England is full of traditional pubs, full of the murmur of voices chatting over a real ale, or enjoying a traditional pub lunch. But indie pubs are now closing country-wide, overtaken by chain pubs like Wetherspoons (which don’t allow dogs outside their pubs) and those that take seats away to encourage ‘vertical drinking’ so people drink faster so buy more booze.
It also doesn’t help that England has some of the highest beer tax in Europe. Reducing this could help indie breweries to thrive, rather than being overtaken in profits by the big multi-national companies (even Guinness is not Irish, despite the marketing spiel).
Obviously refuse to use single-use plastic. Just use real cups and plates, and wash them up! The new single-use-plastic ban has now come into force, so it’s illegal anyway now to offer plastic straws etc. Also use biodegradable cleaning and laundry products, and offer locally-sourced food to support local farmers.
CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale) has a free guide on how to save your local pub, if it’s threatened with demolition, or being converted into shops, supermarkets or luxury offices.
Serve Vegan-Friendly Beers and Wines
Make it easy for all customers, and just make all your beers, ciders and wines vegan-friendly (most spirits are by default). See the drinks tag, to find artisan brands of beer, wine and spirits (including low and no alcohol brands).
This means refusing brands that use bone char or isinglass to filter out sediment, and switching to better brands that filter naturally and have superior taste. Stroud Brewery offers vegan keg beers. Lucky Saint also offers vegan beer on draft (it has no-alcohol).
Update your methods like Yorkshire’s Brass Castle Brewery, who say it’s possible to brew wonderful beers using vegan-friendly methods (including cask ales). Step in the 21st century and boot isinglass out of your beer! Not only does it ‘go off’ quickly, but this brewery say adding ‘icky gloop created from the swim bladder of fish is disgusting’ and we agree!
Instead of plastic bottled water, serve free tap water from Frank water coolers or Belu water filters (both use profits to bring clean fresh water to others). No plastic and does some good too.
Other Ideas to Save Your Local Pub
- Offer outdoor car parks as Sunday farmers’ markets.
- Hold acoustic concerts or film screenings, if you have a license.
- Be the drop-off place for parcels, for local people to collect.
- Make your pubs dog-friendly if possible, with fresh water bowls, outdoor space and perhaps organic dog biscuits, for four-legged visitors!
- Registser at Great British Toilet Map, to let people know they can use your loos. Many older people don’t go out, if they can’t find a loo.
- Save existing pubs by buying them! Plunkett Foundation has heaps of info on how to create a ‘community pub’, plus gives discounts on insurance. The site has many success stories. People power!
Classic English Vegan Ploughman’s Lunch
Serve up a vegan Ploughman’s platter (The Veg Space) with artisan cheddar (not coconut oil yuk from supermarkets), fresh-baked bread, chutney, pickled onions, gherkins, radish, celery and vegan ham. The Ploughman’s has been around for years, originally a meal of bread, cheese and beer (or cider) to help pubs sell cheese, after war rationing ended.
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people & pets (many human foods are unsafe around animal friends).
Try this vegan Ploughman’s using palm-oil-free Quorn.
Or for something really special, try their Vegan Ploughman’s Toastie, layering buttered bread with red onion relish, vegan ham slices and grated vegan cheese, with sundried tomatoes and wilted spinach, then toast, flip and cook the other side.
Vegan Roast Dinners for Your Local Pub
There are many vegan pubs in England these days, so you’ll have no trouble finding a good veggie roast, with all the trimmings (served with artisan vegan beer). Above is the Sunday roast offering from The Queen Inn (just over the border in Wales).
The Spread Eagle, London
The Spread Eagle (London) was the city’s first vegan pub, which has a seasonal menu working with local producers and foragers to reproduce pub classics like this roast dinner, with minimal waste.
The Roundhill, Brighton
The Roundhill (Brighton) is a very popular city pub, with a safe inclusive space for all, and weekly rotating menus in line with seasonal ingredients.
The Queen Inn, Wales
The Queen Inn is not only a fantastic pub in beautiful Wales that went plant-based a few years ago, but it has now been voted not just the best-rated vegan restaurant in Europe, but one of the top five in the world! This family-owned business dates back a long time.
And rather than continue the tradition of serving up meat, it has instead decided to offer plant-based alternatives like realistic redefined steaks, ‘battered fish and chips’, vegan crab cakes and cauliflower steaks! The food is so good that people travel from Scotland to taste these meals!
This pub is both beautiful and welcoming (even visiting dogs get water bowls and blankets to sit on). The pub decided to go plant-based during Veganuary and it was so successful, so far using the vegan calculator, the pub landlords reckons their alternative menu has saved:
- Over 40,000 animal lives
- Over 350,000 kilos of carbon dioxide
- Over 165 million litres of water
- Over 350,000 square metres of forest
- Over 812,000 kilos of grain
Feeling peckish? Here is a sample menu, whether you’re planning to visit or run a pub yourself, and feeling inspired to offer the same!
A Vegan Pub (that uses profits to help pigs!)
Harp & Crown (Wiltshire) uses seasonal ingredients to produce a fully plant-based menu, with profits helping a local farm sanctuary.
These three beauties were about to go somewhere they didn’t want, until they were rescued just before the awful plan for them. Here they are sleeping things off, before they go to their loving forever home!