As of: March 6, 2024, 4:52 a.m
By: Christoph Gschoßmann
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An unusual step: Because customers are missing, a vegan restaurant in England is radically changing its menu.
With emotional reactions.
Macclesfield - A vegan restaurant in England that is making the headlines: National media reports on a small catering company that is causing a stir with a controversial decision.
Because he wasn't attracting enough customers with his purely vegan offering, the owner from Macclesfield decided to include meat in his menu.
The reactions to this are very mixed.
In addition to understanding and encouragement, he also receives hatred and anger.
United Kingdom: Vegan restaurant with new menu - it also contains meat
According to the restaurateur, vegan “fanatics” started bombarding his cafe with bad reviews to punish him.
Adonis Norouznia, the owner of Nomas Gastrobar in Macclesfield, said strangers online had been "defaming" him with one-star reviews since he announced the "difficult but necessary decision" to add meat and dairy to his plant-based menu .
Norouznia wants to add a “carefully curated selection of high-quality, responsibly sourced meat and dairy products” to its menu.
This is the only way, explains the restaurant boss, who comes from Athens in Greece, that he can stay afloat.
The new menu is already visible.
In addition to the new meat products, vegans still have a large selection.
The Rügenwalder Mühle company also recently changed its range; a classic is now only available in vegan form.
Bad reviews for English restaurant after switching to meat menu
Some reactions from his customers have been negative – even from those who Norouzina believes have never visited the cafe.
They have started giving one-star reviews online.
One of them read: “Deserves zero stars.
Zero ethics and attracting media attention by getting involved in the exploitation and cruelty of animals.” Overall, the restaurant still ranks well with 4.8 out of 5 stars in the over 350 Google reviews.
Some of the comments to him go far below the belt: “Die!
“You will slaughter animals, you will sell animal organs,” someone wrote to him.
He assured that he would source high quality products from local manufacturers.
We'll just add a few dishes for the rest of the people who aren't vegan.” Vegans avoid eating meat products, be it for ethical, health, climate change, or other reasons.
The number of people following a vegan diet has risen steadily in recent years.
According to the Federal Association of the German Food Trade, in autumn 2023 three percent of Germans were vegan and nine percent were vegetarian.
Owner of vegan restaurant pleads: “These people shouldn’t be so hard on me”
The restaurant owner asks for understanding for his move: “These people shouldn’t be so hard on me.
If the company doesn't make any money and they give one star just to punish me, it won't help." The people who write to him - who express so much empathy towards animals through their lifestyle - must, according to Norouznia, also towards people " Show sympathy and empathy.”
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But there were also customers who supported his decision, said Norouzina: "Many customers asked about it and when we announced it, they said: 'Great, now I can bring my partner with me'."
English restaurateur upgrades fan to get rid of pork smell
The restaurateur explained his financial plight in a Facebook post: "The restrictions on our vegan menu at times meant we were only welcoming a small number of customers, making it increasingly difficult to be financially successful."
He tries to make it as easy as possible for plant-based food lovers to switch to meat in the restaurant.
So he made some changes to his restaurant, which opened in 2020, and not just to the menu.
He “spent a lot of money” upgrading the extractor fan so that the smell of roasting pork wouldn’t keep his existing customers away.
Instead of saving animals from death, animal rights activists in London are publicly displaying pet carcasses.
They want to send a clear signal.
(cgsc)