It’s not often that I go to a posh restaurant, being the scruffy hippy that I am. But when my mum visited Berlin in November, we took the opportunity to visit what might be Berlin’s finest vegan restaurant: Lucky Leek.
It’s to my shame that we’d not been before, as it’s only ten minutes walk from where we live and has almost exclusively enthusiastic reviews on Happy Cow. Yet somehow the occasion hadn’t arisen to pay the higher prices that such a classy joint demands. But in November we’d just returned from a visit to London, so all of a sudden the prices didn’t seem so high any more. (Everything in Berlin seems very cheap after a visit to London – in fact, I’m sure most Londoners who go to posh places would consider Lucky Leek a bargain.)
Our delay in visiting Lucky Leek is matched only by my delay in writing about it. My excuse is that I’ve been searching for the superlatives these past five months. Lucky Leek really is that good.
I can’t remember exactly what we ordered, but I do remember that it was all exquisitely presented and utterly delicious. We were brought a complimentary mini starter while we waited for the starter we’d ordered (creamy oyster mushroom soup, which arrived with some crispy deep-fried oyster mushrooms on the side), which was very nice of them.
One of my worries about posh places is that the portions will be tiny, but I’d say that’s not the case at Lucky Leek. The portions weren’t enormous but nor were they small – unlike some other classy restaurants I’ve been to – and we left feeling well fed. And again, everything was carefully presented.
The dessert stands out in my mind for some reason, especially that delicately decorated chocolate you can see in the photo. Some of the flavour combinations seemed odd when reading the menu, but the range of flavours worked very well together.
Our waiter was very friendly, and we were made to feel comfortable and welcome. The menu can seem a bit complex (it’s in English as well as German though, so don’t worry!) as it’s laid out like there are set menus – but we just chose what we wanted from each one, which was no problem.
So if you’re in Berlin and fancy splashing out on a really fancy meal, then put Lucky Leek on your list.
There has been quite a bit of upset in vegan circles this week about the founders and majority owners of Southern California vegan restaurants Gracias Madre and Café Gratitude selling beef products (i.e. dead cows) from their family farm.
I reached out to the PR firm for Café Gratitude to find out a little more information about the situation. One of my main concerns was whether the plant-based menus were ever going to start serving meat.
Here is their response:
“We want to assure all of our supporters that Café Gratitude and Gracias Madre have always served and will continue to serve 100% organic, plant-based cuisine prepared with ingredients sourced responsibly from vendors and farmers who share our commitment to preserving the integrity of the environment.
Founders Matthew and Terces Engelhart do not personally follow a vegan diet. They reside on their privately-owned Be Love Farm in Vacaville, California where they practice regenerative agriculture, and harvest organic produce for personal consumption for friends, family and neighbors in the area.
Given the growth of the restaurants in Southern California, the majority of produce served at Café Gratitude and Gracias Madre is supplied by local farms with the exception of organic peaches in the summer, and organic butternut squash in the fall and winter months, which are both sourced from Be Love Farms.
To learn more about regenerative agriculture practices visit www.belovefarm.com and regenerationinternational.org.”
Apart from the horrible irony of animals being killed on a farm called Be Love, do you see a problem with eating at one of these restaurants? Is it effective to put financial pressure on the restaurant chain because the co-founders raise cows for food on their own farm or is this also putting unnecessary pressure on other co-owners who are are vegan or risking the jobs of vegan workers.
I eat at many vegan restaurants and from many vegan food companies where the owners or CEOs are not vegan. I could name half a dozen or so just off the top of my head. The CEO of Veggie Grill is not vegan. The owner of VegBar in Brixton is not vegan. Not everyone in a management position at Fry’s Family Foods is vegan. Some of the biggest vegan food brands on the planet are making profit for non-vegan investors who spend said profits on animal product consumption.
And what about our 100% vegan businesses with vegan owners? Should we be demanding that they do not buy produce from farms that also raise and kill animals for food?
This post is certainly not an attempt to tell people how to react to the Café Gratitude situation, but to create thought and debate. I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic. Should these restaurants stand alone and be celebrated for their plant-based menus or should vegans be demanding the founders and co-owners change their other business practises by applying financial pressure via a boycott?
I am delighted and honoured to bring you the following interview with Aph Ko, the founder of Black Vegans Rock.
Aph Ko was recently nominated in the VegNews Bloggy Awards 2016 for both Black Vegans Rock and Aphro-ism (all links at bottom of post). Aph writes engaging critical texts that span multiple areas of thought and intersecting realities.
Many thanks go out to Aph Ko for taking the time to answer my questions. I am extremely grateful for the insightful and thought-provoking answers below.
Fat Gay Vegan: Can you give my readers an overview of the Black Vegans Rock website and project? When did it start and why did it start?
Aph Ko: Black Vegans Rock is a new digital project that centers on celebrating and highlighting individual black vegans to dismantle the stereotype that veganism is a “white person’s” thing. The project launched on January 4th, 2016. The site is actually inspired by an article I wrote back in June 2015 called “#BlackVegansRock: 100 Black Vegans to Check Out” which was the first list that spotlighted 100 Black Vegans. I considered it to be more of an activist performance art piece rather than a traditional blog post. I created it to make a point: black vegans exist. The mainstream struggle to make veganism “inclusive” is ironic to me because there are SO many vegans of color.
The article was really successful and I was contacted by SO many black vegans who were grateful for the list. A lot of black vegans also gave me names of other black vegans who should be on the list as well. Rather than adding on, I decided to just create a whole new platform specifically dedicated to this mission. I received a grant from A Well-Fed World as well as the Pollination Project, and I hired EastRand Studios to do the artwork and website creation and they did a fabulous job. I wanted to created a space where black vegans could get their projects and stories out to other black vegans to connect. Community is integral to radical activism, so finding other folks who “get” you and have similar experiences can be life-changing.
Logo designed by EastRand Studios
FGV: Where do you think black vegans fit into the broader vegan scene? Is mainstream veganism constructed to push black people to the fringes?
AK: Well, I think the current mainstream white animal rights/vegan movement employs Eurocentric logic which is why a lot of people of color tend to not vibe with the space. A lot of people of color can’t exactly locate why they’re so uncomfortable in the movement and chalk it up only to representational issues, but i think it’s the Eurocentric logic part. The lack of representation for people of color is merely a symptom of that problem. When we say “mainstream animal rights” or “mainstream vegan” we all already know that “mainstream” is code for “white.” Calling it a “white animal rights movement” is a significant rhetorical move because it calls out whiteness, when whiteness gets its power from being invisible and hard to pin-point. Also, it allows vegans of color to do their own thing rather than having to constantly fight the ‘mainstream’ for inclusion. It reminds me of when white feminism was called out. Rather than feminists of color having to fight the dominant perspective of feminism, we just called it what it was–‘white feminism’–and we moved on and did our own thing. There’s nothing wrong with that. When we don’t call it out, it gives the illusion that the space is for everyone, when it’s overtly not.
So, the white movement just needs to get comfortable with the fact that some black folks aren’t necessarily joining your movement–we’re incorporating veganism and animal rights into our own movements which is why the work looks so different.
The most important thing white folks need to be doing is learning about whiteness and what that really means. We need to stop assuming that the only way white folks can help vegans of color is by making their movements more inclusive. White folks need to learn to see themselves as part of the problem…not only a part of the solution.
For example, we all know what it feels like when someone who eats meat doesn’t realize they are operating through a framework already. They think veganism is a lifestyle and they assume they don’t have a label or need one, however, eating meat is actually a lifestyle as well. It’s not usually called a lifestyle because it’s so normalized, therefore, vegans look “extreme” because we have a label assigned to us. Similarly, when you’re a white person, you are the norm…so whiteness doesn’t need to be marked or called out every minute. That however doesn’t mean that you’re not operating through a racial grammar system every day. So, when people of color use their racial location in their veganism, (like black veganism), white folks get upset because they feel like we’re using a segregationist label, whereas, they don’t see how they are already operating through whiteness every day…it’s just not called out. That’s why everyone laughs when, for example, white folks complain about spaces like Black Vegans Rock or BET. So many folks ask me weekly, “Well, what if I create a White Vegans Rock website?!” I just laugh. I’m like…go ahead and create it and let me know if it looks any different from the mainstream vegan movement…
Photos are from the Intersectional Justice Conference in Washington. Photo Credit for first two photos: Pax Ahimsa Gethen. Photo credit for final photo: JoVonna Johnson-Cooke.
FGV: How do you as a black vegan view the use of slave imagery, language and historical context within the fight for animals?
AK: Personally, I don’t mind the imagery, I definitely mind the context and I mind who is sharing this imagery and why they’re sharing the imagery. Oftentimes well-intentioned activists share it while not completely getting the connection themselves. I would argue a lot of white folks share this type of imagery which again objectifies black activists who are already vegan who are more than capable of talking about the connections between animal oppression and black oppression.
You can’t just slap an image of a lynched black person next to a slaughtered pig (without a proper framework or explanation) and try to act like placing these images side-by-side is going to do anything. We’re relying way too much on imagery in our movements, rather than critical thinking. A lot of animal rights activists don’t even really get how these things connect, so we’re supposed to expect people who eat animals to get it? There’s a proper way to make these connections, but placing two brutalized bodies next to each other without an analysis (especially of the perpetrator) isn’t necessarily making a ‘connection.’ It’s layering them on top of one another and then expecting the public to do the work.
When I see folks sharing “comparison” imageries I get what they’re trying to do which is why I’m not offended, it’s just that they can’t back up what they’re doing with logic that makes sense to people which is why I generally don’t think they’re effective (especially when used on social media sites).
As I always say, people weren’t shocked into eating meat, and they won’t necessarily be shocked out of it. We need to start appealing to critical thinking and invest in changing the frameworks people use to normalize meat consumption, rather than shock tactics that don’t do anything for anyone. There’s a real way to talk about speciesism and racism, but employing sloppy connection-making skills under the guise of intersectional analysis is a disservice to non-human animals as well as the rest of us who are experiencing racial terrorism.
FGV: Why should non-black vegans read the content on Black Vegans Rock?
AK: I think it’s important to be exposed to different perspectives and different ways of producing knowledge. Diversity shouldn’t only be a representational skin-deep superficial thing…we also need to have diversity in terms of knowledge production, so it would be advantageous for anyone to check out what Black vegans have to say in any space or on any platform, not just Black Vegans Rock.
FGV: Black Vegans Rock appears to draw a lot of strength and support from collaborations with other active black vegans. How important is collaboration to the project and did you always plan for it to be a multi-voice approach?
AK: The collaboration is the core of Black Vegans Rock. It’s a community-centered space. I definitely wanted a multi-voice approach because I personally wouldn’t be vegan without some of these advisory board members (who are influential to me). I don’t stand alone–I stand among many brilliant black vegan scholars, activists, entrepreneurs and thinkers. I also LOVE reading the submissions that I get from black vegans. I am currently learning a lot myself from their perspectives. The site focuses on black vegans and their thoughts every single day and that’s how I want it to be. I want readers to be inundated with black vegan thoughts and narratives.
FGV: What can non-black identifying vegans (such as me and most of my readers) do to make the vegan community a more diverse and inclusive space?
AK: There’s no need to try to make the vegan community diverse. Ironically, the movement I’m in is extremely diverse. Non-black vegans (I feel like we’re actually talking about white people here, lol) are more than welcome to read our literature and to have conversations, but understand that representational diversity comes when the mainstream starts to value non-Eurocentric knowledges…and I don’t know if that will ever happen anytime soon because the mainstream has a tendency to co-opt knowledges from people of color. It’s actually happening now. A lot of the ideas that vegans of color are coming up with and writing are being taken and re-packaged by white people which can be a bit irritating.
It seems like only white folks are struggling with trying to make their spaces diverse when so many vegans of color exist which is a bit perplexing, lol. In fact, almost all of my friends are vegans of color so I am usually puzzled when I hear that white folks can’t create or find diverse movements. We don’t necessarily want cosmetic diversity which means white people still run the show and their ideas are prized, and black and brown faces are just superficially added in to make it look “inclusive.” The most important thing is to realize that vegans of color exist and we have been organizing for quite some time. We might not be joining the mainstream movements because we’re too busy organizing our own. So, take the time to spotlight what vegans of color are doing, and discard the narrative that we need to make the mainstream white movements inclusive, because we don’t. What we need to do is have plural movements because the more voices and perspectives we have, the better. Making white movements ‘diverse’ or ‘inclusive’ is a different project–one that has nothing to do with alleviating animal oppression but strengthening white supremacy…and white supremacy harms animals so we need to stop going in that direction.
You can visit the Black Vegans Rock online project here, follow Black Vegans Rock on Twitter and like Black Vegans Rock on Facebook.
This might not mean anything to you, but I have nothing to share with you today other than my reflections regarding Prince. Normal FGV content will resume tomorrow. Thank you for being patient.
Prince was a magical genius woven through every part of my life. Nothing can stop these tears from falling.
My childhood swung wildly between just having enough money to eat and finding out which caravan park would be next on my mother’s list for us.
We settled for a while in an Australian seaside town with little going for it unless you were into violence on the streets at the hands of disenfranchised young people or bucket loads of institutionalised racism.
I was a child with a million reasons to be scared of the world with uncertainty haunting my every turn. Entertainment meant collecting empty drink bottles from around the area and taking them to the corner shop for a small refund.
I would buy a bag of sweets called cobbers. Cobbers were caramel bits covered in chocolate and they were my opportunity to pretend I could afford treats like a normal, happy child. If I had a bumper day with the bottles, I would have coins left over to play a song on the jukebox.
Even back then I understood somehow I was queer, so my song selections were camp and empowering to a kid with nothing to do but hang around the jukebox and daydream about being fabulous. Cyndi Lauper. Culture Club. Kim Wilde. As outrageous as some of these acts appeared to the small minds of my small seaside town, none of my song choices drew as much ridicule as Little Red Corvette by Prince.
This record surely needed to be replaced by the store owner due to the number of replays I insisted upon. Teenagers playing the arcade games nearby would sneer or roll their eyes in my direction. Adults would tell each other loudly that they had heard Prince was a faggot.
Of course the sounds of that groundbreaking single were enough to capture my attention, but the idea that Prince was someone who could turn my small town on its head by shredding, screaming, dancing and cavorting spoke volumes to my tiny queer heart.
As a tearaway trying to escape multiple broken homes a few years after the corner shop, I would cruise around with anyone older than me with a license and a tape deck. A local teenager named John played the Purple Rain album through customised car speakers and I discovered more information than any adult was willing to tell me.
Masturbation. Sex. Religion. Rock and roll. Pop. Purple Rain exploded into my life in the form of scorching guitar solos and personal sexual exploration. It remains one of the defining periods of my life and the album is the definitive soundtrack of my puberty and adolescence.
If you could spy on me a few years following Purple Rain, you would find me and my sister Monique drunkenly serenading random house parties with our versions of Starfish & Coffee and The Ballad of Dorothy Parker lifted from the Sign ‘o’ The Times album. I’m still not sure how my teenage brain processed everything I heard but all I know is Prince was maybe the only person in my pop music magazines and on my radio singing about AIDS, war, famine, sex and partying until you rattled your house to the ground.
The Prince parallels in my life went on and on.
I lived with my sister Juanita in a plasterboard house that was freezing in winter. I had to walk a couple of kilometres to my full time job in a shoe store that I was forced to take after dropping out of school. It was during this time that I played the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack non-stop for weeks upon weeks.
A few years later, I slept on the sidewalk for two nights to get tickets for my home town stop of Prince’s Diamonds and Pearls world tour. I lost my voice on the night of the show from screaming and singing along to one of the greatest spectacles on the planet.
My Prince story goes on. Year after year. Decade after decade. For every terrible or wonderful thing I experienced, there is a corresponding Prince song, album or concert.
I have seen the superstar in mammoth arenas in Sydney, London and San Diego. I have been a paid member of the multiple incarnations of his website. I impatiently waited to download his history-making digital releases via shoddy dial up Internet access. I was ecstatic to witness Prince perform in small intimate gigs around Hollywood, standing shoulder to shoulder with celebrities and movie stars.
As my personal circumstances improved, as I experienced heartbreak, as I fell in love and as I took myself on journeys all over the globe, Prince has been an undeniable thread and a soundtrack like no other.
I experienced the joy of attending his show in London during 2014 and as joyous as that occasion was for me, my heart is broken knowing I will never again witness the genius of Prince live on stage.
I have been crying for hours and nothing can stem the sadness. The knowledge that the rest of my time on Earth is to be devoid of one of the few positive constants I have known is almost too much to contemplate.
I know this news is going to make a lot of people happy. Really happy.
Actually, the happiness-inducing news is in a few parts. Let me break it down for you.
A new vegan mozzarella is launching very soon across London. Created by the talented Anne’s Vegan Pleasures, the Melt Me mozzarella looks stunning. Check out the photos below:
This stuff looks fabulous and is being packaged and prepared for retail outlets as I type.
If you can’t wait until you can buy it in your local health food store, I’ve got some top news for you.
Melt Me has teamed up with Italian street trader Orsofor a series of outings where they will bring glorious vegan calzone to the hungry masses starting this weekend!
Get along this weekend to try some decadent Vegan Calzone Fritti. They will be selling two varieties including asparagus with wild garlic, tomato and Melt Me mozzarella as well as aubergine with mushroom, tomato and Melt Me mozzarella.
You can find these tasty treats at the following locations:
Friday April 22, 2016 between 10am and 3pm at Startisans Market 77 Shelton Street Covent garden
Friday April 22, 2016 between 6pm and 10pm and Saturday April 23, 2016 between 2pm and 10pm at Open Jack Weekender New River Studios 199 Eade Rd, London N4 1DN
Saturday April 23, 2016 between 10am and 4pm Partridges Market, Duke of York Square, Chelsea
Sunday April 24, 2016 between 10am and 3pm at Alexandra Palace Farmers Market
Now that all the info has been shared, who wants to see some photos of the vegan calzone?!
You all remember a few months ago when Josh told you about The Goat Cafe’ in Huddersfield, right?
Now you can read an actual review of the café thanks to our friend Sammy who lives nearby. Sammy popped in for a quick bite and was kind enough to share this review with us.
Thanks Sammy!
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This café opened its doors a few months ago and it is so exciting for Huddersfield which didn’t even have a vegetarian café, let alone a vegan one.
I have eaten at The Goat Café twice and have to say the food is top quality. This is the place for healthy food or total indulgence, whatever turns you on.
I recently had sweet potato dhal with parathas as a main. The helping was huge, wonderful in the tradition of Yorkshire Fayre!
The dish was delicately cooked with perfect spices and was a surprisingly light dish. Perfect. Five stars as far as I am concerned. The only comment on this was there could have been a tad more mango chutney and yoghurt.
I took my pud home. It was a wonderfully rich chocolate cake with a chocolate pastry crust and a wonderful mousse-y filling. My partner thought it was bliss, as reluctant as I was to share it with him.
The recipes at The Goat Café have been gathered from a wide range of sources but with their own ideas infused into the meals. There is a good choice of mains, snacks and soup of the day. All are very reasonably priced and are a very good deal for a decent meal. The menu changes daily. They will be adding sandwiches to the menu now that they have sourced wonderful bread from a local independent baker called Roger’s Bakery. His crusts are to die for!!
The coffee is sourced from a Huddersfield company called Bean Brothers. I had an excellent black Americano. I would have liked a larger cup, or the option to buy a larger coffee, as you can see from the photos the cups are a bit small.
The café is now serving alcohol, craft beers and wine, and has a good range of cold drinks and smoothies.
The ambience is good with vintage 50s/60s tables and chairs and a comfortable homely feel. The walls have a bit of an odd collection of art works as if they have come from home and I think a little more co-ordination would work better. There are tons of local artists that would be happy to have their work hung there. The people running it and staff are very helpful and friendly and the café has a lovely atmosphere. I got the impression they love what they are providing local people and want to encourage non-vegans to use the café.
So, excellent food and drink and I highly recommend it. It is serving the faithful well but it will need to attract the mainstream meat eaters to survive and I think their food is definitely up to it. In fact, one customer who had been brought to the place by someone for lunch went up to the till afterwards and said that the food had been so wonderful he “could almost become a vegetarian”.
Definitely a great addition to eating out in Huddersfield and as it is close to the main big park, it could well be a very pleasant way to spend some time in town. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes good food.
When I congratulated Fortify Café of Maidstone on their transition from a vegetarian to vegan eatery way back in April 2015, I was fairly certain they would enjoy surging sales as vegans from all over surrounding Kent flocked to dine with them in a show of support.
The initial sales were strong in Fortify‘s first vegan month, but how has business been since the initial excitement wore off? Did people stay loyal? Were vegetarians and omnivores running for the doors in droves because they couldn’t get dairy cheese or milk?
I spoke with owner James Hooper exactly one year on from the big vegan switch and I think it’s safe to say the information he shares is nothing short of inspirational.
See what he had to say about his restaurant’s first year as a vegan eatery below:
FGV: Congratulations on Fortify reaching one year as a vegan café. How has the experience been overall?
JH: Thank you! On a personal level, it’s been amazing. I remember getting to the end of our first day as a fully vegan business and being wiped out after such a busy day but I had such a strong feeling this was what we were meant to be doing. At least a few times a week we hear customers getting a little bit giddy that they can order anything off the menu and not worry about the ingredients – those moments are the most rewarding for us. We’ve so many non vegan customers that responded positively to the change too.
FGV: You mentioned online that this vegan year has been the busiest year out of your 7 years operating as a business. Why has vegan food been so popular for you? How much better has business been?
JH: We actually seem to have attracted more omnivore customers who are interested in cleaner healthier food – vegan food often has that label even though we don’t shy away from naughty treats! People also visit us from further afield now too, we believe because it’s still a challenge to find a 100% vegan eatery and they don’t mind traveling to have that experience.
Compared to the previous year, our turnover has increased by 25%.
FGV: Have there been any negative experiences due to the vegan switch?
JH: This has been a ‘no negatives switch’. We know a couple of customers who stopped coming because we were no longer using cows milk but we gained a whole load of new customers and believe that in someway, our actions will have even touched those people who no longer visit.
FGV: Some vegetarian cafés worry that they will lose customers in droves if they don’t serve cow milk for hot drinks and cheese in sandwiches. What has your experience been with non-vegan customers asking for dairy?
JH: Our signage says we’re a vegan eatery but people do still ask, mostly when they’re wanting to order a ‘skinny latte’. We just explain that all our milks are very low fat and that they’re all plant based. We’ve gained great confidence in what we serve and I think this comes across to the customers. If someone usually has cows milk, we suggest soya professional and let them know how it’s the closest thing to the dairy taste and texture and that we’re sure they’ll love it!
Our best selling toastie was always sausage, mustard & cheddar – we just switched the cheddar for vegan smoked gouda. A good sandwich usually has a combo of ingredients and swapping dairy cheese for vegan does nothing to take away the appeal of a sandwich made with quality ingredients.
FGV: Can you give a piece of advice to a business considering switching to a 100% vegan menu?
JH: If you’re considering it, the universe is already whispering in your ear that you should and can do it! Give out samples of what you’d like to serve instead (we gave samples of our vegan cheeses a few weeks before our switch and started to include them in menu specials). Do the same with milks. Give people a challenge to try their latte with another milk and offer to swap it if they don’t like it (no one ever asked us to swap a drink so they could have cows milk). Use a selection of milks and cheeses (the Mouth Watering Vegan cookery book got us started with our cashew cheeses). Be upbeat about the change and don’t be afraid of the occasional frown when you deliver your awesome news!
You can visit Fortify Café online, like them on Facebook and follow on Twitter and Instagram. Get over to one of these social media platforms and say congratulations on a job well done!
You would think being a groundbreaking vegan shop with two locations would be enough, but apparently not. Vx has gone and raised the bar by making and selling their own vegan ice cream.
If you drop by either the new Bristol location or the original Kings Cross store front, you will find a rotating selection of enticing flavours all hand made by the Vx crew.
Recent flavours have included Vego Caramel, Mint Chocolate with vegan After Eight bits, Blueberry Lemon, and Rum Coconut with raisins. All flavours are also gluten free, if that is a concern of yours.
The team are also open to suggestions so make sure you put a word in for you favourite combination when you stop by to pick up a few tubs.
I absolutely LOVE this guest post from Joe. Nothing says the ‘rise of veganism’ quite like police having to be called in to calm crowds at a vegan restaurant opening!
Post by Joe:
PR + FREE FOOD = PANDEMONIUM
After lots of promotion and press, plus an offer of free food on their opening night, the people behind new Berlin vegan burger joint Dandy Diner were always going to have their hands full. Though whether they expected to be so inundated that the police had to attend in order to manage the crowds, I don’t know.
Either way, it’s made the headlines today.
The Berliner Zeitung says: “Too full! Police break up opening party at the ‘Dandy Diner’. Pushing, shoving, and a long queue outside … by 10pm (just two hours after opening) they were already out of sauce. The police had to break up the party, as too many people were outside blocking the street.”
RBB-Berlin says: “Police had to curb the onslaught at Vegan snack bar. Around 300 people were inside, hoping to get hold of some food without meat or other animal ingredients. Shortly after 9pm there were so many people outside, that officers intervened, after consulting with the owners of the snack bar. Those outside were asked to leave.”
N-TV says: “Police disperse vegan opening party. When two fashion bloggers opened their first vegan snack bar, the people of Berlin weren’t slow to arrive. Hundreds of people appeared at the opening party, and when the rush became too large, police had to intervene”
The breakneck speed with which London’s vegan scene is expanding leaves me breathless. Or maybe that’s due to the building in my lift being broken meaning I had to take the stairs.
Regardless, London is booming when it comes to plant-based cuisine and bhuti is front and centre of the surge.
There is so much to tell you about bhuti. Situated in the West London neighbourhood of Richmond, bhuti bills itself as a centre of well-being and offers a huge range of beauty and relaxation therapies. It is home to ongoing yoga and pilates classes, as well as nutrition workshops.
Like many similar places, the treatments are certainly not inexpensive but I assume the prices are well within the range of what people pay for this type of thing in Richmond.
Not interested in a vitamin C facial or full body ‘5 element’ massage? Well maybe the in-house vegan tearoom will get you heading west.
The menu actually extends far past what you would expect from a tearoom. The fully vegan, organic, gluten-free, refined sugar-free and mostly raw menu includes a whole variety of snacks, drinks and dishes and even though bhuti only opened recently, they already have plans to expand the tearoom.
The menu is designed by head chef Eli who has been vegan for years and has moved over to bhuti from RAW at La Suite West. Eli is serving up raw cakes, buckwheat toast with toppings, chia pudding, breakfast smoothies, hot soup, nori rolls and tea infusions just to name a small selection.
Find out everything you need to know about bhuti on their website and take a moment to follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
