The Importance of Vegan Restaurants in a World of Vegan Options

Why Go to a Vegan Restaurant When Every Restaurant has Vegan Option(s)?

Chris and his brother eating out in Cork... Guess who is the elder?

Let me preface this by saying: This is not a desperate bid for sales, but a genuine consideration of the role of specialist vegan eateries in an over-saturated market. And I'm certainly not someone who only ever eats in vegan restaurants (most of them are closed on my day off anyway!) I am also basing this article on the premise that animal lives are valuable, and the exploitation, harm or death of any animal is not a necessary prerequisite for creating a delicious meal! This may be self-evident to most of my readers. If you're not one of them, then this is not for you, and neither do I care to know your reasons.

Do you remember the days when vegan and vegetarian food was so left-field that you'd be lucky to get chips and/or a salad in most restaurants or pubs?

No? Well count yourself 'blessed,' because that was a daily reality for many of us in the 'older' generations. Forty years ago we (the wife and I) used to frequent a takeaway in Norwich which offered what they called a 'veggie bun.' It was literally salad in a burger bun, but the chips were nice and it was on the road home.

Those bad old days dwindled latterly with a blooming of vegan eateries! For a while; A happy time, the choice was vast, but that is no longer the case. Two things have happened since:

Firstly, every chain restaurant, and most independents have started offering not just a 'vegan option,' but 'vegan options,' and sometimes a whole dedicated menu! And whereas in the past, they would often have been token dishes of dubious quality and very little imagination, these days many are actually tasty and the result of hours of research and development.

The second thing to happen to the vegan restaurant industry, has happened to every restaurant and pub and eatery in the hospitality sector; Rising costs of labour combined with shortages of skilled staff, poor training, rising fixed costs of rent and rates and especially utilities and a fall in customer numbers due to falling disposable income (the cost of living crisis) leading to closures left, right and centre. Many of those vegan businesses made the mistake of thinking that there would be enough supportive vegan eaters to carry their businesses even whilst the omnis foundered.

In a triumph of bad timing, many vegan independents and chains had ridden the rising tide of veganism with the help of impossibly optimistic finance to enable them to open more and better venues. It just took something unexpected, namely Covid combined with Brexit, to put an end to such a hospitality dream (and not just in vegan businesses either.)

But what, for the hospitality sector, has been utter carnage (pun intended,) has largely gone unremarked by the vegan community, because, even with fewer vegan businesses, the choices available across the sector are better now than ever! it's possible to go out with your mates every day of the week, to any venue they choose, and be fairly well assured of an affordable, acceptable, and often tasty, vegan option! These options, especially from chains, are well within affordability price points, because they usually don't require any involvement from skilled or even qualified chefs, most are factory made, mass produced, and none the worse for it, it has to be said.

Operators are not stupid, they realised long ago, that if a group of four or five people is out to eat and one of them is vegan, that vegan will often dictate the choice of venue; If there is no vegan offering, the whole group may go elsewhere. If however, every venue has a vegan offering, then the whole group can decide the destination, and the vegan will have no more say than any other. For this reason, operators are happy to put on choices for vegans that make little or no profit, because they know that every vegan will have meat-eating friends who will buy the premium steak or burger, which are easy to make/cook and generate a higher margin than vegan dishes. The same thing applies with various dietary requirements. It's what's known in the retail world as a 'loss-leader;' A cheap or easy product that does not necessarily make money itself, but generates other, higher value sales.

In essence, for most chains and many independents, the vegan option is being subsidised by profit from the non-vegan dishes (whether or not the venue actually makes an operating profit.) Not literally, or overtly, but subtly. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule; Some open minded chefs and operators who appreciate the challenge and variety offered by vegan food who will rank it alongside their other offerings, and some venues whose USP is as a 'green' or 'sustainable' venue will offer plant-based dishes, but haven't accepted that their animal-based dishes don't actually meet the sustainable criteria. There are cuisines too that are traditionally more plant-based, but offer meats to suit the western tastes. It's also worth mentioning that London, and the big metropoli the world over, are exceptions to the rule; When you have ten million people within a ten mile radius there will likely be 300 000 vegans within easy reach... More than enough to sustain dozens of vegan restaurants, even if they don't attract any omnis.

On the other hand, the remaining (parochial) vegan restaurants will entertain you and your non-vegan friends at an equitable rate; If there is a premium dish that outsells the others, it will be premium for quality reasons, not because it's associated with a perceived high value product like a fillet steak would be. No vegan business (outside of London) can survive on the patronage of vegan customers alone, there are just not enough of them! In any case, the diners may well be out with friends or family who don't share their values. Vegan businesses have to appeal to non-vegan customers in order to survive. They can do this through price, or a niche offering (maybe a cuisine or a side hustle like live music or events?) Or they can offer a quality product that rivals that of any non-vegan business.

River Green is supported by about 10 000 customers each year. we know that only about 20% are actually vegan, so 80% are coming to eat a vegan meal even though they're veggie, pescie, omni, or flexi, or any other preference/non-preference? They may be accompanying vegan friends or family, coming for something different to the usual bill of fare, or simply for the venue, location or atmosphere? Whatever the reason, it means we serve around 8000 meals each year to people who might otherwise have had animal products if they were not eating with us! Multiply that number across the UK's vegan restaurants, and we are genuinely saving animal's lives every day!

Now we know that quality doesn't come cheap, and artisan products using local ingredients may be out of the range of some customers, the alternatives are more than adequate if you choose to or are forced to go to Mowgli or Wagamamas or Rosa's, or any of those chains. We'll also admit that nobody's perfect, we all make mistakes and some plant-based venues do not live up to the expectations of even the vegan diners. Without wishing to instill a sense of guilt on the vegan community, it is worth reiterating that vegan restaurants and eateries save lives... But ironically, the fewer vegans they serve, the more lives are saved! Vegan 'options' conversely are actually an opportunity for non-vegan operators to sell more meat!

Is there a way out of this? Well certainly, if you're visiting an omni restaurant, make sure you only go with vegans! Blocking out a table with only vegan dishes means they sell less meat overall. And bringing more non-vegan friends to a vegan restaurant is a great way to save animals' lives (you just have to persuade them first?) Don't beat yourself up if you're the only vegan on the works' outing and you have to go where everyone else wants. Maybe you can point them to the vegan options they might not have otherwise considered? Importantly, it's vital to support vegan businesses, so that they can continue to train the next generation of vegan cooks, diners and suppliers, they can employ people with a passion for plant-based food, and they can save lives!