Ecological living on cafe’s menu

CUSTOMERS at a new vegan cafe in Newcastle are finding a whole lifestyle experience alongside food on the menu.

The family-run Little Green, which opened in Sandyford this summer, has been proving a hit with locals thanks to an ever-developing range of choice under one roof.

Besides its imaginative vegan dishes, the venue has a shop and is also offering holistic treatments, music nights, art classes, children’s crafts and a play area.

Little Green is a first business for Sarah Cochrane and husband Gareth Zeal, who are pooling their talents in a bid to offer something different in the area.

The cafe opened in July in Goldspink Lane on the site of a former Italian restaurant and the couple are making the most of all the available space to provide practitioner rooms alongside the health food shop and separate cafe area.

They have also been holding music evenings and have experienced with a night market.

Sarah, a lecturer, has long wanted to run her own business and Little Green’s plant-based ethos is complemented by Gareth’s job as a nutrition expert, in which he has top athletes among his clients.

And family have been helping her get it off the ground, including her brothers Stephen and Micky, an actor who has been fitting in shifts in between his latest play commitments. He is starring in The Great Joe Wilson, by local playwright Ed Waugh, which is on a regionwide tour.

The brothers are also in a band, This Ground Moves, which has been helping to provide evening entertainment – and family dog Gracie even gets a lookin because the cafe is dog-friendly.

Gareth has also been giving some free initial nutrition and healthy eating consultations. There are also food intolerance tests available and other practitioners are offering massage treatments and reiki sessions in therapy rooms, which are available to hire.

Curry nights, plus weekly blues nights, starting this month, are set to attract an even wider mix of customers.

The menu includes ‘comfort food’ dishes such as macaroni and cheese and baked lentil and turmeric bowls – alongside the likes of maple and harissa aubergines, home-made stone-baked pizza and meals with a Cuban, Thai and Indian influence.

The shop sells, among other things, ethical cosmetics and household goods, and there is an organic vegetable box. Amid concern over the overuse of plastic, Little Green also acts as a refill station for detergents, shampoos and conditioners.

Little Green, at 83-89 Goldspink Lane, is on 0191 230 5167.