NEW YORK — As New York City residents, pizza is always on the menu for Kobi and Abev Regev. Considering themselves pizza connoisseurs, Regev was not fond of the affects traditional cheese had on his diet. After many formulations and diet changes, he and his wife produced an alternative, clean label, plant-based cheese called Pleese Cheese. Pleese Cheese’s name stems from Regev’s time living in New York.

“Pleese is short for plant cheese but it’s also because people told me they think New Yorkers are rude,” he said. “(And) I thought it was funny to make kids say please when they order pizza, I think it adds a more global appeal.”

Pleese Cheese takes a plant-based spin on the classic cheese and is formulated from fava bean protein, potato and coconut oil. 

“We’re parents, so when you looked at the ingredients we were trying to make it as clean label as possible,” Regev said. “As more ingredients become available, we are constantly improving and seeing where we can reduce ingredients. There are a lot of ways other people cut corners and, for us, it’s very important not to cut those corners.” 

For health reasons, Regev and his wife changed their diets and through the effort formulated their next endeavor. 

“We knew we could live without meat and without milk, but we’re both from New York City and we both couldn’t live without pizza,” Regev said. “It became a hobby of ours to figure out how to make a pizza that was plant-based and not gross. It took us a lot of different iterations.” 

The couple’s original version was nut-based cheese, but Regev knew he would face a dilemma within the market. 

Founders Kobi and Abev Regev started Pleese Cheese to offer cleaner plant-based cheese for pizza to the market. Photo: Pleese Cheese

“In the back of my mind I knew this (the cheese) looked right, it tastes better but what about people with nut allergies?” he said. “We are thinking about people with dairy allergies, but what about people with nut allergies? I left my comfortable sales job and went to work behind the counter at a pizzeria and during that kids were asking me if there was corn in the crust and if there was soy in the oil and that is what made me realize what about nuts in schools? Do they allow nuts in New York schools? So, I called the school district and they said they wouldn’t take a nut-based cheese.” 

Pleese Cheese’s go-to-market strategy is primarily foodservice but Regev hopes to grow into retail. 

“We see the most interest for people to try our product through foodservice,” he said. “One of the lowest barriers to entry we’ve found is at local (New York) pizzerias. Pizza is everyone’s favorite food and just making it accessible, I believe that’s going to be our big victory lap. We want to be strong in one area before we do another distribution tactic, but we know we’re going to have the most fun when we go into retail the first time.” 

Regev said they are aiming to expand into retail in 2024, experimenting locally (New York) first and then pushing more broadly in 2025. Consumers may find the product in pizzerias. 

“We’re looking at the Whole Foods, the Sprouts,” Regev said. “But living in New York City, I can go from one supermarket to the other and get to know the managers. One thing I’ve noticed living in New York City is the companies that aren’t Whole Foods maybe don’t have a lot of options or alternatives, those are the places I would like to stand out.” 

After participating in Rabobank’s FoodBytes! Virtual pitch competition in October 2020, Regev said the competition elevated their business from another mom-and-pop shop to being taken seriously by larger organizations.

“There was one person I met through the experience, and they called us the little startup that could, and hearing that has been very exciting,” he said. “That statement pushes through when things are in a lull and pushes us forward just knowing people with huge budgets admire us and what we’ve been able to accomplish, that’s been the most rewarding part of that opportunity.”

The competition also helped boost the company’s sales. 

“We just finished the pilot program so we had taken our homemade recipe and scaled it up for the first time in order to grow our sales network and we launched in five or six locations and they sold immediately,” Regev said.

The product is aimed at vegan and lactose intolerant consumers; but an additional demographic Regev is targeting is one he calls the “armchair health-conscious consumer.”

“I think where we’re truly going to stand out is the consumers that like to lay in a La-Z-Boy (recliner),” Regev said. “I’m one of those consumers who wants to be very healthy but takes it very casually, and that’s a fairly large category in itself. I think that’s where we stand out as a company. 

“I’m focused on consumers who want to change their diet for one reason or another but still want to have access to delicious comfort foods. A lot of these other companies are focusing on veganism but not the broader picture.” 

Children are another audience the product is geared toward. 

“I have a five-year-old and a three-year-old and I’ve never been more worried about ingredients in my life,” Regev said. 

The company partners with a co-manufacturer to produce its product. 

“We created a proprietary recipe and went through a lot of testing and tested it on the streets of New York and put it in front of kids, because kids are the most honest people in the world,” Regev said. “When we reached a product we liked, we worked with a co-manufacturer to produce it.” 

Regev’s main focus for scaling is growing within the restaurant industry.

“Hopefully with this national distributor (Ace Natural), we can really grow in numbers,” he said. “(And) focus my time and energy growing in this area to becoming the go-to solution and always being there for my customers. Once we have the scale in restaurants, then we will launch full scale into consumer brands.”

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