Oh Manchester – so much to answer for

Temple of Seitan in the North

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I’ve been helping legendary London restaurant Temple of Seitan for a little while now and the most common comments I see from customers when I’m hanging around their social media have to do with the North of the UK.

People really want to see a Temple of Seitan location up North.

I’m sorry if I got you excited and made you think there is now a full location of the famous food chain in the North, however you can buy and eat Temple of Seitan in Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool as part of their collaboration with Yard & Coop.

Yard & Coop is not a vegan restaurant chain, so please use caution if you go sniffing around their website. You could stumble across animal-derived foods.

The vegan offerings however ARE gorgeous-looking and they all use Temple of Seitan chick’n.

Visitors to Yard & Coop can choose between:

AbraKEBABra – seitan with sweet pickled cabbage, diced tomato, minted yoghurt, chilli sauce, pickle chilli and crisp fries wrapped in pitta. All Veganuary dishes are served with a portion of fries

Karen’s Doing Veganuary – Temple of Seitan tenders accompanied with crispy bacon, street slaw, lettuce, tomato, BBQ sauce and vegan mayo

Massive Vegan Cock Burger – a 12″ plant-based version of the original Yard & Coop Massive Cock dish. Standing at 30cm tall, piled high with Temple of Seitan tenders, 2 hash browns, salt and pepper cauliflower, and street slaw. There’s also vegan bacon, cheese slices, lashings of chilli and mint yoghurt, iceberg lettuce, fresh tomato, gherkins, and red onion topped with a seitan wing perched on top. This monster is all crammed within a vegan brioche bun with loads of fries.

These Veganuary specials will not be around forever (until February 6, 2022) so if you are interested, get along to Yard & Coop in Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool ASAP.

You can get all store location info as well as links for ordering delivery on the Yard & Coop website.

You can follow Temple of Seitan on Instagram.

Now, let’s keep hoping for that permanent Temple of Seitan location in the North!

Vegan pizza restaurant launches in Manchester

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UK’s first plant-based pizza restaurant Purezza set to open in Manchester’s Northern Quarter!

Purezza, the UK’s first vegan pizzeria, is launching its Manchester branch in May 2021. Following a year of growth, having also launched branches in Bristol, Brixton, and Hove, Purezza’s 6th branch will open in Manchester’s Northern Quarter at 75-77 High Street, M4 1FS (this was previously the site of Dough Pizza Kitchen).

Manchester’s pizza lovers will find plenty to get excited about at Purezza. The pizzas are renowned globally, having won National Pizza of the Year in 2018 and received awards at the World Pizza Championships in 2019.
Purezza is also a 100% plant-based and vegan restaurant, for which it holds further accolades including Vegan Restaurant of the Year 2020.

Purezza’s range of creative Neapolitan-style pizzas feature its own signature plant-based mozzarella, a unique whole grain sourdough, and carefully selected organic ingredients. The menu consists of classics such as the Margherita, to unique pizzas like the award-winning Parmigiana Party which uses aubergine parmigiana and vegan sausages as toppings.

The restaurant also serves a full gluten-free menu, including pizzas which are indistinguishable from regular sourdough. There is a wide range of creative cocktails and organic beers and wines. Food will also be available via local delivery services.

Sustainability is at the forefront of Purezza’s values, and this comes across in more than just the food. The restaurant is fitted out with reclaimed and upcycled furniture, and decoration has been completed with eco-friendly and organic paints.

Tim Barclay, co-founder and co-owner of Purezza has said, “Manchester has been on our agenda for years now. We’ve had more requests to open in Manchester than any other city in the UK, and it’s truly a pleasure to honour those requests and to finally make it happen. We’re really excited about this, and we can’t wait to welcome you through our doors.”

Purezza’s Manchester branch will be opening in May 2021. Address: 75-77 High Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester M4 1FS.

Purezza has been operating in Brighton since November 2015, and opened a London branch in March 2018. It subsequently tripled the size of its Camden restaurant in February 2020. Purezza went on to launch branches in Bristol and Hove in Q3 2020.

The restaurant has become a household name among vegan and vegetarian foodies, with diners travelling from all over the world to eat there. The restaurant has won multiple awards, including National Pizza of the Year 2018.

Purezza specialises in plant-based alternatives to classic Neapolitan pizzas. Purezza is renowned for developing its own range of vegan cheese exclusively for its restaurants. Purezza has also launched a factory in Brighton & Hove to provide its cheeses and pizzas to retail later this year.

Purezza also launched its first recipe book in January 2020.

Find out more information about Purezza on their website and follow them on Instagram.

What The Pitta weeks away from Manchester launch

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What The Pitta, recently voted the UK’s number one kebab at the British Takeaway Awards, will open its first site in the North as it brings its vegan kebabs to the residents of Manchester.

The site is set to open on January 8, 2021, with delivery, takeaway and eat-in offerings available subject to local COVID-19 restrictions. The menu will be full of all the bestsellers also available at the London and Brighton locations, making sure to stick to classic, much-loved recipes.

The brand has had its sights set on Manchester, aiming to integrate with the city’s vibrant food scene which already has many popular options available for vegans. In the expansion, What The Pitta have also developed new branding with Manchester-based graphic designer Woody Woods, which will be used throughout the new store.

Cem Yildiz, co-founder of What The Pitta, says of the opening: “Manchester feels like a huge step forward for What The Pitta. The site will be our biggest brick and mortar site yet, and to finally open during what we hope is the tail end of this pandemic fills us with optimism for the future for not just us but hospitality as a whole. Manchester is my favourite city outside of London, with such an incredible food scene and we can’t wait to be a part of that and hope the city welcomes us with open arms ready for their vegan kebabs!”

The entirely vegan Turkish-inspired menu first launched in Shoreditch in 2016, the brainchild of Cem Yildiz and Rojdan Gul. The concept came about after Cem decided to go plant-based and was introduced to Roj’s uncle’s vegan kebab recipe. The two saw the value of the recipe and the gap in the market and set up shop at in a small green shed out of Shoreditch, East London.

The food became immediately popular on Instagram and this is where they attribute their cult following to. Their aim is to reclaim the image of the kebab as a greasy 2am meal, bringing a playful spin on a British classic with an ethical twist.

To be the first to hear details of their soft launch offering text WTPMANC to 82228 or sign up to their newsletter online.

You can see the exact location of What The Pitta Manchester thanks to Google Maps.

Opening Hours for the venue in the Northern Quarter will be 11:30am-10:00pm Sunday to Thursday and 11:30am-11:00pm Friday and Saturday.

Follow What The Pitta on Instagram.

Independent vegan pizza in Manchester

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I don’t know how you are all coping with me saying the same thing over and over, because I’m even sick of the sound of my own voice.

It is distressing to watch all of our vegan money be sucked up by huge corporations while independently owned local vegan business go under.

Ms Cupcake of London has recently announced they will be closing their doors (read about it here) and now we have this warning shot being fired by vegan pizza specialists Zad’s of Manchester.

Read the fill statement below:

It’s been a tough six months for us, here at Zads. We sent an email out around New Year explaining many of the issues we had been having, but it seems to have been picked up by a lot of junk mail filters (the Happy New Year subject probably could have done with being a little more original perhaps).

As many others have already said, the mainstreaming of veganism is incredible and something we’ve all dreamt of for a long time, but it comes at the expense of many vegan businesses; hardly a week goes by now that we don’t hear of another independent vegan business calling it quits and shutting up shop. We’re not quite ready for that yet, but we do need to make a few changes.

From this week, we will now be closed on Mondays AND Tuesdays, plus we will not be opening until 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

For some time now, our weekday takings have all but disappeared. It is not uncommon for us to not even take enough to cover staff wages, let alone the cost of the food we’re selling and the other costs which come with running a business. We have always been in the fortunate position of not being here to make a fortune. The owner of Zad’s has never taken a penny of income from the business and the business was set up as an extension of the vegan activism which he and the other founding staff members feel is so important.

We hope that compressing our opening hours a little will make the business a little more viable and if it is possible, we will take the opportunity to hire an extra driver at the weekend, to help take off some of the strain during busy periods. We would also dearly love to pay our staff a little more too, which they so thoroughly deserve. This also means that a small price increase is coming in the next couple of months, along with a few small changes to our menu.

Thank you all for your wonderful support, every order, every positive review, or lovely message, really does mean the world to us. We’re trying our very best to make this work, but we can promise you it’s not easy. Many sleepless nights over the last six to twelve months and probably more to come.

We have been inundated with amazing reviews recently, so we know you love what we do – we do, too.

OK. Back to me, FGV. I’ll put it simply again.

If we do not support independent vegan businesses, they will disappear. When we only spend our money in huge conglomerates, our money disappears out of our communities. Local people cannot make a living being vegan if we don’t support them. They can’t pay their bills. They can’t employ other local people.

If you live near Zad’s and you have the spare cash to eat takeaway food occasionally, please make a pledge to do it.

Visit Zad’s online and follow them on Instagram and Twitter.

What The Pitta win major award

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This is fabulous news.

Not only did London vegan restaurant What The Pitta win a major award last night, they have exclusively told me they are set to open their fifth location in Manchester this year!

Too much awesome news.

First things first.

The British Kebab Awards were announced last night in London and the much-adored What The Pitta won Best Takeaway.

I am so thrilled for Roj and Cem. Their food is some of the best on the planet and they have worked seriously hard to make their business a success.

The Mayor of London was also on hand to help them celebrate.

I asked Cem to give me a quick statement on how they are feeling afer their huge win. This is what he said:

To win at the Kebab Awards is a huge statement for veganism and just how far it has come. We were laughed at when we decided to create London’s first exclusively vegan kebab shop more than three years ago and now we’ve taken centre stage with our vegan spin on the British classic kebab. We can’t adequately thank our fans and everyone who voted and supported us from the start.

I’m so happy for this vegan business.

Congratulations are over, but you also came for the new location announcement. Keep reading below.

During our conversation about their win, Cem also let slip a little bit of exciting news.

The fifth location for What The Pitta is set to open in Manchester during May 2020.

Yes, Manchester!

This northern location will be in addition to their Shoreditch, Camden, Croydon, and Brighton spots. I’ll report further details as they become available.

It feels like nothing can stop these vegan food heroes. Let’s eat with them often and keep it that way!

Please follow What The Pitta on Instagram.

Vegan vending machine in UK first

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Manchester. You have a wonderful thing in your midst.

On the second floor of Afflecks Palace (you know the big old fleamarket style place in the Northern Quarter with lots of cool traders?) you’ll find the UK’s first (and definitely not last) all-vegan snack vending machine.

The vending machine by Peace by Piece Vegans is the first all-vegan machine in the UK (unless someone can tell me otherwise).

And because homelessness sucks, ending the intense levels of homelessness in Manchester is something the machine is getting behind. 10% of all their profits will go towards this cause.

Vegan snacks AND sending some funds to a solid cause. Sounds fab.

Here’s all you need to know about the machine:

• Second floor of Afflecks Palace (next to vegan Not So Sweet Nails)
• Open 10:30am-6:00pm Monday to Friday and 10am-6pm on Saturdays
• Sundays… afraid not!
• They have regular stock updates to keep things exciting
• They only take card payments

If you wanna keep updated with all the treats being loaded into the Peace by Piece vegan vending machine, follow them on Instagram.

Vegan in Altrincham

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I love when I hear about a vegan food business that has been thriving for years before it even crosses my radar.

How wonderful to think that there are possibly dozens of undiscovered vegan eateries out there, just waiting for me to experience.

One example of this type of stealth vegan food business is Güd in Altrincham, Greater Manchester.

This fab-looking eatery has been serving up tasty plant-based food for a few years inside Altrincham market but I only found out about it a few days ago when owner John reached out to me.

This is what he had to say:

I’ve been trading at Altrincham Market since 2015, starting with a weekend market stall and moving to my current permanent unit at the market a couple of years ago. Back when I started doing the stall there just wasn’t really any casual, good quality vegan options in the area so I decided to put that right and do it myself. I’ve got a small menu with certain things like the black bean burger and tarka dal being on from day one, and then I occasionally change things up and put new things on. Korean BBQ tofu is a current favourite. I serve my burgers and wraps in a flatbread which I make myself every day and roll fresh to order. It’s a small place and I do mostly take away but there is some outdoor seating, which is pretty popular in the summer. I do weekly changing soups and smoothies. Vegan options are still quite thin on ground in Altrincham so I’ve got quite a good core of regular customers.

Follow Güd on Instagram and take a look at some of this gorgeous food below.

This weekend in Manchester

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There is a BIG vegan event taking place in Manchester this weekend and I’m so happy to announce that I will be there!

Manchester Vegan Fest 2017 is promising great food, entertainment, talks, new people to meet and lots of funky vegan stalls.

The two day event run by Vegan Organic Network is being staged at Sashas Hotel right in the centre of Manchester.

Sahsas is located in the heart of central Manchester, a short walk from from Piccadilly Train Station and a few hundred yards from the bus station.

More than 4,000 visitors are expected at the event which will have two café areas in the main hall and one downstairs with live music. Upstairs there will be a talks, a film room, cooking demonstrations and vegan fitness including exercise machines and yoga.

On Saturday at 3:00pm, I will be hosting a talk and Q&A discussion about the themes from my soon-to-be published book Fat Gay Vegan: How To Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give A Sh!t.

The book is published on January 4, 2018 but you can get a sneak preview as I share some of the stories and insights. A very limited number of the books will be for sale directly after my talk for £8.99.

You can pre-order the book online.

RSVP to the Manchester Vegan Fest 2017 Facebook event here.

Best vegan breakfast

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I’m constantly on the hunt for the best cooked vegan breakfast in the UK and I think I’ve found a strong contender.

Teatime Collective in Manchester is a wonderful place for comfort food, cake and ice cream but I had never tried their all-day breakfast until this weekend.

It was stunning.

It had all the components of a vegan fry up including a potato cake! Also, if your fry up doesn’t have beans and toast, don’t even talk to me.

Have you tried this breakfast? How does it rate compared to your favourite?

You can follow Teatime Collective on Instagram.

Beer list for Manchester Vegan Beer Fest

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Take a look at this SOLID beer list lined up for Manchester Vegan Beer Fest this Saturday and then buy a ticket for just £4 online (£8 on the door).

The selection is spread across keg, cask and can offerings. Start planning your drinking now. We will give you a tick sheet on the day to help you keep track.

Bad Seed Brewery

Ain’t Bright 5.0% ABV Collaboration with North Riding Brewery. New England Pale. Ultra hazy, juicy pale ale with soft mouth feel and tropical juice character from Citra, Mosaic and experimental BRU-1 hops

Dalliance 4.0% ABV Cascade hopped pale – fresh flavours of grapefruit, lychee & citrus from the hop that started the craft beer movement

Hefeweizen 5.1% Award winning German style wheat beer with notes of banana and clove. Light and refreshing

Jungle Juice 4.6% ABV Collaboration with Heavy Industry. New England Hopfenweisse. German wheat beer yeast meets a huge dry hop combo including El Dorado, Sorachi Ace, Ekuanot and Jarlingo. Plus just a touch of Lemon Peel to add to the tropical fruit salad

Pond Hopper 4.2% ABV Transatlantic Red Ale. Rich ruby malt base acts as a perfect backdrop for the firework display of English and American hops. Jester, Chinook & Cascade brings a wild tropical fruit flavour with a citrus & grapefruit aroma

Session IPA 4.0% ABV Easy drinking, full on hop flavour. Zythos, Jester & Chinook hops combine to give flavours of tropical fruit, citrus, grapefruit, lychee & pine

Brass Castle Brewery

Brass Lager 5.3% ABV A moreish malt-forward Vienna lager with a characteristic brass hue and aromas of caramel, toffee and lemon. Medium body with a minimal head. Smooth, fruity finish

Disruptor 7.4% ABV Hoppy and hazy New England style double IPA, complex and silky with strong hops

Helles Lager 4.4% ABV Refreshing Munich-style light lager. Winner of the SIBA UK National Champion Lager award 2017! Refreshing and crisp Helles with a medium-sweet finish. Aromas of toffee, grains and floral notes. GLUTEN FREE

Hopped Cider 6.0% ABV A hop-infused cider! The best of both worlds

Hoptical Illusion 4.3% ABV Mini-IPA with tropical hop flavours and a magical secret – it contains neither barley nor wheat malt! This beer is brewed with the African grain sorghum with aromas of pine, mango, pineapple and syrup. GLUTEN FREE

Sunshine IPA 5.7% ABV A North Yorks version of the fashionable US West Coast hop-forward IPA. Bitterness is balanced by malt sweetness in our IPA and dry-hopping rounds out the aroma. Multiple hop types in this one, to justify the ‘sunshine-in-a-glass’ claim.!! GLUTEN FREE

Vociferous Agreement 10% ABV a triple IPA brewed in collaboration with Wilde Childe Brewing. A dark amber body with a thick head. Fruity spiced orange flavour with a big hop finish

Orchards of Husthwaite Gold Cider 5.5% ABV Medium-dry, full-bodied cider GLUTEN FREE

Orchards of Husthwaite Galtres Katy 6.0% ABV Medium-sweet, single variety blush cider GLUTEN FREE

Brass Castle have also stocked the nightclub bar with a selection of vegan wines and soft drinks

Heavy Industry Brewing

77 4.9% ABV CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain 2016 Gold Medal winner (strong bitters category) – A big amber IPA style beer brewed with the finest pale and crystal malts dark – Seville marmalade is backed up by a piney, peppery bitterness

La Vie en Rose 4.0% ABV A Delicate Hibiscus sour with a mixed fermentation and berry notes.Dry Hopped

Le Boulet D’Or D’Amour 5.4% ABV A dry hopped fruity saison, pale refreshing and spicy

Moral Panic 8.2% ABV Double IPA Served through a hop rocket for even more Citra

Pigeon Toed Orange Peel 5.2% ABV A cloudy orange hefeweissen style beer brewed with the finest Pale and Wheat malts. Featuring Mandarina Bavaria hops. Notes of cloves, pears and pineapple underlay a big freshly squeezed orange taste

Twisted Barrel Ales

Beast of a Midlands Mild 3.5% ABV A traditional Midlands style mild made using a complex variety of malts to provide a rich, textured backbone that belies its minimal strength. The addition of vanilla pods provides a creamy finish and aroma

Detroit Sour City 4.0% ABV A thirst quenching, fruity sour beer. Kettle soured for a deliciously tart acidity, then dry hopped with Rakau and Equinox hops for a tropical citrus flavour

Raspberry Ripple Sour 3.5% ABV A base of Pilsner, Oats and Wheat, kettle soured with Lactobacillus Plantarum and fermented with 20kg of raspberry puree and vanilla pods, for a deliciously refreshing raspberry ripple ice cream like effect

Saison From Another Place 5.5% ABV a Belgian farmhouse ale, brewed with dried elderflower & peppercorns for a floral, spicy flavour that blends with the characteristics of the funky Belgian yeast

Tongo 6.0% ABV A Rakau hop stand provides a delicious nectarine flavour that pairs delightfully with the fruity, peppery characteristics of the saison yeast. Made in collaboration with Blackjack Brewery in Manchester and The Wolf Pub in Birmingham

Wake Up Juicy 8.0% ABV The worlds of Belgian Tripel and modern DIPA collide. We’ve taken our immensely popular Tripel recipe and hopped it to DIPA levels with an intoxicating blend of Mosaic, Denali and Equinox hops

There will also be an amazing selection of food offerings thanks to V Rev Vegan Diner, Mother May I, Sgaia Vegan Meats, The Vegan Food Pod and Moodley Manor.