Here is some news you don’t hear everyday.
London has a brand new organic grocery store that is completely vegan. Yep. Read it again to make sure.
Three course Christmas meal
I am a bit of a fan of the chain of cafes called Le Pain Quotidien. They are not a vegan company but they do have an impressive range of permanent dishes suitable for plant eaters on their menu. I often pop in to my local LPQ for the creamy cashew butter parfait and a vegan muffin.
As you might recall, I recently hosted a vegan baking class at the LPQ location in Borough. It was a runaway success, with the available spaces booking out in record time and attendees singing LPQ‘s praises across social media.
My favourite thing to come out of my partnership with LPQ was the sneak peek they gave me of their tasty-sounding vegan Christmas menu. Yep. That’s right. A London-wide chain of non-vegan cafes has a dedicated three-course dinner for vegans in the month leading up to Christmas.
Check it out below.
Mini Vego
Have you been swept up in the chocolate craze that has been wowing vegans all over Europe?
Vego is the jumbo bar in a foil wrapper that is crammed with hazelnuts and impossible to stop eating. Not one person I have shared it with has not been impressed.
The bar is huge and a few people have mentioned they have stopped buying it regularly due to its irresistibility. The giant bar gets eaten within minutes of being open. It takes a stronger person than me to make it last longer than five minutes.
The makers of Vego must have heard these cries of vegans because they have gone and produced a Vego Mini. Yes, a lovely and super cute smaller version of one of the best chocolate bars on the planet.
Instead of the 150g of mouthwatering sweetness, you can now purchase the same product in a 65g size.
So cute, I might have to buy three at a time.
Available most everywhere.
Vegan again
Enough of this complaining about what isn’t vegan. Today I am celebrating the return of one of my favourite snacks that was vegan, went non-vegan for a while and has returned as vegan once more.
Check it out!
This is not vegan
I don’t know what goes on.
If you were creating a dairy free drink for the UK market, would you at least consider making a tiny bit more effort to ensure the product was suitable for vegans?
I stumbled upon this new soya and fruit drink today in Holland & Barrett and first thought I had found a vegan product. The bold packaging claim that it is dairy free made me hopeful.
Killer Tomato serving meat
Some sad news for the London food scene (and for the animals being cooked, more to the point).
Remember when I wrote about Killer Tomato on Leather Lane? I absolutely raved about the vegan spicy sandwich I devoured and proclaimed it to be the best sandwich in town.
Well, some undesirable news has reached me here in my faux-ivory tower.
Vegan having a moan
My pal Joe in Berlin wanted a platform to complain about something.
I thought it would be a good opportunity to give you all a break from my self-righteous posturing, so below you will find the unabridged moan by Joe about the phenomenon of vegan restaurants not opening when they are supposed to open.
I can’t say it happens all that often in the UK, but Joe deserves to be heard!
Read on.
Vegans cooking for vegans
I think you need to make plans to visit the West Midlands before the end of the year.
As you all know, a fabulous 100% vegan food truck launched a while back called The Vegan Grindhouse. The idea behind the business was to supply events in the local area with completely plant-based tea, coffee, cakes and treats. I wrote about them here.
The truck has enjoyed an incredibly successful start, but things are about to change slightly for the vegan business.
I reached out to Lisa, the owner of The Vegan Grindhouse, to see how things were progressing and I received some not so good news and some excellent news.
More vegan groceries
Are you ready for photographic evidence of another one of my thorough supermarket expeditions?
A few nights back, Josh and I visited the mammoth Tesco Extra in Colney Hatch (North London) and returned home with some fun and tasty vegan products.
See proof below.
Operation go vegan stay vegan
A post this week in which I voiced my concern about vegan people opening non-vegan cafes has garnered a lot of attention. The comment thread on Facebook has a life of its own and I think it is evident that this discussion is happening at exactly the right time.
One of the commentators suggested it would be beneficial for me to organise a platform to assist people looking to change their businesses into a completely vegan affair.
OK. I think I can offer some assistance. I don’t have a lot of time but I do take it on board that actions speak louder than words and I genuinely want to help people (and businesses) to go vegan and stay vegan.
What can I do?
I want to hear from people thinking of changing a non-vegan food business into a vegan food business. Once we have made contact, I can offer the following if you want it:
- email conversation about your business and a vegan transition
- you can phone/Skype me to talk about the situation
- if you pay for my travel (I will travel by the cheapest means if necessary) I will spend a day with you and/or your employees talking about a vegan change, discussing vegan alternatives to dairy and working out a strategy and I will not charge for my time
- I will supply you with testimonials by other business owners who have made the transition in unlikely locations
- I will supply you with practical advice on sourcing vegan ingredients to replace dairy
- I will help you write a press release about your relaunch and get it to as many press outlets as possible, as well as local, national and international activist groups, bloggers and social groups
- I will make myself available via phone and email to discuss publicity questions in the month following your transition
- I will feature your business on my blog and link to you on social media around the time of your transition to a vegan business
Just because I love to be dramatic, I am calling this the Operation Go Vegan Stay Vegan initiative. It is kind of like a vegan challenge, but for businesses.
Why am I doing this? The main reason is I am working to improve outcomes for non-human animals. Another reason is I wholeheartedly believe now is the right time for vegan business owners to take this step.
As I have mentioned on Facebook, there are 100% vegan cafes in regional Mexico, the West Midlands, Prague, rural USA and even an almost three hour drive into the countryside from my home town of Brisbane, Australia. They are popping up in the most unlikely places and they can succeed!
If you do vegan food and drink well, people will pay for it. Not just vegans, but people in general.
Please get in touch if you think you would like to make your business part of this vegan transition initiative. I am not the most knowledgable person but I am confident I can bring useful ideas together that will help you make this change to your business in the most positive way possible.
If you would like to offer a case study of your own vegan business (especially if you changed it to vegan from non-vegan), please get in touch via sean@fgvpr.co.uk – I will need all the vegan community firepower and ideas I can get.
Please note: I will have to exercise discretion in regards to who I assist and this might be based on my own workload or a host of other reasons. I envision being able to work with one business during a calendar month period. I am predominantly looking to assist UK businesses but will consider offering advice and time to people in other parts of the world but I will not have the same insights to offer.