Cellar Club, in England’s historic town of Leamington Spa, is impressing diners with its extensive new vegan junk food menu.
Located at the top of the town’s popular shopping row The Parade, the eatery, formerly Wildes wine bar, was relaunched this summer after a substantial investment by new owners. Gareth Dore and Ben Philpotts intend to breathe new life into the bar, telling local news source, CoventryLive, “We wanted to turn the bar from a French bistro back to what it was in the past, an innovative and fun bar that does great food.”
The pair has already installed high-tech self-service craft beer and wine walls and overhauled its menu with new plant-based offerings. Dore himself noted that he “hadn’t tried vegan food before and when it was suggested… was sceptical at first.” However, after attending a vegan festival earlier this year he was “quickly converted.”
The menu offers an extensive range of homemade, plant-based junk-food from loaded burgers, hot dogs, popcorn chicken bites, wings, and fries, to ice-cream topped crepes for dessert. Among the Cellar Club’s most creative offerings are the Surf and Turf Burger, which features a beef-style patty topped with “battered ‘fish'” and garlic mayo, and the Mac n’ Cheese Hot Dog, which is also loaded with fake-bacon.
CoventryLive investigated “whether… life-long carnivores would be convinced” by the Cellar Club’s cruelty-free versions of meaty favourites. The team concluded that the vegan “chicken” bites “both look and taste like they’re straight from the fryers at KFC – but better” and noted that the other vegan meat was “delicious” and certainly “not lacking” in taste.
Leamington Spa, known for its regent architecture and royal pump rooms, has become more veg-friendly in recent months. The Garden Shed Cafe, a fully vegan “Good Karma Comfort Food” eatery located in Regent Place, is no longer the only plant-based food joint the region has to offer. Since this back-street cafe opened back in 2015, Leamington Spa has welcomed more veggie businesses; the town even got its first vegan deli, Fred & Virginia, this summer.
Image credit: Cellar Club | CoventryLive
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