“This past year has been a big deal for vegetable burgers,” Mr. Bryant said. He noted that the Superiority Burger, a vegetarian burger sold at the New York City restaurant that shares the same name, was nominated as a semifinalist for a James Beard Award.

Image The Beyond Burger emits the aroma of cooked beef and even “bleeds” — thanks to pulverized beets. Credit... Ángel Franco/The New York Times

Indeed, chefs like Dan Barber have been experimenting with veggie burgers. And a plant-based burger from Impossible Foods, a competitor to Beyond Meat, will soon be on the menu at “select” restaurants in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to the company’s marketing.

Beyond Meat wants its burgers to go home via the grocery basket. At Whole Foods, where Mr. Brown will be, on and off, for the next couple of weeks, a package of two four-ounce Beyond Burgers will sell for $5.99.

“I want as many people as possible to have access to our products,” Mr. Brown said. “My goals go way beyond food.”

Like many of the entrepreneurs developing new ways of extracting protein from plants, Mr. Brown said he was concerned about both nutrition and the environmental impact of large-scale animal farming and how the food industry will adequately feed the world’s growing population.

Beyond Meat previously sold the Beast Burger as frozen burger patties among vegetarian burgers, such as those from MorningStar Farms and Amy’s. The goal, however, was to develop a “fresh” burger that would sell in a refrigerated case alongside beef and other meat burgers.

The company had to solve a variety of issues. For one thing, it had to ensure that the middle of its burger would stay moist, pink and juicy as the exterior cooked to that distinct dark brown of a traditional hamburger. It had to “bleed” — thousands of beets were pulverized in the development process — and it had to emit the same smell as cooked beef.