Goat Cafe

Goat Cafe

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I got a message from my friend Anna this morning saying, “Sue, have you seen the Goat Café drama?” to which I responded, “No, Sue. What going on?”.

Firstly, we call each other Sue. It’s an Abigail’s Party thing.

If you are not aware, Goat Café is possibly the only fully vegan eatery in the northern town of Huddersfield.

But the drama?

In a bizarre Facebook exchange with a handful of customers, the person in charge of their social media abused and berated some customers.

By abused, I mean:

  • asking how soon someone will die
  • calling names such as ‘fucking control freak’
  • responding to criticism with ‘fuck you and fuck your plans’

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Reports are online of the Goat Café social media person also taking the argument and name-calling onto personal Facebook pages of customers including one instance of them using the term ‘fucking cocks’ to describe people voicing their concerns.

The backlash from the local and online vegan community has been swift and brutal.

The café has seen it’s star approval rating on Facebook plummet with more than 300 one star reviews being posted since the conflict commenced.

I don’t completely understand what started the tirade of abuse, but a lot of the conflict seems to surround a post by the Goat Café in which they expressed their plans to stop accepting credit cards and social media in their business.

This somehow turned into a particularly nasty exchange with a customer who had previously complained about a meal that wasn’t to her liking. You can see references to all of this on the Goat Facebook page (it might take a bit of sifting through as I believe the café has started deleting its older posts related to the situation).

The Goat Café serves an incredibly valuable purpose for Huddersfield and the surrounding area. I hear of vegans travelling from nearby towns once a week as it is the only place where they can be assured a 100% vegan menu.

My two visits to the café have been welcoming with solid food choices.

Whatever is happening to their team internally to result in this situation, I genuinely hope they sort it out not only for their own sake but for the valuable contribution their café and food make to the community.

Also, I don’t like seeing people attacked verbally. It’s not OK and rightfully people won’t stand for it. I have concerns for the owners who have always presented as kind and approachable. This behaviour appears completely out of character. I have concerns for the workers at the café and their job security.

Abusing people and name-calling on the Internet doesn’t fly in this day and age, least of all when the abuse is directed at your customers. People will shut your business down or at least work extremely hard to make it happen.

Hoping for the best but fearing the worst for Goat Café. Another drink, Sue?

Goat Café update: guest review

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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.

 

Visit The Goat Café online.

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Who let the goats out?

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Post by:

josh panel

Well I’m not sure what the government have in mind when they talk about the Northern Powerhouse, but perhaps they are referring to the proliferation of 100% vegan establishments that are springing up north of Watford. In recent weeks, I’ve told you about Love Juice in Manchester and Lolo’s in Ramsbottom. Now it’s time to head over the Pennines to Huddersfield where there’s a new kid on the block (pun intended).

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