Want to know how many vegan options there are at a mall? 0.
Wedges the colour of soot are not an option. Chips deep-fried in beer (yes that is a thing. I live in Australia ok.) is not an option to me. I want an actual meal to be available. It’s not like they don’t get the foot traffic. So I came up with some ideas on what would make an easy to start and maintain, likely profitable vegan “mall restaurant”.
Woodfire pizza pieces. Make a massive pizza. Sell each piece for an exhorbrent amount (say $3-$4ea), and add the option of a drink of choice (soft drink, bottled juice or water bottle) and a piece of vegan garlic bread for an extra $2-$3. It wouldn’t need that much space to set up, the drink companies can take care of supplying that side of the business (unlike many health food stores that also offer fresh juices – a fab idea, but very costly, and not as suitable with pizza). Clearly here the focus isn’t so much selling the pizza on it’s healthyness and more on selling it for it’s woodfire and pizza-yness.
I also think Woodfire Pizza Pieces would make an awesome name for the business. You have the W like a fire shaping itself as flames but with leaves at the ends, and the word woodfire all in a firey red written in x font on top, then Pizza Pieces underneath in a different font. Maybe in yellow with a black background, maybe black with a yellow background, I don’t know I’m making this up as I go along…but I like it… this store would be so cool.
Burgers. Make patties out of soy. Make patties out of sweet potato. Make patties out of rice. Any of these would do, or you can make a few with one and a few with another and so on. Get creative with which vegetables and herbs and spices you’re putting in each one. use incredible tasting and incredible looking (and don’t underestimate the importance of the good looking) burger buns. The buns must be so beautifully delicious they attract all the attention and make people say “ooOooo where did you get that? I want some”. This business would do well to also make wedges and if possible soy whipped cream and some chilli sauce? Or, make wedges with mushed avocado for dip the new in thing? Same deal with the drink options. Burgers, depending on how big your buns are (zing!), would cost somewhere around the $6-$12ea mark. Add $4 for wedges, small sauce and a drink on the side. For a container of just wedges and some sauce, I guess depends on the size of container. No more than $10 for the largest. I will hire a tall, dark haired, massively moustached guy named Bob and have him on the front counter as often as possible.
Sandwich bar (+ soups). Have all the standard salady ingredients. Include as many vegetables as possible in your line-up. Have as many bread options as possible. Have salad dressing optiosn available. People can create their own salad or sandwich or pick a pre-made one. This business would do well to sell fresh juices as it ought have extra large quantities of most if not all of the things on hand. This could also do well if you could and chose to add a stove top for creating soups. You have all the ingredients to make some creative soups as well as some traditional and classic ones. You have the bread to accompany it. You also have a lot of foot traffic that for half of the year are nursing colds and fighting the general extreme chill happenning around them. They will love you. But possibly not as much as the centre staff. Whenever they get uncontagently sick – if they are anything like me – they will rock up to work anyway, and they will want soup. Soup is soft and easy to digest, swallowed easily without any chewing and doesn’t over load the mouth on taste nor the nose on smell (two very big things for body control) and sits litely in the tummy. This is also why a lot of older people say they like it. It’s also classy. If I may so myself. I ❤ soup.
So those are my top 3 most likely options for when vegan foods start appearing in our shopping centres. A special note to kebabs and sushi places, as they are the most likely to have a sufficient vegetarian menu and be some of the easiest to convert to vegan. Also a shout out to Hungry Jacks because, even though you sell a lot of disgusting crap, you also sell a vegetarian burger which tastes phenominal. It only requires the subtraction of cheese and it still tastes like the best thing on your menu.
I hope you enjoyed my little rant and I hope you find inspiration and start one or more of these businesses in my suburb and local mall. Or your own suburb and mall. Or somewhere. Just do it, you know you want to 😀
Kudos if you got my reference in there by the way.
Have a lucky day!
Summer Tay.
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