First look at Gold Coast’s swish new vegan marketplace
SOME of Australia’s leading plant-based, cruelty free businesses have joined forces to open a groundbreaking new food and retail marketplace set to herald a ‘new age” on the Gold Coast.
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SOME of Australia’s leading plant-based, cruelty free businesses have joined forces to open a marketplace on the Gold Coast.
Billed as “a casual, high-end food and shopping experience”, The LC opens tomorrow on a site along the Gold Coast Highway near Flannery’s at Miami that previously housed a scooter sales and hire store.
The two-storey building has been transformed into a hub for plant-based food and will open seven days a week, with live music on the weekend.
Leading plant-based businesses Gigi Pizzeria (from Sydney), Helensvale’s Flour of Life Bakery, the Greenhouse Canteens team’s deli Flora by Greenhouse, noodle aces I Like Ramen Co and fancy fast foodies BVK (Burgers Vs Kebabs) will serve a variety of plant-based fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Five months in the making, The LC is the brainchild of Lovechild and The Lovechild Market Place founder Abbey Jones.
“It’s definitely a first in Australia,” Ms Jones said.
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The LC’s menu will cover everything from pizza and pastries to noodles, burgers and kebabs served in distinct spaces within the venue — including a front patio area, a breeze garden and a licensed bar and alfresco wooden dining deck at the back of the site.
“We don’t want to be known as a vegan business,” Ms Jones said.
“The menu is 100 per cent plant based but we want people to know the venue for the experience. We want the focus to be on good food.”
The venue’s foodie partners arrive in Miami with fierce reputations and large, devoted clienteles for their innovative plant-based culinary creations.
Newtown favourite Gigi’s Pizzeria made history two years ago when it became the first leading and established restaurant on the Sydney dining scene to replace meat products with a plant-based menu.
The award-winning Flour of Life Bakery will sell a range of signature pastries baked fresh each day at its Helensvale base for The LC while the Flora by Greenhouse deli will serve sandwiches, wraps, salads and coffee.
The I Like Ramen crew are already local favourites thanks to their former Tuesday pop-up noodle nights at Nobby Beach hotspot Bine while BVK will fill a gaping hole for fast, animal-friendly food items with kebabs, burgers and fries made without animal products.
The venue’s second stage — an upper retail level with tenants to include Lovechild Place clothing and wares — will take The LC Miami’s total floorspace to 1000m sq when it launches in coming weeks.
Each of the foodie partners has overseen their fit-outs in The LC’s cool, clean, welcoming spaces.
“It has different feels. We’re calling it an up-market market place,” Ms Jones said.
“When upstairs opens, it will be a 1000sq m space with designated car parking at the rear —
the block runs from the Gold Coast Highway all the way through to Hillcrest Ave.”
The licensed venue will also serve exclusive to the Gold Coast imported Italian wine and signature drinks including a rhubarb martini and a house twist on the Aperol called The LC Spritz.
“We are all so excited to finally put this out to the world,” Ms Jones said.
The LC opens on Sunday.
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