Metal gods’ vegan Junk
A FLEDGING vegan restaurant helped rock royalty warm up before a massive gig at Newcastle Arena.
Despite only being open a matter of weeks, staff at Junk It Up catered for heavy metal legends Def Leppard as they played in the city on their Hysteria and More tour.
Junk It Up, Newcastle’s first vegan fast food bar, only opened the doors to its new sit-down, city centre restaurant at the end of November.
Def Leppard’s hard rock image has not stopped many of them sharing their commitment to vegan and vegetarianism with fans.
Guitarist Phil Collen enjoys a vegan (and booze-free) diet, while drummer Rick Allen is so committed to ethical consumption that he launched a vegan bag company this summer.
And for staff at the new Pink Lane branch, the call from the band’s team was a source of serious excitement.
Junk It Up’s co-owner Kerry James said: “We have a great relationship with the Arena and the Academy, and have cooked for a lot of famous bands and acts in the past, but this by far the biggest band we’ve been asked to do food for.
“We couldn’t believe it for a second. Def Leppard are absolute rock legends, and the whole team is so excited to be making food for them, especially vegan junk food.
“The runner at the arena let us know straight away who it was for, and exactly what the band members wanted.”
This, Kerry said, was “quite a bit”, including a 10-piece southern fried ‘fricken’ bucket, a fricken classic burger with cheese, and vegan hot wings.
According to Kerry, the launch of the new bar, which follows on from the success of the first takeaway branch on Shields Road in Byker, is going “fantastically” so far.
She also said her team are seeing more people interested in vegan food – which can only be helped by a few internationally famous vegan customers.
She added: “We are getting customers who eat meat, but who are open to eating vegan food as well.
“We set out to show that vegan food doesn’t have to be boring, and stereotypical leaves on a plate, and we think we’re achieving that.”