Worried about where to start with a vegan menu? Don’t panic! Vegi co-founder Verity Hall is here to give us her tips and advice from the vegan community on how restaurateurs can create a winning offer this Veganuary.
Two-time vegan business founder, 8-year vegan and sustainable food advocate Verity sets out her guide to help your business capitalise on the opportunity Veganuary provides for positioning incredible plant-based options as a unique selling point for your business.
It’s no secret that January presents a unique challenge for restaurateurs and their customers alike. Money (and belts!) are a bit tighter and many are committing to practising a healthier lifestyle.
Veganuary, the annual campaign to ‘go vegan’ for the month of January, provides an excellent opportunity to entice a new customer base into your business and position your restaurant as an innovator in the plant-based space.
Eating vegan means not consuming any animal products- including meat, eggs, dairy products such as milk, cheese and cream and even honey and current forecasts suggest that 50% of the U.K. population will be meat-free by 2040*, with the increasing demand for more planet-kind food systems and growing awareness of the cruelty inherent in our industrial meat production methods attributed as key drivers of this change.
Plant-based dishes are no longer relegated to a nice-to-have consideration for niche customer groups- they are a necessity. In addition, an often overlooked aspect of diners with dietary requirements is that they so often get the final say on where a group decides to eat; fail to win over the one vegan in a group of ten friends and you lose the custom of all.
Firstly, there’s a few things my community will want you to know about them to help understand what we are looking for in a dining experience…
What Your Vegan Customers Want You To Know
Most seasoned vegans are strong homecooks
We’ve spent years making steaks out of mushrooms, nuggets from tofu and salmon from carrots… We are experimental and approach food very creatively.
We don’t like to fuss (believe it or not)
There will be exceptions to this rule as in every cohort, but most vegans just want to enjoy their meal safe in the knowledge the kitchen is preparing a fully vegan meal. A big source of uncertainty in this regard can come from when having to remove items from a vegetarian dish to make it vegan – so often done whilst charging full price – this doesn’t lend itself to the best experience for vegan customers.
We know our brands
Most of us probably rushed to sample the latest vegan bacon, cheese or burger patty product when it was released. We can tell if that sausage is a Richmond or a Shroomdog.
We may be dining with other vegans
Having one vegan option is great, but it doesn’t make for a very exciting meal if you are dining as a plant-based couple.
We’re climate aware & want lower footprint food
This provides a fantastic opportunity to celebrate humble, local and seasonal ingredients. Your gross margin will thank you for it too!
We post about food on social media… a lot!
The vegan community can create big hype for your business on socials, provided they feel they have experienced something special.
How To Win At Veganuary (And Beyond)
So, we’ve established that offering a vegetarian breakfast without eggs, or a basic chickpea curry probably aren’t going to cut it to bring in vegan customers and keep them coming back.
What you choose for vegan options that work for your business is of course, highly personal. However, if you need some inspiration to help unlock the potential of what vegan food can look like across different cuisines and restaurant identities I suggest exploring the following social media accounts as a good starting point:
- Julius Fiedler @hermann
- Sophie Waplington @sophsplantkitchen
- Afia @eatwithafia
- Sam – No Meat Disco @nomeatdisco
- Gaz Oakley @gazoakley
In addition, you could consider working with a local plant-based food specialist and consultant, such as the incredibly talented CB Sushi founder Chloe Goldenberg, who can help you curate vegan dishes that will give your business’s plant-based options the greatest chance of success.
Making Your Restaurant Vegan-Friendly
Nail The Basics
Social media – make promoting vegan options part of your ongoing social media strategy. Meat Free Mondays can serve as a great reminder to ensure your customers are continuously aware that you cater to vegan diets.
Label effectively – pay attention to how you label vegan options so they are clear to vegan customers and desirable to flexitarians. Highlighting a dish as ‘low emissions’ or ‘lower footprint’ actually increases sales of vegan dishes to non-vegans and can be a powerful tool. Effective labelling also covers menu PDFs on your website, links on social media and other online sources potential customers will scour before deciding if your business suitable caters to vegans. Boost your green credentials with carbon audits, emission calculations and meaningful reduction targets and actions.
Show up in vegan spaces – utilise vegan city guide platforms like HappyCow and Vegan Friendly to ensure you can be found easily by plant-based diners.
Optimise what you already have – double check for any ‘accidentally vegan’ dishes you already serve, or could easily adapt to replace non-vegan ingredients.
Align your team – ensure staff in all areas of the business are knowledgeable of what vegan means. Although diners should communicate allergens directly, some people do still use terms like vegan as a synonym for milk or egg allergy.
Taking It To The Next Level
Vegan cuisine is ever evolving and customers will continue to want the latest and most exciting dishes. Here are a handful of exciting areas of innovation in the future food space to watch:
Wholefood heroes
Beans, lentils and legumes will continue to be hugely popular in 2024. In addition to meaty mushrooms, such as Lions Mane, Chicken of the Woods and Maitake alongside other foods associated with longevity, such as purple sweet potatoes and leafy greens.
Realistic 3d printed ‘meats’
Experiment with products from brands such as Redefine Meat, a vegan steak that has even appeared on Marco Pierre White’s menus.
Cultivated meat
After years of innovation and a recent stream of green lights from regulations, it is likely lab-grown meat will be on the menu in the near future. Whether vegans go for lab-grown meat will be a matter of likely quite divisive personal preferences.
Precision fermentation
This process uses microorganisms to alter proteins in a way that could create incredible flavours and textures. It’s still a novel field, but innovations here are inevitable and will likely revolutionise vegan ‘dairy’ products in the near future.
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For more from Verity, check our her vegan hacks series in collaboration with local businesses on Instagram @verityhall