Success onplate for vegan eatery

THE first 100% vegan eatery in Dundee which also became the first hospitality venue in the city to offer all staff the Living Wage is opening new, improved premises.

Marwick’s Vegan Kitchen is run by husband and wife team Lois and Michael Marwick.

Having opened its doors as Marwick’s on Union Street in December 2016, the business started as a regular cafe before the couple turned tried a plant-based diet themselves.

After some test runs with an all-vegan lunch menu for a party in December 2017, Lois and Michael realised they could make a real go of a vegan eatery in the city and so the cafe turned meat-free.

Lois said: “Michael and I both had backgrounds in the catering industry before having kids.

“We worked in various roles around the country and after having kids we were looking for opportunities to go self-employed and having our own food place again when we came across the premises on Union Street.

“With four children, we started becoming mindful of our carbon footprint and have tried to evolve our home and now shop to be more ethical, sustainable and cruelty free. Becoming vegan seemed like the next logical step.

“We didn’t advertise as vegan at first as we didn’t want to put meat eaters off coming to the cafe. You can really enjoy a plant-based diet without having really beige food and we wanted to show that you could find something for anyone.

“A couple of our regulars were a bit unsure but even before we turned vegan our vegetable soups were always most popular.

“Now we have people finding us on vegan apps such as the Happy Cow app which shows local vegan eateries so our customer group has really changed.”

Marwick’s Vegan Kitchen will be opening at its new home on Wednesday as an extended pop-up at In Residence on the Nethergate below Lovely Things.

The couple’s staff will be making the move too and Lois says that making sure they were all getting the Living Wage was paramount.

She said: “These guys are the ones who keep the business going so it was really important to us that they were all being paid the Living Wage.”