Columnists / Meg Houghton-Gilmour
‘The vegan movement is faltering’
In the same week that a handful of vegan campaigners renewed their calls for the council to stop serving meat as part of its internal catering, two of Bristol’s highest profile vegan outlets quietly changed tack.
Pastan, the vegan pasta export from London, which opened on Prince Street only last year has suddenly closed. The branch is no longer listed on Pastan’s website and the restaurant itself appears to have been deserted, though there’s been no official confirmation from the brand.
And much-loved vegan pioneers Oowee have pivoted their Picton Street branch back to offering meat, resulting in queues out the door on a recent Friday. The big green V is still above the door, but the hatch is very much dishing out the meat.
Pastan opened in January 2023 on Prince Street close to Queen Square in a site previously occupied by Friska – photo: Martin Booth
Also in the last year, vegans across the city have mourned the loss of all vegan pizza joint Purezza on Gloucester Road and Burger Theory’s plant-based branch Omburger on Stokes Croft- though you can still get the latter on Uber Eats.
In 2020, Bristol was named as the world’s number one vegan city by food magazine Chef’s Pencil. In 2022, we’d slipped down to third and now, Chef’s Pencil has stopped bothering with the report altogether.
So what’s happening?
The climate crisis is more critical than ever and awareness of it is at an all time high, and rightfully so. There are more vegan products available now than there ever have been – you can buy everything from plant-based chicken and bacon ravioli to a vegan all-day breakfast sarnie.
To not serve vegan options in a restaurant is now very much frowned upon unless you’re in deepest darkest Lancashire.
And yet the vegan movement is faltering. Or perhaps it’s just maturing. Demand, probably not helped by headlines like ‘Bristol named the world’s number one vegan city’, was overestimated. Now the market is adjusting accordingly.
Current YouGov data indicates that just three per cent of people in the UK are currently vegan.
According to Statista, the amount that the average person spends per week on food and drink in restaurants has dropped by nearly a third since 2019, most likely due to the cost of living crisis.
When a restaurant is only catering to a small share of the market and their friends, that doesn’t give it much to go off. And I know more than a fair share of vegetarians who feel like they really aren’t catered for in vegan restaurants – they’d still quite like their cheese, eggs and butter thank you very much.
Koocha Mezze Bar is one of Bristol’s last remaining all-vegan restaurants – photo: Meg Houghton-Gilmour
Then there’s the massive rise in the awareness of UPFs.
No, not some kind of flying saucer, though they do bear considerable similarities to unidentifiable objects; UPF stands for ultra processed food. Google trends shows a notable increase in searches for ‘ultra processed food’ in the last two years.
The Wikipedia entry for UPFs describes them as “an industrially formulated edible substance derived from natural food or synthesized from other organic compounds. The resulting products are designed to be highly profitable, convenient, and hyperpalatable, often through food additives such as preservatives, colourings, and flavourings.”
Yum!
Naturally (or not, actually), UPFs are really quite bad for long-term health outcomes. The problem is that it takes rather a lot of processing to make chickpeas taste like chicken. Thus, health-conscious vegans are now increasingly wary of the foods that vegan ‘junk-food’ places specialise in.
An asparagus dish from Root, the restaurant in Wapping Wharf with vegetables at the heart of its menu – photo: Meg Houghton-Gilmour
So what should we expect to see from Bristol restaurants as the growth of veganism plateaus?
Well, dedicated vegan restaurants like Koocha on Cheltenham Rpad may have to diversify their offerings. I would recommend restaurateurs look to places like Root in Wapping Wharf, which centres plant-based eating but also includes meat and fish in small quantities rather than falling hard and fast on either side of the divide.
And chefs need to be aware that people are more health conscious now than ever. Whopping great hunks of glutenous seitan aren’t the answer anymore. After all, it’s called plant-based eating, not bread-based.
Instead, we need to go back to basics. Eating seasonal and local plants wherever possible, with a little bit of meat on the side for those that want it.
‘Bristol named the world’s number one flexitarian city’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. Oh well.
Meg Houghton-Gilmour is a freelance food and drink writer
Main photo: Oowee Diner
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