I like Sandra, she keeps making me giggle. Daft little lady - Frosty
I look a real miserable git but then I did work for the Inland Revenue for over 30 years! Stone, blood, stone, blood, stone....
Oh dear Leedsveg..............that would be soul destroying............30 years at the Inland Revenue!
I like Sandra, she keeps making me giggle. Daft little lady - Frosty
I think it was roughly, 33 years 3 months 18 days 4 hours (can never remember the minutes)...Sounds a long time, but the last 3 or 4 years just seemed to fly.
lv
You missed off sweat and tears to your list. Also I thought you were only 21 so me thinks you is a fibber Mr LV! :smile:
What an odd thread.
Putting aside the character assassination, I do care about a high profile eatery that uses the word vegan. As it can easily sway someone's opinion of the vegan cuisine/lifestyle.
It's a bold move opening a vegan eatery.
I worked at a vegan organic restaurant in Brighton, but it didn't survive. I blame its demise on the expense of organic veg, the fact it wasn't large enough, and Brighton's high rents. And perhaps the menu.
Serving burgers and chips, pitta and falafal, hummus, baked potatoes, the usual suspects. I'm interested if these are cheap, and well cooked. But really that kind of food is common and unexciting - though you'd be amazed how many times I've been served a duff dish of the forementioned.
Most veggie/vegan cafes I find the menu inherently dull, expensive, barely enough to fill a sparrow.
I don't want some substitute meat product, I want quality food.
And gorgeous food can be cheap. Salads, home made burgers, roasts, curries, soups. The list is endless. The place should be about the food not the brand.
And of course the whole experience is made infinitely better, if the proprietor's/staff's hearts are in it, and they care about the punters.
That's what makes a good outlet. And it's a very difficult thing to get right. Especially given the financial pressures of running a restaurant.
Hi Tempeh-ting
I hear what you say when you talk about wanting quality, exciting, vegan food. I'm sure we all want that. So why don't we get the whole caboodle? Perhaps such things are a possibility in London and Brighton but in places such as Leeds, we have to be grateful if there's a vegan item on the menu, never mind wanting quality and excitement as well. A veggie/vegan restaurant in Sheffield, Kumquat Mae, used to serve really, really good food but it closed down last year because some Saturday evenings, they got 2 customers. It wasn't the cheapest food, but it was the best food I've had outside NY City.
leedsveg
I hear you. I guess I sound like a spoilt brat! I just visited sri-lanka (I'll try and make up for it, by helping at trees for life). I knew, the food would be the least of my troubles as it's a good buddhist country. It was a vegan paradise, apart from their appetite for fish. Rice and curry, is a staple, and vegan (apart from rare circumstance). I was slightly surprised as I thought the locals would know about vegetarianism, but they barly mentioned it except in the city. Buddhism should imply pure vegetarianism, i.e. vegan, but I think that aspect of the religion has been lost somewhere. Anyway what I'm saying is a main dish out there is vegan. And it's totally normal. I was not treated like a lepper for requesting it, and that was great.
What I'm trying to say is, there are loads of great dishes out there, that are vegan, but you won't find them necessarily in a vegan restaurant. Check out Leed's Indian restaurants, I miss Chuckwells in Leeds!
If I opened somewhere, I'd have a vegan menu, but wouldn't make a big deal out of it, the small print would state everything was 100% vegetarian.
There are vegan gems in every cuisine, it's not a minority diet, in fact it's the diet of the masses. It's only the rich fat westerners that have the luxury of meat. Don't feel alone. And don't feel awkward or different! And pray that China, Brazil and India, don't get an appetite for beef, as the world just cannot sustain it.
222 in Kensington, London (big conurbation in the south of England) is like that it is a veggie restuarant where everything is wonderfully vegan.
Hi T-t
Let me get my flight booked to Sri Lanka! Sounds like the vegan food place to be.
Hopefully V-bites will be a success and the menu expanded so that diners can choose either something a bit out of the ordinary, or something more mundane, such as a burger on a bun. I know it shouldn't be but it does seem that an easy way to lose pots of money is to invest in a veg*n cafe/restaurant.
lv
'The word gorilla was derived from the Greek word Gorillai (a "tribe of hairy women")'
The name was Room 101, on Trafalgar Street opposite the George. And I think it was actually ground breakingly vegan/organic. I was merely a kitchen slug. Sadly the whole experience killed my enthusiasm for starting my own vegan cafe one day. It's incredibly hard work. Though I still think it's possible, given a cheap enough rent - in the right area - with the right menu.
V-bites is actually in a very awkward spot. It's at hove lagoon, next to the children's playground. It's in a historically poor area, well at least the harbour used to be.
So in my opinion, it's the kind of place that must survive on passing trade. Or for those that make a special trip . And actually it's a good walk from Brighton, but never the less a nice one. So I guess the former is more likely.
A pet peeve of mine, are bad cafes/eateries, that sell unhealthy food in a captive market. For example Schools, colleges, universities, playgrounds and hospitals. And I believe it should almost be against the law to sell unhealthy food. Heck I'd also say that the businesses that operate in places like that should be not for profits. In Cambridge hospital, they had a burger king for christ's sake - I wonder if it's still there.
So I hope whoever looks after that cafe behaves responsibly. And hopefully sells some good cheap wholefood. Baked potatoes and beans, for a couple of quid, not a fiver!
Going back to Room 101, it was strictly vegan in the kitchen when it opened. Even dairy milk was banished from the kitchen, that some of the punters demanded upstairs. If you don't have much floor space, you can either put the price of food up, try and get a quick turn over of customers, or sell foods or drinks with better margins, like alcohol. Or a buffet. The bombay aloo, is the only (commercial, before you shout fred's house) place in Brighton I know of that has been consistently good and wholely vegetarian for at least 10 years. And I think even that place could improve, one way would be to be entirely vegan.
Anyway it seems that over priced coffee shops that only sell cake and mostly bad coffee, seem to do better than anywhere else. Even the supermarkets have cottoned onto that.
Wandering off topic, with my angst ridden ranting. And I'm not talking about the supermarket chain in Romania.
I went to Room 101 a while before it closed down and the menu was not entirely vegan (in fact I seem to think it was not even entirely vegetarian). It was also expensive. It had virtually no publicity that I was aware of and I don't think it was there for very long. How long was it open for? And if it did stop being vegan how long after opening was that?
It takes a while to establish yourself and maybe they didn't give it long enough or do enough to promote themselves.
What about Food For Friends (which has admittedly changed from a stand in line counter to waiter service since it was established in 1981) and Terre A Terre (which started in a tiny venue with very few tables in 1981/2)? I'd say both of these have been entirely veggie and pretty good since I first started visiting in the 80's.The bombay aloo, is the only (commercial, before you shout fred's house) place in Brighton I know of that has been consistently good and wholely vegetarian for at least 10 years.
I have to admit I've not tried Bombay Aloo as I've heard more bad review than good and the food looks unappealing to me.
Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell
I think I read that they are opening fast food places in hospitals in an attempt to make them less like ghettos and more part of the local community, the idea being that passersby may pop into the hospital complex for a burger. Personally I can't see this happening, and if they've got to do it it would be better if it was a healthier kind of food, e.g. a VBites perhaps
I think I quite liked Room 101 and was a bit disappointed when it vanished. I don't remember it as vegan either. ISTR I first went in there because the George was full one night - being near to a place like that could have worked both for and against Room 101, depending on how often the George was full!
i wondered if you meant Room 101, because i knew that closed down after a very short time, but i thought it was veggie not completely vegan. i never went there because i heard it was expensive and it had closed down before i had a chance to go.
Beanstalk Cafe were trying to do something in a similar vein to V-Bites and they didn't last very long despite being in the centre of Brighton, but they didn't have the backing of someone who could afford to prop them up if they made a loss.
'The word gorilla was derived from the Greek word Gorillai (a "tribe of hairy women")'
I found the Beanstalk food very boring and plain, like what someone could cook at home. Shortly after they opened they stopped doing the hot food counter anyway and every time I popped in to have a look (because the location was handiest) the only savoury food was falafels, sandwiches and pasties as far as I could see so I walked a bit further to Infinity Cafe (now I'd have to go as far as Iydea for the instant wholesome food I tend to want when out on my own). The staff in Beanstalk never seemed particularly interested in serving me either and since they never had anything appealing or different (apart from on my first visit) I stopped going in to look.
Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell
i've found the food in V-Bites to be mostly food i could cook at home though, especially as it's mostly Redwoods-based. Beanstalk seemed to be trying the simple but fairly cheap angle with mock meat sandwiches and cakes. i had some pretty good food in there. i'd rather go somewhere like that in the centre of town than travel all the way out to Hove Lagoon.
'The word gorilla was derived from the Greek word Gorillai (a "tribe of hairy women")'
It's true actually, on reflection it's probably just that I'm totally hopeless and don't cook much so a home-made curry sauce makes me happy since I couldn't do that at home! (Pasta in a bland tomato sauce I can just about do!)
Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell
http://www.heathermills.org/news/news_040.php
http://www.heathermills.org/news/news_038.php
Heather has opened a VBites branch in the Bronx, also Redwood Foods, which Heather owns, has been voted the UK's most ethical vegetarian food supplier.
When's Sir Paul gonner respond.......?
lv
Great news on both counts. I want a VBites in Letchworth now (as if that would ever happen even though it used to be known as a vegetarian town).
Lot more chance of a VBites cafe/restaurant in Letchworth than a 'McCartney's'!
lv
No I haven't been there for a while, thats not good though. Yes we definitely need a vegan restaurant, theres the one in Tring? Friends also go to Mr Man in Edgeware.
I think there is enough hatred in the world directed at the voiceless majority without us laying into fellow vegans. We can never know why someone else is vegan, but for as long as they are vegan, and they are encouraging others to reflect on veganism, shouldn't we be reserving our anger and hatred - if we must feel it - for those who perpetrate cruelty to animals? (Still recovering from watching Earthlings)
I am shocked at how easily I can side track myself to avoid spending time doing good works - like cruising vegan forums to chat So how can I know and then judge teh purity of what motivates someone else, and am I in a position to criticise someone who spends 10 times more energy and hours peddling a cause so close to my heart?
So, whoever Heather Mills is, I hope she will continue to speak out the sake of all those who continue to suffer abominably in silence and for those of us too caught up with our own lives "earning a crust", to do it for them as wholehearted as she is lucky enough to do, thanks to Paul's "generosity" (in quotes because I'm not sure he wanted to give her that much but I'm glad he did if this is what she's doing with it).
Well said Greenspex!
I like Sandra, she keeps making me giggle. Daft little lady - Frosty
Nice to see you again greenspex!
I called at VBites for some take-out cake this evening around 9pm and it was closed. It's meant to be open til 10.30pm according to the website.
Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell
Fair enough, but when I visit a V Bites outlet I resreve the right to judge my experience as a paying customer, as opposed to someone who is willing to 'take one for the team'.
From Sutton, Surrey, (or Greater London when they want to fleece me for the Olympics)
Exactly right Jiffy. Vegans are not 2nd class citizens and we shouldn't be accepting any 2nd rate food that we come across as 'ok'. That would encourage others to believe that vegans are willing to accept, and eat, 'any old rubbish as long as it's vegan'. As vegans, we always have a choice, even if sometimes it's a stark 'take it or leave it'. If we need to vote with our feet, let's do it.
(Of course poor value for money comes into this as well. I remember 3 years ago being charged Ł6 for a small bowl of lettuce leaves with 3 olives in it, this being titled, a 'main course'. My omnivorous work colleagues at this office Christmas meal had lot better value in what they ate. They were not impressed with the veggie/vegan option. No chance of anybody converting from omni that evening!)
lv
If someone wants a more apt judgement of Heather Mills cookery skills, i honestly don't know if she has any, then she will be doing a cookery demo at the brighton eco veggie fayre in hove town hall on the 20th of march. I'm sure it will step above the range of shoving redwoods in a bun, so come and see what she's got.
I notice on the website there are summer jobs available there!
Silent but deadly :p
VBites has closed down "for the winter":
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukp...61HPGd23XsuCgw
"Mr Flibble - forum corruptor of innocents!!" - Hemlock
Under the rather daft guise that beachside cafés all do...
..but what would they do with all the cows?..
I'm sure there are other rubbish ones that do, somewhere in the world
"Mr Flibble - forum corruptor of innocents!!" - Hemlock
So what's the real reason it's "closing for the winter"? Does anyone on VF actually know?
leedsveg
There are also staffing and management issues but essentially it's the location.
..but what would they do with all the cows?..
I'm confused. I thought I was being given some new gossip about VBites but all I can see is that there is a winter break, which in terms of its location, is to be expected. If Heather is going to use the break to improve things, that has to be good doesn't it?
leedsveg
It was not planned as a seasonal venue as far as I am aware and for those of us that live here and would love to use it all year if it were to get its act together it is a bit of a shame. Anyway, The Loving Hut rulez...
..but what would they do with all the cows?..
It stayed open last winter, didn't it, and ISTR going there on a cold day and finding it quite crowded. But perhaps the economics don't work if they can't use the outside space as well.
Alot of people are speculating that it won't reopen......
The taste of anything in my mouth for 5 seconds does not equate to the beauty and complexity of life.
Can I start the rumour that she's relocating VBites ooop north (the biblical Land Of Tripe and Honey) to Leeds.
leedsveg
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