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A recent article in The Bristol Post claims that the city is fast becoming the most vegan-friendly in the UK.
According to the article, the city offers a range of ways to enjoy and animal-free lifestyle, with its plant-based eateries, vegan hairdressers and plenty to do.
Restaurants
Bristol has more than its fair share of vegan-only food establishments, with more and more other non-vegan restaurants willing to create dishes to suit customer needs.
Perhaps most well known is Café Kino in Stokes Croft, which uses almost all non-animal products, serving vegan milkshakes, burgers and alcohol.
Vegans of Bedminster are particularly lucky, as it is the home of Earthcake, a shop dedicated to creating vegan cakes and snacks, as well as VX, a café on East Street specialising in vegan junk food.
VX Bristol’s freakshake milkshake
Just to the side of the Clifton Down Shopping Centre sits the inconspicuous Spotless Leopard van, which serves quick artisan vegan food for workers and locals looking to grab a quick bite to eat.
And if anyone ever says plant-based nutrition is nothing more than rabbit food, check out Matter Fastfoods in Fishponds. This fast food establishment is dedicated to serving fish and chips with a twist – there’s no animal products used! The fish is made using fried tofu, with a popular pudding choice of deep-fried jackfruit balls.
Photo: Matter Fastfoods
As well as these dedicated vegan eateries, other non-vegan restaurants are beginning to listen to their customers who prefer not to eat animal products, and now offer at least a handful of vegan options.
More and more restaurants are jumping on the bandwagon, with many establishments such as Faraway Tree, Krishna’s Inn, Giggling Squid, Butlers, Christmas Steps Pub and Tuk Tuk all ready to welcome vegan customers. Even Pizza Express has a vegan pizza on the menu now!
Hair & beauty
Set to open on Fishponds Road in the Autumn, ‘Tame the Mane’ will be a new salon with a twist. Rather than than a hairdresser, it’s a self-professed ‘apothecary hair health clinic and style service’, using only natural and completely edible products. Plus The Styling Lounge on Union Street stocks a large range of cruelty-free hair shampoos, conditioners and styling products.
And for anyone looking for beauty treatments, Balanced Beauty in Easton offers holistic therapies such as vegan waxing and tinting.
Vegan support
Bristol boasts a large Facebook Group, ‘Bristol Vegans‘, consisting of over 4,000 members who regularly seek out new places to eat, as well as share tips, recipes and knowledge about where to source the best food.
The group also maintains a listings website, www.veganbristol.com , offering a comprehensive directory of everything vegan in the city.
Campaigning
Bristol is home of the vegan campaign and charity group, Viva! , which aims to support vegans across the country with their lifestyle choice.
In addition to this, advertising from Go Vegan World was seen around Broadmead in January involving powerful images of animal suffering to encourage shoppers to go vegan.
And in more recent times, a billboard for KFC in Bedminster and a side railing of the Bearpit have been defiled with pro-vegan messages, showing some believe veganism is worth shouting about in the city.
Shopping
Bristol is home to a large number of food suppliers and wholefoods shops that are keen to cater to vegan tastes.
Nutgrove Kitchen operates from Avonmouth, specialising in Somerset-made dairy-free cheeses, while Pie Baby is a relatively new company serving 100% vegan pies at local events.
Bristol is also not short of wholefood shops, which are great for stocking up on basics that are harder to come by in larger supermarkets such as dairy-free yoghurt, ice cream and chocolate.
Better Food has three stores across the city, offering an extensive meat- and dairy- free range, plus there is an abundance of small independent shops in many other Bristol areas. Particular favourites are Matter Wholefoods in Easton and G&D Free in Keynsham.
Even the big supermarkets have started to hear the no-animal plight. For example Sainsbury’s have recently been installing ‘free-from’ sections in stores nationwide, which include a range of dairy- and gluten-free food, including cheeses, pizzas and vegan-meats.
Vegan MPs
And if that’s not enough for you, three out of four of Bristol’s MPs are vegan. Kerry McCarthy, Thangam Debonnaire and Darren Jones are all committed to leaving animal products off their plates.
Source: Bristol Post.
