The Team

Ryan Becklund

Ryan started in food service part-time, while getting her Master’s Degree. She quickly grew attached to the challenging, fast paced restaurant world and it grew into a career. She has lived in Virginia for the majority of her life and has a love for the natural beauty that can be found here. Her passion for plant-based food and encouraging an environmentally conscious lifestyle drive all aspects of her life. She has trained in a variety of plant-based nutrition and culinary programs that have led to a thoughtfully designed menu with bold flavor and creative food. Her mission: to demonstrate the satisfaction of a vegetable centric plate.

If she wasn’t in the food service industry, Ryan would likely be working with animals.

Favorite Animal: Turtles

Theme Song: All I Really Want by Alanis Morissette

Martin O’Donnell

Martin is the founder & caretaker of “Fartin’s Garden” which is Martin’s garden that supplements our storefronts with locally grown produce. Martin has a passion for fashion, enjoys telling people how funny he is while assuring Ryan (see above) that she is not cool, & being a Roy Kent impersonator. He worked a job prior to this that he didn’t like very much, and he is very thankful that it is over. Martin also loves attention and compliments, so when you see him, be sure to hit on him! He hasn’t filled out this description of himself yet, so we did it for him & hope that it accurately reflects him.

If he wasn’t in the food service industry, Martin would likely be unhappy full time instead.

Favorite Animal: His dead dog

Theme Song: Lovely Day by Bill Withers

Lance Zimmerly

After nearly a decade of working many roles in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, & DC restaurants, Lance felt it was time for a new adventure. In 2020, he began the second stint of his plant-based coffee training in hopes of assisting Ryan in transforming the Charlottesville vegan food scene with Botanical. With a firm belief that we are never done learning & improving, Lance continues to educate himself on plant-based coffee trends & standards. He hopes to bring a fun, modernized, plant-based take on coffee to Charlottesville.

If he wasn’t in the food service industry, Lance would probably own a flower shop.

Favorite Animal: A really, very fat seal

Theme Song: Kesha’s entire first album

John Driscoll

John recently graduated with a degree in Economics from East Carolina University. He has worked in the food service industry for the past 12 years in a wide range of roles. He bartended for 6 of those years, loves to cook, and makes up recipes for cocktails when ever he can. He moved to Charlottesville to bring those passions to Botanical and he is very excited to be here.

If he wasn’t in the food service industry, John would definitely be in the NBA.

Favorite Animal: Penguins

Theme Song: The Pokemon Theme Song

Jeff Gregerson

Jeff has worked in libraries, parks, and elections and is passionate about vegan cooking and music. He loves to travel and explore vegan options in new places. He is thrilled with the development of the food scene in Charlottesville over the past few years.

If he wasn’t in the food service industry, he would probably be building a solar powered tiny house.

Favorite animal: Foxes

Theme song: My Dog by Blinker the Star

Rebecca Cain

Becca has worked in the food industry since 2007 and bartending since 2012. She recently entered into real estate field and performs closings and works as a closer during the day. Her entire family follows a whole food plant based diet and she is super excited to learn from botanical.

If she wasn’t in the food industry, Becca would learn how to surf and live on an island somewhere!

Favorite Animal: Poodle

Theme Song: Man, I feel like a Woman! by Shania Twain

Bex & Hailey Avallone

NOT TWINS, just two weirdly close sisters that have decided they are inseparable. Although Hailey was born first, Bex had her botanical birth just slightly before her sister in the middle of 2023. They both aspire to open a coffee shop & book store together later in their lives, and came to this decision in a dream they both shared while awake.

Favorite animal: a chimera mix of a tattoo’d human with a low IQ, a butterfly, a dog, and a blob fish. (The sisters couldn’t agree, so they created an animal of their own).

Theme song: the loud sound of deafening silence & the smell of buttered toast without butter.

And if the sisters weren’t working at Botanical, they would still be in their parents basement, that they were forced to build themselves in 2022.

Brian Werner

Brian is a gentle being who loves dogs, rocks, hiking, running, tennis, skating, climbing, skiing, and paddle boarding.  He’s been vegan/freegan for over 10 years and has wandered about the service industry in hotels, universities, and resorts before landing his favorite job of all at Botanical. 

Theme song: Pizza Day by the Aquabats 

Favorite Animals: Brindle & Mabel 

If Brian wasn’t working at Botanical he’d be on the Muppet Show.

Kat Werner

Kat’s roots are in Pennsylvania, but she moved to Virginia years ago and has found her home here. Kat is a licensed wildlife rehabber and has worked at Rockfish Wildlife along with taking in countless wildlife and nursing them back to health. She has also worked at Wild Rock and spent several years in the service industry here in Charlottesville. Kat has a passion for animals, the outdoors, criminal justice reform, and women/lgbtq+ rights. She’s working on getting her Master’s in social work, but has found her right fit here at Botanical.

Theme song: Girl Talk by TLC 

Favorite Animals: Opossum  

If Kat wasn’t working at Botanical she would be running an animal sanctuary.