More Melbourne cafes ditching the dairy and turning vegan

Cafes across the city are ditching dairy as a growing number of customers adopt a vegan lifestyle. With Australia now the third fastest growing vegan nation, here’s a few places offering a plant-based menu.

Lucy Callander

2 min read

January 4, 2019 - 12:00AM

Mornington Peninsula Leader

Melbourne cafes are ditching dairy as a growing number of their customers adopt a vegan lifestyle.

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Melbourne cafes are ditching dairy as a growing number of their customers adopt a vegan lifestyle.

The trend is a reflection of the popularity of a plant-based diet as Australia becomes the third fastest growing vegan nation behind the United Arab Emirates and China.

In 2018 a clutch of southeast cafes decided to de-calf their coffee in a bid to become 100 per cent vegan.

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Conscious Cravings (Mooroduc), Soulful Vegan Food (Mornington) Hunter Cafe and Store (Rye) and Kin Corner Store all embraced the latte lifestyle without cow’s milk.

Early adopters Wombat (Dromana) and Union Kiosk (Melbourne) scrapped dairy in 2016.

A slew of others, while not strictly vegan, offer customers plant-based alternatives including nut milks and soy.

Hunter owners Jaye Chapman and Kim Boon decided to take dairy off the menu in October.

Both women are vegan and Kim said after further research into the dairy industry they realised that if they wanted to align the business with their personal moral compass, being 100 per cent vegan was “the only way to go”.

“We were also inspired by other Peninsula cafes like Conscious Cravings and Soulful Vegan Food who had already taken the plunge and were thriving,” she said.

Kim Coon and Jaye Chapman at Hunter Cafe in Rye, a wholly vegan cafe, which recently stopped serving cows milk as part of their anti-cruelty push. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Bec Ettridge opened the region's first vegan cafe (Wombat Cafe) and store in Dromana. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Jaye said the pair had given customers plenty of notice about the change, using social media, signs in the cafe and word of mouth to get the message out there.

She said customers had embraced the change with most happy to switch to the house blend of coconut and soy.

Conscious Cravings went fully vegan last February.

And Wombat was ahead of the curve when it opened in early 2016 as the Mornington Peninsula’s first 100 per cent vegan menu.

Owner Bec Ettridge decided to start the business after seeing how people reacted to a sheep she rescued from the side of the road in Flinders.

“I reared (Albie) at home with my three dogs and each day I’d take all four to the dog park on Boundary Rd,” Ms Ettridge said.

“People and other dogs in the park engaged with him in such a beautiful way that I started to think about how differently we react to an individual animal. I’m sure not everyone who loved seeing Albie were vegan … their thoughts on consuming animals would be completely removed from how they felt about him.”