Moral posturing in food choices sounds fine on paper, but it turns out it doesn’t exactly pay the bills — at least not at a well-known British vegan restaurant.
According to the U.K. Daily Mail, The Mango Tree, in the English town of Taunton, about 150 miles southwest of London, is closing for a bit of renovation. When it opens back up in the fall, it won’t just be the space inside that will change.
The menu has also been renovated — and it now includes meat.
Yes, heresy. As the Daily Mail notes, “those who loved the plant-based values have hit out saying ‘selling meat is worse than closing.’”
However, the restaurant explained that it had no choice but to adapt, given the circumstances.
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The change became a matter of contention after a Facebook post by the restaurant on Aug. 27 that didn’t explicitly mention the addition of meat to the menu.
“Our final day as The Mango Tree is approaching fast, before we close our doors for a little while, ready to open our new restaurant in the autumn — same location, same team and including some of our renowned plant based dishes, alongside exciting new menu options and a brand new vibe!” the post read.
The post added that, when the restaurant reopens, it “will be serving a variety of dishes to accommodate a wide variety of dietary needs and preferences.” This includes meat, obviously.
Would you ever eat at an exclusively vegan restaurant?
Vegans were horrified.
“I’m very saddened to hear this as someone who put so much energy into your restaurant I understand entirely why you are doing this but from a vegan standpoint I would see this as unethical practice,” one user wrote.
“The non vegans will probably be happy to see this but sadly I think you may have lost my business from now as I cannot support this decision wishing you the best.”
The restaurant responded by saying “continuing as a purely vegan restaurant has not been sustainable for a considerable amount of time as there are simply not enough customers supporting us in our current format.”
And, as for those who were whining about the ethics of meat-eating, management asked them to consider the ethics of putting people out of work.
“The only other option was to close permanently,” the restaurant wrote.
“Ethics extend to the jobs and welfare of our wonderful team, to whom we owe a great deal, and another chance.”
But for these carpers, the only life that matters is animal life.
“Veganism isn’t a business venture. It’s an ethical philosophy that does the best for the animals, the planet, and public health,” one user wrote.
“Introducing animal products to a menu in a town that has so many other restaurants makes no sense. It immediately increases the environmental footprint. It means that the restaurant immediately starts to support animals going through hell again.”
Not that one restaurant will change the environmental footprint — and it’s eminently clear that there aren’t enough actual humans willing to follow Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum down the primrose path to a plant-based diet.
“Despite lots of marketing, many special offers, offering dine in and takeaway, introducing the use of home delivery partners, and working incredibly hard to be as efficient as possible, not enough of the local population used us regularly enough to make continuing in the current format sustainable,” the restaurant stated.
“We must move on with positivity and are determined to do so.”
The free market is a beautiful thing. For all the empty talk about the sustainability of veganism, it turns out it wasn’t sustainable in the most important way of all: At the cash register.
Vegans may be loud, sure. Customers are louder.
