On September 17 Darling Street’s Red Lion pub will split into two, with the ground floor being renamed the ‘Green Lion’ and becoming completely vegan.
According to Sydney’s Time Out: “The vegan bistro menu is recreating pub classics without the animal products, which means vegetarian bangers and mash, maybe a tofu dog and a meat-free burger. Nachos, pies and fish and chips are set to get a makeover too. The wines will be vegan (no fish scales used in the filtration process) as will the beers.
“The new direction for the venue couldn’t be better timed, with a recent report from Roy Morgan revealing that ‘between 2012 and 2016, the number of Australian adults whose diet is all or almost all vegetarian has risen. From 1.7 million people (or 9.7 per cent of the population) to almost 2.1 million (11.2 per cent). The shift has been most striking in New South Wales, where there has been a 30 per cent growth in this kind of diet. The report stated that in ‘March 2016, 12.4 per cent of people living in NSW agreed that ‘The food I eat is all, or almost all, vegetarian’, and the number of people who ‘eat little or no meat’ has reached 14.4 per cent’.”
Green Lion co-founder Bhavani Baumann said: “We are opening the Green Lion with the belief that great and tasty comfort food can be made without animal products and will be creating plant based food that will appeal to everyone. We believe in supporting people who are making conscious choices with their food, want to challenge the idea of what a beer and burger can be.”