vegan cafe

New vegan cafe for South Ealing

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West London often gets overlooked when it comes to the vegan revolution, but South Ealing (about halfway between Central London and Heathrow) has just joined the plant based eating map thanks to a new cafe.

Revival Café is the latest project from one half of the original Picky Wops team, Andrea Moro.

Andrea has teamed up with his buddies to bring a desperately needed vegan spot to South Ealing Road. Revival is everything a classic café should be about. Visitors can sample specialty coffee, freshly-baked focaccia, succulent cakes, and tempting pastries.

It marks the first vegan eatery in the area since Vegan HQ closed down. What a great spot that was!

But we are talking about Revival, so take a look at this glorious food.

You can see the exact location of Revival thanks to Google Maps. If you know the area, it is opposite Wickes and the Co-operative. You can visit easily by taking the Piccadilly Line to South Ealing. The 65 bus also runs straight past Revival’s front door.

You can also follow Revival on Instagram.

FGV talks with Café Van Gogh

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I recently (as in today!) had a chat with Steve Clarke, founder of Brixton vegan restaurant Café Van Gogh.

We chatted about how excited he is about coming out of lockdown, new head chef Bonita, what makes the café so special to the local community, and what’s on the new menu.

It is a fun and informative chat about one of the best places to eat vegan food in London.

Click here to listen or use the player below.

FGV mini news round up December 28, 2022 – final of the year – Fat Gay Vegan

As the year ebbs away join me for a chat about the tough task of going home, Whitney Houston, and vegan food on QANTAS planes.
  1. FGV mini news round up December 28, 2022 – final of the year
  2. FGV’s Mini News Roundup December 7, 2022
  3. FGV’s mini news roundup – news, views, and reviews from the plant-based world and beyond
  4. Fat Gay Vegan mini news roundup March 17, 2022
  5. FGV mini news roundup December 23, 2021 – vegan news and reviews

New vegan café and yoga space in London

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OmNom is a new vegan café and yoga space located in Islington, London.

The café founders have this to say:

Everything we do is focused on journeying together to an enlightened lifestyle through serving your Body, Mind and Soul. OmNom brings you delicious, fresh vegetarian/vegan food that acts like yoga for your belly. As well as this we offer yoga, mindfulness and meditation sessions so you can connect with the real you. As you may have guessed by now, we’re all about giving, and as a Conscious Charity every meal you have at OmNom will feed a meal to a child less fortunate across the globe.

I like the sound of a meal going to a hungry human in exchange for every meal purchased in the café.

Sandi from OmNom clarified further:

Our mechanism is pretty straight forward. With every meal/yoga class that we sell, we will pay for one child to be fed. We work with a number of charities, including Annamrita who serve 1.2 million meals to children across seven Indian states every day.

If you want to see the sort of food being served at OmNom and check out some of their classes, get over to their website now. They have some great opening specials and discounts featured online.

You can see the exact location of OmNom in the flyer above or online thanks to Google Maps.

You can follow OmNom on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Vegan café in Avignon, South of France

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My recent trip to Avignon was a dream.

We enjoyed gorgeous weather. The city was beautiful. Everything about my visit was perfect.

One component of the trip that added to my enjoyment more than most other aspects was my visit to Theias vegan café.

The food!

I was greatly impressed by the cuisine on offer at Theias. Sure, it was simple stuff but simple stuff done extremely well.

My favourite menu item was the bánh mì which was made with the most gloriously irresistible baguette I have ever experienced. I loved this sandwich so much, I bought an extra to eat an hour later!

The soup, the apple pie, the cheesecake, the quiche… it was all sensational.

There were also tubs of salad available along with vegan coleslaw dressing and mayo.

I truly haven’t been this satisfied with a meal in a long time. I was so happy!

You can see the exact location of the café thanks to Google Maps.

Extra note: Avignon is situated alongside the rive Rhone in the South of France. If you join me on our Vegan Culinary Cruises Provence adventure in November 2020, it would be my pleasure to personally accompany you to Theias for lunch during our stop in Avignon!

Read more about the cruise online here.

New vegan cafe in Hackney

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Hold your tongues, complainers.

Yes, we have ANOTHER vegan eatery in Hackney, London but I don’t want to hear your moaning. If people can make vegan business work in Hackney, it has a knock on effect for the rest of us. The more vegan places we have in Hackney, the more vegan places we will have around London and the UK in the future.

So, say a big hello to Smashing Kitchen.

I asked owner and founder Asia to give us some insight into Smashing Kitchen:

The vision is to provide delicious nourishing plant based food, homemade honest dishes, vegan, made with love and with nutrition at heart. Free from refined sugars, additives and fats that aren’t always optimal for personal wellbeing. Everything is either raw, baked, or steamed. We don’t do deep frying. The menu consists of starters such as bread (home baked) and butter (of course vegan!), nachos, raw veggies, hummus (butter beans instead of chickpeas), guacamole, salads (either ‘ready’ sets off the menu, or ‘create your own’ options), sourdough flatbread pockets, and burgers. We will also be introducing soups and we always try to make some special dishes of the day as well. The dessert section showcases a no added sugar cheesecake. We also serve coffees, teas, homemade soda drinks, and kombucha.

That sounds tasty!

Opening times right now for Smashing Kitchen are Tuesday to Sunday 12:30pm until 4:30pm as well as 5:30pm until 9:00pm.

The café is dog-friendly and child-friendly (baby changing table in the bathroom, high chairs coming soon).
One of the real draws of the café is the huge amount of plants as well as natural light.

Smashing Kitchen is based just off Mare Street (between Mare St and London Fields Station) on a little corner, away from the main street hustle and bustle, but still great transport connections (loads of buses, London Fields Station 1 minute away, Hackney Central Station about 10 mins walk away). Click here to see the exact location thanks to Google Maps.

Follow Smashing Kitchen on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Surplus food pop up event in Bristol

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Anna just got in touch with me to let me know about a new vegan café venture she is launching. Café Surplus is part café, part campaign and part awareness-raising venture about food waste as the café will be stocked using surplus produce from local shops and businesses.

Anna is holding a party to launch the brand on 7th June, 2018 in Bristol (you can buy tickets online here).

A little bit about the event in Bristol:

Come along for an evening of food, drink and feel-good socialising. The fully vegan buffet will be sourced using surplus food collected from local shops, markets and supermarkets. There will be plenty to eat but the exact menu will be decided on the day. Ticket price covers all you can eat, a (non-alcoholic) cocktail on arrival, venue hire, staff wages and an evening full of fun and good vibes.

Tickets are just £10. Book now.

Also look out for Anna and Cafe Surplus to show up in London soon after the Bristol launch. There are plans to open a permanent location in the capital.

You can follow the venture on Facebook and Twitter.

 

New vegan eatery in Cumbria

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Great news!

The Cumbrian town of Whitehaven has a vegan eatery thanks to Louise and Dave.

Check out what Louise had to say about Beans & Greens:

Whitehaven is a lovely little town in West Cumbria. After living in France for 10 years, my husband Dave and I wanted to start up a vegan bistro and a shutdown cafe was available to rent in the centre of town. We have decided to go with a small menu which is totally homemade to provide quality food to our customers. Pizza is one of our favourite things to make (we have plans to build a wood fired pizza oven very soon). From a kale pesto based pizza to an Indian pizza with creamy masala sauce and roasted chickpeas, there’s something for everyone. We have starters such as nachos with our homemade melted vegan cheese and spicy salsa as well as our tasty onion bhajis with sweet chilli sauce. Our desserts include homemade cheesecake with strawberries and vegan ice cream or chocolate chilli cake. Basically we love vegan food, the ethos of ‘being vegan’, and what we can do for the planet if we all work together. We want to show people that vegan food is delicious and can be enjoyed by everyone.

Sounds fabulous!

You can like the Beans & Greens Facebook page and follow them on Instagram.

Click here to see the exact location thanks to Google Maps.

The café is dog friendly and is currently open Wednesday through Saturday.

London cafe going vegan

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A little piece of news just arrived and I thought a few of you would like to know.

There is a new, completely-vegan café opening in north London!

Room 29 is currently undergoing a refurbishment and is due to throw open its doors in May in the heart of Holloway.

I am yet to see the menu but some of the teaser posts being shared ahead of the launch look tasty.

You can like the Facebook page of the café online here and RSVP to the Facebook event page for the grand opening.

The message behind Room 29 sounds extremely heartwarming. They want to make a difference for animals and their local community, so I say they are a fabulous addition to London’s vegan scene.

Let’s get behind them!

Vegan cafe and bar in Birmingham

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Do you know about Natural Bar and Kitchen in Birmingham, UK?

This fully vegan cafe and restaurant is also the only vegan bar in Birmingham! They serve vegan wine, beer, prosecco and soon gin and cocktails, too!

I love the sound of this place!

It gets even more fab when you discover Natural Bar and Kitchen is also hosting live music events.

Get along in April 2018 to experience the new menu which will run alongside the usual buffet style (pay by weight) food that they offer.

Not impressed yet?

Natural Bar and Kitchen also serves up:

  • Brunch on Saturday and Sunday 9:00am – 11:30am
  • Tofu fish and chip Fridays
  • A jazzisundays event starting on 15th April
  • Blues, Booze and Burger nights

You need to follow Natural Bar and Kitchen on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Now, some photos.

Family owned vegan café in York

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If you read my ramblings around these parts often, you will know that I love to sing the praises of independent vegan businesses.

I believe it is crucial that we not only use our consumer choices to help reduce harm to animals, we also need to spend our money (when we can) with independently owned vegan businesses in our local areas.

Instead of our money being swept away by multi-national corporations with little or no interest in our neighbourhoods, the money we spend with independents is then put back into the community.

These business owners buy local as well. Their families spend local. The money stays in the town, city, and region.

With all of that said (again), I want to tell you about a fabulous vegan café in the northern England city of York.

True Story is a family-owned vegan café serving up tasty, nutritious vegan food to their community. The café has a stunning view of the Minster and is even available for private hire and functions.

Follow True Story on Instagram and Facebook, then check out the photos below.

Support independent local business. Eat here when you are in York.