Aimee Walker
The UK’s first permanent vegan “butcher” has revealed that the store sold out within its first day, with there being 100 orders made within the first ten minutes.
On World Vegan Day (November 2), Rudy’s Vegan Butcher opened its doors for the very time. Based in trendy Islington, north London, the butchers sell faux of bacon, chicken, and turkey made from soya and seitan.
There are other alternatives, such as cheeze sauce & chilli-non-carne, dirty burger patties, homemade pastrami, lobstah salad, meatballs, chick’n lover pate and shredded BBQ pulled porc.
On Instagram, Rudy’s shared a video of the huge queue outside the butchers. The post was captioned: “This was the line at 10:54 am before we even opened and it didn’t slow down for hours! 100 online orders in the first ten minutes!
“Thank you to everyone who stopped by, messaged with love, ordered online and shouted out our news. It was an unbelievable turn out.
“We are so blessed to have your support and feel overwhelmed by all the love. THANK YOU, thank you a million times and more.”
On launch day, the butchers gave away 100Ib of free baycon for its first 200 customers that came through the door.
Although it isn’t the first vegan butchers in the UK, it’s the first to have a permanent base, with others having been temporary pop-ups.
In Bethnal Green, east London, Unilever backed Dutch-brand The Vegetarian Butcher last year as it opened up a pop-up store in carcass wholesalers Hill & Szrok.
Ahead of the launch day, the store stirred up a debate on social media. Actor Charlie Condou shared an image of the shop’s front onto Twitter, triggering a debate as to whether or not it was legitimate to call a plant-based outlet a “butcher”.
Piers Morgan joined in, commenting: “A vegan butcher’s shop… and people wonder why I’ve written a book about the world going nuts.”
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