The Vurger Co – one of the last fully vegan spots standing in Manchester – has announced its sudden closure.
The national restaurant brand arrived here in Manchester in the spring of 2022, serving up its established menu of plant-based burgers, shakes and sides.
The Vurger Co took on a pretty prominent site in Manchester city centre, putting down roots on the ground floor of a new building on the corner of Tib Street.
The restaurant did a pretty good job of impersonating a normal burger joint with its meatless patties, fake bacon, and plant-based fried chicken.
Highlights on the menu included its buffalo ‘chicken’ burger, its loaded chicken and waffle tater tots, and its delicious vegan milkshakes.
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The eight-year-old business said it has spent 50% of its time in the trade ‘in total turmoil’, faced with ‘unfathomable’ turmoil from the pandemic to the economic crisis.
They wrote in a detailed statement, signed by co-founders Rachel Hugh and Neil Potts, that they were ‘flying’ until March 2020, when they were struck with ‘infuriating government policy’ and ‘indescribable suffering’.
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The Vurger Co said: “To say that the industry is in crisis doesn’t even come close right now.”
Their statement also touched on the current news stories around the ‘death of veganism’, which has no doubt been fuelled by several closures of other plant-based restaurants (Manchester alone has lost V Rev, Zad’s takeaway, and Frosts Burgers).
As well as opening restaurants across the UK, The Vurger Co had its sauces in supermarkets, launched a recipe book, and even served Billie Eilish twice.
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Their statement continued: “We have grafted every single day, to ensure people were employed, paid and our communities were served. We’ve given it absolutely everything we’ve got, in all possible ways, and we are extremely proud. We won’t ever let anything take away from the magic of the journey of the last 8 years.”
The Vurger Co signed off by urging people to support their local vegan business, and called on the Government to lower VAT and take other measures to help the hospitality industry.
When we began, we truly didn’t have a playbook, we had no competitor to replicate, no other small vegan restaurant business to ask about crowdfunding, no one to ask about how to scale a vegan restaurant brand – and everything in between. Throw in a global pandemic into the mix and we’ve basically lived 50% of the 8 years in total turmoil. The amount of adversity we have had to overcome year on year is unfathomable, I couldn’t even begin to describe.
We set out to create an awesome burger restaurant that welcomed everyone, with a goal of being mainstream and providing the most incredible working environment. Until March 2020, we were flying! From 2016, we were amongst the brands helping to generate early momentum in this space. We had opened two restaurants in less than a year, and were scheduled to open our third, in Brighton, in March 2020, but the universe had other plans.
Like every other hospitality brand, we muddled through the pandemic as best we possibly could. We prioritised our staff and their wellbeing to the max. We battled through infuriating government policy. Like everybody else in our industry, the suffering was indescribable, leaving us as business operators, and our teams, stressed, exhausted, and desperately hoping things could return to some sort of normality.
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However the last couple of years have seen seemingly endless domestic and international crises in the world, which have all created truly a perfect storm for hospitality. Soaring costs due to international and domestic inflationary factors, plunging sales due to customers’ spending power being dramatically reduced, and the complete absence of investor confidence in the sector all of a sudden. To say that the industry is in crisis doesn’t even come close right now.
Then combined with the most recent anti-vegan misinformation charting ‘the death of veganism’ and ‘the end of the trend’ etc. The result is that it has completely unjustifiably, incorrectly and needlessly hammered consumer confidence.
Our incredible customers that are so loyal, passionate, and incredibly supportive.
From our very first market stall in the summer of 2016, through to pop ups, events, multiple restaurants, meal kits in the pandemic, mayos in supermarkets around the world, your support has meant the absolute world to us. We’ve had the most wonderful time serving you all, and providing you all with a space to enjoy great hospitality. Throughout all of it, you’ve shown up, and kept showing up and kept shouting about us, and helped us win so many awards over the years. Every comment, review, referral, every tip you’ve given our wonderful staff, every burger you’ve purchased – every single thing matters so much to us, and we’re incredibly grateful for your loyal support for so many years.
From absolutely nothing but an idea in 2016, we opened 4 stores and a whole production site, we got our sauces into Ocado, Whole Foods, Co-op, stores in LA, NYC and Dubai, we launched our recipe book with the most amazing publisher, our brand served hundreds of thousands of burgers to people up and down the country and yes we even served Billie Eillish and family not once but twice! Proud of what we achieved would be an understatement.
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On a personal level for us, it has been the most incredible emotional rollercoaster. Building this brand for the last 8 years has been a real privilege. We’ve done nothing else, thought about nothing else, and worked on nothing else, but The Vurger Co, for 8 years. We have grafted every single day, to ensure people were employed, paid and our communities were served. We’ve given it absolutely everything we’ve got, in all possible ways, and we are extremely proud. We won’t ever let anything take away from the magic of the journey of the last 8 years.
It only seems right to finish with our wishes for the industry….
Please support your favourite vegan business! Even if you aren’t able to afford spending with them right now, remember, a like on social media, a positive google review, a nice comment, speaking positively about them to others or a recommendation are all free and could make all the difference too. Less hatred towards vegan businesses who are doing their utmost and more love is needed!
Government to WAKE UP – Lower VAT, Hospitality business rates reform, Reduction in National Insurance Contributions, Energy support – it’s all needed and all needed right now so desperately.
We’re here for anybody who wants advice or support, whatever we can do to help keep the overall vegan train on the track, we’ll be doing from here forwards. Sending all our love to our fellow vegan restauranteurs, you’re amazing.
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All our love, Rachel and Neil.
Featured image: The Manc Group
Eats
Moor Hall – What it’s like to eat at officially the best restaurant in England
Daisy Jackson
There are a lot of good places to eat around the north west. Some are even great. But very few are exceptional – and only one can claim to be the best not just in our region, but in the entire country.
The restaurant in question is Moor Hall.
This two Michelin-star spot, just outside Greater Manchester in Lancashire, opened back in 2017. It achieved its first Michelin star at break-neck speed, proudly mounting a red plaque within six months of opening. A year later, it got its second. It’s been named the Best Restaurant in England two years in a row at the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards. And that’s just the tip of the glittering iceberg.
All this might seem quick, but I doubt anyone has walked through these doors without emphatically agreeing that Moor Hall deserves every accolade on its shelves. If I had the power, I’d give it another star on the spot.
The experience begins before you’ve even got through the door.
You’ll drive through the stone gates and down the winding driveway, passing a lake, a group of geese pottering about on the lawn, and around the back of the beautiful former mansion house.
You could have arrived on the set of Bridgerton (if the Bridgertons happened to have a wine list so comprehensive that the table shakes under the weight of the menu).
As each guest is given a staggered arrival time, they know who you are the second you walk through the door. Being greeted by name takes us both aback – is this how the Beckhams feel all the time? Fetch me my Birkin! Where’s my security?!
Anyway. The initial grandeur of Moor Hall carries through for the first part of your meal – drinks and snacks in the bar area, where the walls are covered in dark wood and cosy bay windows look out onto the lake.
The main dining room at Moor HallMoor Hall’s Provenance menu The experience includes a walk through the kitchens
Here, you begin to see the many, many cogs that go into making a restaurant like this function. Someone is in charge of water. Someone else is carefully slicing charcuterie into slices so thin it dissolves on your tongue like butter.
Tiny black pudding bites pack a rich, meaty punch that immediately makes me wish we were staying overnight and could eat breakfast here too (there are 14 guest bedrooms at Moor Hall plus new garden rooms being constructed in the grounds).
The next miniature mouthful bursts open with flavours of barbecued asparagus and smoky chorizo, then a dinky English muffin topped with buttered lobster turns me misty-eyed.
A pair of pretty leaf-shaped crackers, each one embossed with herbs, arrives next, alongside a tin of cod roe and caviar, like a classic pate but 1000 times richer and more interesting.
Crackers with cod roe and caviarAn English muffin with poached lobster
At this point, you’re whisked off your feet by another Moor Hall staff member, who promptly escorts you out the door. Have we done something wrong? Nope – it’s time to see the kitchen gardens.
He expertly points out all the herbs, fruits and vegetables that are grown on-site in the beautiful walled gardens, tended to by a small team of gardeners.
The tour then spits you out into the kitchen, where each of the many, many chefs whipping up your dinner will greet you with a friendly smile, and chef-patron Mark Birchall offers a warm handshake and yet another snack (this one resembles a small bird’s nest, filled with smoked eel and potato).
While the bar is dark and stately, the dining room is a modern, simple space flooded with sunlight and views of the lake.
The dishes at this stage of the Provenance menu become instantly more theatrical.
‘Royal Oak Rainbow’ – baked carrots with doddington cheese ‘snow’Rudy red Devon beef with beetroot and mustardGuinea hen with morel mushoomsGrilled cornish turbot with mussel and roe sauce
Suddenly we have people spooning brilliant white crumbles onto plates of carrots, herb-infused stocks being poured onto plates, quenelles of butter being rolled out of wooden dishes.
Some dishes are simpler, like a loaf of the best sourdough we’ve ever had, but most are unimaginably intricate, like 80-day aged beef served with beetroot and mustard, and rich guinea hen complimented by even richer morel mushrooms.
Whatever the dish (and we get through a LOT), it’s the sort of food that makes you stop in your tracks. It triggers involuntary reactions – I keep catching us smiling, or closing our eyes, or gleefully pointing out goosebumps on our arms. I actually well up at one point. I didn’t know ice cream could move me to tears, but laced with spicy stem ginger – a staple on Moor Hall’s menu from day one – apparently it can.
And throughout, Moor Hall will go to great lengths to show you where each dish has come from (because let’s be honest, fine dining sometimes gets so complicated it stops resembling food at all), whether that’s showing the huge joint of meat your dish has been carved from or handing you a tiny card telling the story of Ormskirk gingerbread.
Three of four sweet courses on Moor Hall’s Provenance menu
If you add a cheese course, you’re even escorted into the cheese room (is this… heaven?) to build your own cheese board from the huge selection of British creations inside.
There’s a refreshing level of transparency throughout and although we’re surprised plenty of times, it doesn’t feel like trickery.
It’s hard not to appreciate the meal you’re eating because you’ve seen every painstaking step and every ingredient being used before you’ve even sat down, from the gardner pruning the rosemary shrub to the sous chef placing micro herbs on bright green butter with a pair of tweezers.
It’s elaborate but intimate, complex but never intimidating.
The cheese room, where you can build your own cheese course
You might wonder how a £235 tasting menu could ever NOT be intimidating to the average person, and that really comes down to the team who work at Moor Hall.
They’re so warm and inviting, it’s like dining with friends. They could switch it up from explaining one of the most intricate menus in the world to joining in with our debate about whether it’s weird for adults to have a favourite colour.
Vegan restaurant in Manchester pleads for ‘understanding and support’ after sharing ‘heavy news’
Daisy Jackson
Wholesome Junkies, a vegan restaurant in Manchester city centre, has asked for ‘understanding and support’ after announcing that they were having to overhaul their menu prices.
The restaurant is famed for its plant-based takes on classic junk food, whether that’s hoisin ‘duckless’ bao or a towering meat-free burger.
You can even get an incredible Sunday roast with all the trimmings, for an ethical twist on the British classic.
But now in a heartfelt statement shared this week, Wholesome Junkies has said it has some ‘heavy news’ to share.
The colourful restaurant beneath the arches near Manchester Victoria said it’s had to take ‘a hard look’ at its menu prices after ‘recent struggles with rising costs’ – an issue plaguing just about every business in the hospitality industry.
In their statement, Wholesome Junkies said that rising rents, wages, stock prices, utilities and VAT (‘the biggest battle of all’) has left them barely breaking even.
Wholesome Junkies, a vegan restaurant in Manchester. Credit: The Manc GroupWholesome Junkies, a vegan restaurant in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
And so they’re having to action ‘big changes and a massive restructure’ in order to survive, from streamlining their menu to removing some items for more cost-effective options.
The restaurant then wrote: “We’re asking for your understanding and support. If you’ve enjoyed your time with us, please consider leaving a review or sharing your feedback.
“Every little bit helps as we navigate these choppy waters and it makes such a difference to our team who work tirelessly to keep this engine alive.
“We know times are tough, but we’re committed to weathering this storm together. Thanks for sticking with us through thick and thin. Here’s to brighter days ahead!”
Hey, Wholesome Crew! We’ve got some heavy news to share. Our recent struggles with rising costs have forced us to take a hard look at our menu prices. It’s not a decision we’ve taken lightly, but we’ve hit a point where we need to make some changes just to even keep the lights on. Some of the dishes and prices just aren’t working anymore, it’s not fair on our customers or on us.
From rent hikes, wages rising to soaring stock prices and utilities, and the biggest battle of all… VAT, the numbers just aren’t adding up. Despite our best efforts, we’re barely breaking even and I honestly don’t know how long we can keep going. Some days I do wonder why I’m even doing this at all, but I’m not throwing in the towel just yet. My love and passion has got us this far.
Starting next week, you’ll notice a big changes, I’m going to have to do a massive restructure of the business and menu for a chance to survive. We’ll be massively streamlining our menu, saying goodbye to some of our pricier items, and exploring new, more cost effective options. It’s all about trying to find that delicate balance between quality and affordability.
We’re asking for your understanding and support. If you’ve enjoyed your time with us, please consider leaving a review or sharing your feedback. Every little bit helps as we navigate these choppy waters and it makes such a difference to our team who work tirelessly to keep this engine alive.
We know times are tough, but we’re committed to weathering this storm together. Thanks for sticking with us through thick and thin. Here’s to brighter days ahead!