Plant-based store turns to meat to stay open

The owner of a plant-based hamburger store has turned to meat for the business to remain viable and will include animal products from more ethical sources on the menu.

Soul Hamburger owner Amit established his vegan friendly restaurant nine years ago, but mulled over the decision to close for the past six months saying he was driving away hundreds of customers each week by not having meat options on the menu.

With the hamburger joint experiencing a 60 per cent decline in sales since its peak in 2017 the owner had to decide on whether to close its stores or change their concept.

“Our choices were to close at least three (or potentially all) stores or to add meat to the menu and change the concept,” he said.

Amit said the problem with plant-based fast food outlets was they mostly appealed to vegans and vegetarians and that other people did not find vegan fast food appealing.

Once other fast food outlets such as Grill’d and Hungry Jacks added plant-based burgers to their menus, their sales also declined and they no longer had a unique offering.

“It has been a slow heartbreaking realisation,” he said.

“I believe we can exist as a non-vegan space and be considerably more ethical than standard food joints, by becoming plant-centric,” he said.

The restaurateur will open a new store that is 80 per cent plant based and 20 per cent meat based, offering all plant-based side serves, seasoning, shakes and sauces.

“While our current model is completely financially unfeasible, the silver lining is this new ‘plant-centric’ approach might have a greater impact for animals than previous, as we will no longer be turning away omnivores to the status quo (in terms of ethical) restaurants,” Amit said.

“Maybe being plant-centric is the progression for scalable casual dining restaurants.

“I don’t want perfection to be the enemy of progress.

“I don’t want us to be small one-off burger joint in a vegan-heavy suburb, driving little change.”

Amit said Soul Burger had played its part in catalysing vegan options, and perhaps the new Humble Burger Co would play its part in catalysing more plant-centricity in national food brands.

“Some will argue for a “noble” closure; but closing just means replacement by a status quo, factory farmed, animal-heavy restaurant. And that’s worse for animal,” he said.

Since Amit opened the restaurant, his goal has been using hospitality as a vehicle to drive change in the animal agriculture industry and reduce animal suffering.

“I believed the best way to do this was through a plant-based burger joint,” he said.

But the reality for the owner was that Soul Burger had mainly become a hub for vegans and vegetarians, and while they loved their customers, they needed to become more viable.

“By appealing to omnivores in this way we may be doing more for animals than as a completely vegan space,” he said.