I love a success story, especially when it comes to vegan businesses.
What The Pitta is one of the true runaway success stories of the London vegan food scene.
Cem and Roj crash landed on the Shoreditch landscape a few years ago with their peerless doner kebabs and have gone from strength to strength ever since. The fast food heroes now have What The Pitta locations in Shoreditch, Camden, Croydon, and Brighton.
What The Pitta is one of the finest places on the planet if you are interested in vegan comfort food. Their kebabs and chip boxes are simply legendary.
And it isn’t just us vegans that think they deserve recognition.
What The Pitta have been nominated in the Best Takeaway in London category in the 2020 British Kebab Awards.
Yes!
The vegan chain is the ONLY vegan business nominated across a huge line up of possible winners.
We need to combine out vegan super powers and make sure they win their category. Click here to vote for What The Pitta.
Essential Vegan is an independent café run by chef Vanessa Almeida and her husband Neni.
I got to know Vanessa and Neni several years ago through the vegan scene in London. They would both come along to events I hosted and it wasn’t long until we counted on each other as friends, not just vegan comrades.
Vanessa and Neni work as hard as anyone I’ve ever met in the vegan community, if not harder.
I have seen them pull all-nighters, often multiple nights in a row, in order to prepare for large scale vegan festivals such as VegFestUK. At the first ever Hackney Downs Vegan Market Vanessa was swamped by customers and sold out of everything instantly, resulting in her actually RUNNING home to bake more cakes for attendees while Neni stayed at the stall and chatted with customers.
Their shed/hatch window takeaway stall in the now-defunct PUMP foodcourt in East London was crucial in pushing vegan food forward in the capital. Vanessa and Neni worked tirelessly to make delicious seitan burgers and succulent cheesecakes to keep the hungry crowds satisfied.
Essential Vegan also became famous around this time for their gourmet plant-based cheeses.
Vanessa has invested thousands of hours in order to perfect her handcrafted artisan cheeses. If you consider yourself a vegan cheese fan, you owe it to yourself to get along to Essential Vegan to buy a few of Vanessa’s creations.
As Essential Vegan Café turns two years old, it is also important to recognise how Vanessa has helped put Brazilian food on the London map. As a chef, she is a pioneer in the UK.
Vanessa and Neni relocated from Brazil to London many years ago and it was a dream of theirs to feed traditional dishes from back home to the population of their new home. They have realised this dream with Essential Vegan Café.
Feijoada is one of their specialties and I promise you will struggle to find a weekend brunch as delicious as this anywhere else in London.
I haven’t even touched on the rest of the sensational menu which includes cake, cassava chips, Brazilian cheese balls, seitan wings, salad, quiche, and casserole.
Congratulations to Vanessa and Neni for two years of Essential Vegan Café. I’m truly inspired by your determination, work ethic, and commitment to improving outcomes for animals.
See the exact location of Essential Vegan Café thanks to Google Maps (just a few skips from Shoreditch High Street Station).
The team behind Black Cat, Hackney’s oldest and arguably finest vegan café, have taken over the kitchen at Roadtrip & The Workshop.
Although London can luckily claim a few vegan pubs, this is the first time a bar, and a late night one at that, is catering a fully plant-based menu. (FGV note: I might argue that Karamel in Wood Green is the first)
The aim is to offer approachable vegan food to the multifaceted clientele of the Old Street location, from gig-goers to the followers of sports on the big screens to those looking for a meal to go with their night out in Shoreditch.
Black Cat will be serving up “tapas without borders”, a menu combining vegan versions of traditionally Mediterranean dishes with hints from other parts of the world.
The menu has been tested and served at their Hackney premises, and some have even been served at benefit gigs, music venues, gatherings, and special events.
Regulars to Black Cat need not be disappointed on their first jaunt to Roadtrip & The Workshop: Black Cat’s burgers will be also available and new dishes will appear weekly on the specials board.
Prices range from £3 for freshly-cut chips to £8.50 for the delicious cashew buttermilk corn-crusted seitan burger. The small sharing plates average around £6.
This will be the first vegan residency at Roadtrip & The Workshop, and the venue has gone to great lengths to ensure that diners can not only eat plant-based foods, but that the drinks menu matches the ethics behind the food!
All wine and beers behind the bar are vegan, as is most of the cocktail menu, which is clearly labelled while the venue works with existing suppliers and brands to clarify and find alternatives for its full back-bar of spirits and liqueurs.
Black Cat’s head chef, Nacho, commented: “We’re delighted to be able to bring our food to Old Street, and the whole team are excited to reach as many people as possible to highlight how going out eating vegan is affordable, easy, and most importantly, it can be enjoyed by anyone!”
Carla, who manages the café with Nacho, added: “We’ve been on the lookout for a second site for Black Cat, and when Paul from Roadtrip & The Workshop got in touch, we knew this was the perfect place to bring our tapas menu to. We are super excited and thankful for this opportunity given to us by the venue.”
Both Black Cat venues will be open simultaneously and can be booked for large parties, birthdays, or other celebrations.
Biff’s Jack Shack to Open at Boxpark Shoreditch for World Vegan Day
SOFT LAUNCH FREE BURGER GIVEAWAY: 20 free burgers given out each day from Monday 29 Oct – Friday 2 Nov
Launching in time for World Vegan Day on 1st November, Biff’s Jack Shack is bringing its all-vegan menu of jackfruit-based fast food to Boxpark in Shoreditch. Started by partners Biff Burrows and Christa Bloom as a reaction against the sad, uninspired bean burger options they suffered in many restaurants, Biff’s is out to change the conversation about what plant-based food can be – with a side of neon and the odd 80s reference.
After hugely successful 10-month run with a pop up at Haunt in Stoke Newington, the Boxpark opening will be Biff’s first permanent home. The menu is centred around Biff’s unique Crispy Fried Jackfruit: young green jackfruit is braised in a secret spice mix and triple-dipped in golden panko to create indulgent burgers and wings.
Old favourites such as ‘The Father Jack’ – named as Time Out’s favourite vegan burger – and ‘The Samuel Hell Jackson’, topped with maple chipotle hot sauce will be on the menu at Boxpark, alongside brand-new creations. Best of the new dishes is Biff’s biggest most indulgent burger yet, the ‘Jack Bauer Tower of Power’, a double jackfruit patty with deep fried vegan cheese, potato rosti, bacun jam, vegan aioli, served in a toasted brioche bun.
Crispy jackfruit wings come complete with a sugarcane ‘bone’, topped in a range of Biff’s house-made sauces including bourbon-infused sticky BBQ; miso mayo; cinnamon sweet chilli; and blue cheeze.
The Boxpark Shack menu also features a section of ‘Filthy Fries’ including London’s first vegan poutine – fries topped with vegan cheese curds, porcini mushroom, seitan bacon, and gravy. Elsewhere, there’s a jackfruit, brisket chilli bowl; hush puppies (crispy cornbread served with whipped maple butter; and desserts such as the Mug Cake Bar, hot fresh and gooey chocolate cake. Brunch burgers will also be available on the weekend.
All Biff’s packaging is fully compostable and recyclable and there are no single-use plastic drinks on the menu. In an effort to reduce waste further, all customers that bring in their own appropriate food containers will receive a discount of 50p from their order.
You can visit the Biff’s Jack Shack online and follow them on Instagram.
You can see the exact location of Boxpark thanks to Google Maps.
As far as mainstream promotions for vegan alternatives go, this is one of the best I’ve heard.
Offer people a free coffee outside a busy London station but only if they take one made with oat milk. Otherwise, they have to pay £2 for a black cup of coffee. I love it!
And it gets better. This promotion is running for an entire week!
Non-dairy milk superstar Oatly is hosting a super-sized coffee giveaway on the green at Boxpark Shoreditch (just next to Shoreditch High Street Station) between Monday April 3 and Sunday April 9, 2017.
The pop will run between 11am and 7pm Monday through to Saturday, with shorter opening times of 11am until 5pm on Sunday.
But what is going on at the marketing event?
Members of the public will be invited to watch skilled baristas create top quality coffees using the Oatly Barista Edition. Once they have been shown how to make the hot drinks to perfection and given a chance to win an Oatly t-shirt, they will then be given the coffee free of charge.
Oatly is undertaking this huge week-long advertising campaign to convince people that coffee without dairy milk is not a scary prospect and that it can actually be delicious.
Oatly will be pushing the message that choosing oat milk over dairy is a kinder, more compassionate choice that also has huge benefits for the environment.
The best part of the promotion happens when someone rejects the coffee with oat milk and asks for a black coffee.
Anyone refusing to try a coffee made with Oatly will be asked to pay £2 for a cup made black.
I absolutely love this cheeky approach to promoting plant-based alternatives to dairy. It is a sly payback for the countless times vegans have been asked to pay extra to get a dairy-free drink in coffee shops all over London.
You can wish Oatly well with their promotion over on Twitter and get along to the pop-up coffee shop in Shoreditch next week. You might even win one of these cute Post Milk Generationt-shirts in their giveaway.
Take some non-vegans friends with you. Free coffee might just be the thing that gets them to consider the switch!
Liz and Joe are a couple with big plans for their brand new vegan food stand being launched at The Boiler House in Brick Lane on February 25, 2017.
What’s so special about ANOTHER vegan food stall in that part of London? Take a deep breath as I tell you Eat Chay is a 100% plant-based Vietnamese food stall!
Before I show you some mouthwatering food photos, take a look at how the Eat Chay menu is going to work.
That all sounds RIDICULOUSLY fabulous.
Now for the photos. Vietnamese coffee and tea. Korean meat-free ribs. Start planning your first meal with Eat Chay now.
Be sure to follow Eat Chay on Twitter and Instagram. Plus, get all their details online.
Get down for the grand opening on February 25 and then visit Eat Chay each and every weekend following that at The Boiler House.
Extra note: neither Liz or Joe are vegan but have decided to invest all of their efforts into a 100% vegan food business. Interesting.
You’ve heard all about the incredible vegan döner kebabs being served up by What The Pitta in Shoreditch, you’ve drooled over the countless Instagram posts flooding your phone and you’ve made a promise to yourself to get to this brand new food venture ASAP.
Well, friends. The time has come.
Join food lover extraordinaire Fat Gay Vegan (that’s me!) for a night of kebabs and socialising as he celebrates the launch of What The Pitta with a Monday night party that will be the talk of the town.
Between 6pm and 9pm on Monday August 22, 2016, What The Pitta will be launching an exclusive Monday night meal deal.
For just £9 you will get:
– a döner kebab
– a cold drink
– a piece of baklava
I’m not sure where else in London you are going to get a deal like this. We are even paying the booking fee for you. All you pay is £9 for a wrap, a drink and a sweet when you book online.
Amazing value, indeed!
This launch event is strictly ticketed only and space is limited to 100. Book your ticket now and we will see you on Monday. Fat Gay Vegan will be on hand across the three hours of the event to check you in and hand you a meal deal token. Swap the token at What The Pitta for food, drink and sweets then join the party.
Once you have your online ticket, you can drop in anytime between 6pm and 9pm on Monday August 22, 2016. Stay for as long as you like, or grab your food and run. It’s up to you!
The capital is now home to a 100% vegan döner stand. It really has felt like a lifetime waiting for something like this to open.
What The Pitta sprung up in the Pump food court in Shoreditch only five days ago but such is the excitement surrounding the food stand, I have already been contacted by numerous people asking me if I had visited.
My visit today assured me of two facts.
Fact one: What The Pitta make huge, tasty döner wraps stuffed with soy meat, salad and chilli sauce. I’m known for eating a lot of food all the time and even I was slowing down towards the end of mine. It’s big.
Fact two: What The Pitta is going to need new, larger premises soon. I predict the street food stand is going to rapidly become one of the most-visited vegan hotspots in the city.
Check out these photos from my visit and follow What The Pitta on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Is there enough vegan cake in London? Of course not!
Vegan Sweet Cravings is a London-based business specialising in cakes and pastries made to order.
Each cake is made with special ingredients to client specifications for delivery across London (and out of London areas which are negotiable regarding delivery charge). Orders can be made via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Get in touch with Vegan Sweet Cravings to discuss what they can do for your vegan cake needs. If you are a café owner in need of cake for your pastry case, the company would also love to hear from you. You can already find one of their creations being sold by the slice inside The Grocery of Shoreditch.
Wanna see some cake?
This chocolate cake with raspberries is gluten free and sweetened with agave nectar. This is the cake that is available in The Grocery café in Shoreditch.
Like all of the Vegan Sweet Cravings cakes, this red velvet cake topped with cookies features three layers of cake.
How about this chocolate peanut butter doughnut cake? Peanut butter frosting sits in between the layers, while chocolate frosting and a peanut butter glaze coat the outside. Finally, the whole affair is topped with cake-style doughnut.
What do you think?
Consider Vegan Sweet Cravings for your vegan cake desires/needs.
It has been brought to my attention that this person supplied these photos to me without explaining they did not take them and that they were not even of vegan food. Follow up post coming soon!
END UPDATE
Oh my Gaga!
There is a new vegan sweet treats company starting up in London and you people have got to take a look at this goodness.
Vegan Sweet Porn is a new pop market stall selling some of the finest-looking cake on the island. Can you even stand looking at that cookie shot glass?
