Vegetarian café ditches dairy – turns 100% vegan!

BIG NEWS. In the UK town of Leamington Spa, a café has decided to remove all dairy from its menu thus changing from vegetarian to 100% vegan.

This is my favourite type of news to share with you all.

The Garden Shed started out a year ago as a veggie cafe with about 4-5 cheese sandwich options. Owners Stephanie and Ruth never used eggs, dairy or cheese in their cooking or baking so it was a natural progression (which coincidentally followed their own lifestyle choices) to remove the cheese options one by one over the last year and replace them with vegan options. They make all of their own vegan cakes, vegan cheesecakes and vegan cheeses. They’ve even developed their own vegan sausage recipe, too.

I’m typing the word ‘vegan’ a lot in this blog post and I love it!

Stephanie and Ruth sent me a WHOLE bunch of photos to share with you. Check them out below and be sure to visit their website. Like The Garden Shed on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

FGV all day breakfast with homemade sausage FGV battenburg
FGV choc 'no' cheesecake FGV choc & peanut butter cake FGV choc bounty cake FGV choc orange cake FGV Hummingbird cake FGV lime & coconut FGV our front gate FGV Pizza slice with homemade moxxarella FGV Raspberry 'no' cheesecake FGV vegan cheese burger - supper club FGV vegan cheeseboard

Get to Leamington Spa in order to eat ALL of that and to thank Stephanie and Ruth for taking the big step to transform their business into a 100% vegan affair.

south of france cruise

 

InSpiral has a new name

Remember this post about InSpiral Lounge of Camden maybe closing? Well, it did.

InSpiral as a wholesale food business still exists, making excellent kales chips and raw cakes, but the canal-side café serving food with extremely mixed results is gone.

In its place?

It sounds like exactly the same thing, just with a different name. Now called Campbell’s Canal Café, reports on social media suggest not much has changed with the place. Some of the same staff, still serving cow milk. Mixed reviews on the food.

If you are interested in finding out more about the new incarnation of InSpiral Lounge, you can like the new Facebook page.

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New vegan food in Hackney

I know what you are going to say.

East London doesn’t need more vegan food and people should spread the plant-based love to other parts of the city and the UK.

Well, you might be retracting your complaint when you read about how awesome the brand new Café SoVegan is and you’ll probably be thankful it exists, even if it is in Hackney.

SoVegan logo bandw cutout

On hearing about the impending launch of the cafe, I reached out to co-owner Davina Pascal-O’Mahoney to get the lowdown on this new food business and this is what she shared with me:

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Hippo like you belong in the zoo

Post by:
josh panel
For months I’d seen the posts about a ‘top secret’ vegan café opening in London’s Soho district and last week I finally got to check it out. After changing their name from ‘Top Secret Vegan Café’ to simply ‘Vegan Café’, the establishment now seems to have settled for the more memorable (but sappy) ‘Vegan Hippo’.

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Fortify Cafe turns vegan

OK. This is what we have been waiting for, people. It is time to put your money where your mouth is and support an independent business as it transitions from vegetarian to 100% vegan.

A few months ago, I put word out that I would like to support any non-vegan restaurants in their quest to turn their menu completely plant-based. My Operation: Go Vegan Stay Vegan plan got a great response when announced and I’m thrilled to say it is now able to lend its support to Fortify Café of Maidstone, Kent.

Following my original post, Fortify head honcho James Hooper got in touch to let me know his team had been contemplating making the vegan switch for a while. Their popular Kent eatery has always featured a focus on tasty, plant-based whole foods created from scratch in their kitchen but dairy was still a component of some of the food and drink.

Until now.

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Go west

Why is all the fun, cheap vegan food everywhere but West London? It isn’t!

I recently heard rumblings of a pop up cafe on Portobello Road and wasted little time in getting over there to check it out.

LOTUS Cucina is a super cute pop up cafe housed in a juice bar at 297 Portobello Road, just under the Westway if you are heading away from Notting Hill (nearest Tube station is Ladbroke Grove).

You want vegan food? You got it. You want cheap prices? You got it. You want a friendly cook who will cheerfully deliver your food to your table? You got it. LOTUS Cucina is the perfect mix of tasty food and relaxed atmosphere. It’s good food done well. Simple.

Wanna know what I ate?

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New vegan kicks

UPDATE: This cafe has now closed!

Have you been along Oxford Street in central London lately? Longstanding businesses are being turfed out as the area gets dissected by the Crossrail tunnel project currently tearing up that part of the city. Shops are closed or closing and it is a sea of discount retailers mixed with scaffolding.

It’s a bit of a sad visual but something good has come of this messy situation. London just got a new vegan cafe!

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