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Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

bighospitality.co.uk

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Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#111

Post by lostgame »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #104
lostgame wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. Opposite experience here in Toronto, where I've seen 5-10 new, very popular vegan restaurants in this city pop up over the course of 4 years or so. The statistics may present this to be takeaway only, but, for instance, the oddly named Hogtown Vegan has become one of the more popular and well-received places in the city. May I ask what city you're from? I'm curious as to whether this is a regional thing.

Calgary. We have a few vegetarian (lacto-ovo) places that are full-service, a few vegan spots that are fast casual, but that's it. A few vegetarian and vegan spots have closed in the last few years as well. Edit - more steakhouses have opened in the last year than veg restaurants.

All the sense is made here.

Calgary, being a fairly sizeable city, may be an exception, but a lot of our beef comes from Alberta. I'd say Alberta is mostly known for beef and oil.

Heck, you guys have the Calgary Stampede - the last time I travelled out there I made sure to grab myself the nicest reasonably priced steak I could - Alberta's beef is known across this country.

Confirms what I was thinking about it being regional. I imagine other states and provinces with similarly agriculture focused behaviours would see the same result.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#112

Post by semi-extrinsic »

Lndlrd wrote: post #107
strict9 wrote: post #16

After 15 years of not eating meat, the past 1-2 years have been a golden era of vegetarian options in the grocery store, restaurants, and fast food. Based on anecdotes and my social circles, the number of people completely avoiding meat hasn't changed. But omnivores adopting a semi-veg lifestyle has increased. If I had to pick one thing, I'd say environmental concerns are the main reason my omnivore friends and colle…

Anecdotally, yes, I eat less meat now for environmental reasons, and I think you're right to generalize. Especially in progressive cities and circles, meat and oil are in the same class. It's hip to eat veg, socially conscious.

  But if you dig on vegan food  
  Well come over to my work  
  I’ll have them cook you something 
  that you’ll really love
"Bohemian Like You", Dandy Warhols (2000)

It's always been trendy in certain circles, I think the expansion now is partly environmentalism and partly "mainstreaming of hipsterness".

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#113

Post by stevenwoo »

i_am_nomad wrote: post #108
roland35 wrote: post #100

I am not vegan myself, but I do appreciate the huge increase in vegan options now that I am lactose-intolerant! I do enjoy ordering a vegan option with grilled chicken or bacon added if I can.

If you don’t mind me asking, how did you become lactose intolerant? I don’t know much about that aspect of biology.

A large percentage of people become lactose intolerant as they become adults, IIRC only a segment of people from all over the world (concentrated somewhat in Europe and parts of Africa) retain the ability to digest lactose into adulthood, east Asian here I personally started getting slight indigestion from milk but not ice cream or cheese in my 20's.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#116

Post by astura »

i_am_nomad wrote: post #108
roland35 wrote: post #100

I am not vegan myself, but I do appreciate the huge increase in vegan options now that I am lactose-intolerant! I do enjoy ordering a vegan option with grilled chicken or bacon added if I can.

If you don’t mind me asking, how did you become lactose intolerant? I don’t know much about that aspect of biology.

Age.

In some people lactase production decreases with age.

Same thing that causes male pattern baldness - age - even thought it doesn't happen to everybody.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#117

Post by pesmhey »

strict9 wrote: post #16

After 15 years of not eating meat, the past 1-2 years have been a golden era of vegetarian options in the grocery store, restaurants, and fast food. Based on anecdotes and my social circles, the number of people completely avoiding meat hasn't changed. But omnivores adopting a semi-veg lifestyle has increased. If I had to pick one thing, I'd say environmental concerns are the main reason my omnivore friends and colle…

For me, it’s variety. I value novelty and creativity in food, so the availability of different types of meals is great.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#118

Post by Mikeb85 »

lostgame wrote: post #111
Mikeb85 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calgary. We have a few vegetarian (lacto-ovo) places that are full-service, a few vegan spots that are fast casual, but that's it. A few vegetarian and vegan spots have closed in the last few years as well. Edit - more steakhouses have opened in the last year than veg restaurants.

All the sense is made here. Calgary, being a fairly sizeable city, may be an exception, but a lot of our beef comes from Alberta. I'd say Alberta is mostly known for beef and oil. Heck, you guys have the Calgary Stampede - the last time I travelled out there I made sure to grab myself the nicest reasonably priced steak I could - Alberta's beef is known across this country. Confirms what I was thinking about it being…

Of course, we do still have a metro area of ~1.4 million with a large proportion of immigrants both from abroad and within Canada. We're quite cosmopolitan. We've had quite a few restaurants on all the relevant awards lists for restaurants. Beyond Burgers sell great, every A&W here was fairly full when they came out. It just hasn't really caught on at price-points higher than fast food.

Vegetable forward restaurants are a thing, but I have it on good authority that they still sell a pretty large volume of meat and fish.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#119

Post by xiphias2 »

SomeOtherThrow wrote: post #93
arcticfox wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The environmental concerns, I only buy half-heartedly. I don't really believe that land-owners will transform their pastures or soy cultures into rain forest instead of another profitable exploitation, I'd rather have states force responsible production and norms. If farmers switch to other exploitative crops, it should drive up the supply and down the price of those crops, reducing the drive to clear more rain for…

> If farmers switch to other exploitative crops, it should drive up the supply and down the price of those crops, reducing the drive to clear more rain forest. I'd rather not gamble away the rainforest to optimism about humans acting rational. It's already irrational: humans will optimize towards short term gains.

It's not just about short term vs long term gains for the farmers: it's about gain for them vs gain for the whole human population (the second involves just a small marginal gain for the farmers).

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#120

Post by strict9 »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #99
strict9 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what what city you're in, but even the high-end restaurant where I live (Alinea in Chicago, about $800-1200 for two people) gladly caters to vegan preferences. With the exception of steak houses (not fine dining IMO) there are always vegan options in my experience.

There's a difference to catering to vegan preferences (every high end restaurant does that) and actually selling a significant amount of vegan meals. Or being able to open a vegan restaurant at Alinea's price-point. In my experience, vegan items sell fairly well, vegetable based items in general sell very well, but meals that are vegan from start to finish are less than 1% of clients. As in, serving 100 meals per day…

Complete vegan meals? Sure, I believe that. Overall percentage of people who are vegan is very small. And in a fine-dining experience, omnivores will lean toward meat.

I have an acquaintance who is vegetarian, with one exception: Michelin-starred restaurants.

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