant based eating approachable and will keep doing so!
