Innovative Vegan Restaurants Open Outside of Sydney

A Sydney couple was recently featured on Australian lifestyle website Broadsheet to discuss the two vegan businesses they’ve opened in the past month—a “mylk” bar dessert shop and a non-dairy café. Zeitgeist Mylk Bar, owned and operated by Grace Watson, features a menu of baked cinnamon doughnuts with vanilla custard, raw “Znickers” bars, and red velvet milkshakes made from in-house almond-macadamia nut milk and coconut cream ice cream. The shop opened in early April and demand was so high that operating hours were scaled back to weekends only to allow for enough time to increase supply. Watson’s partner Joseph Pagliaro heads Zeitgesit’s sister café Coffee Bondi Beach, opened in March, which refuses to serve cow’s milk, instead opting to serve only the couple’s almond-macadamia milk blend with its specialty roasted coffee. “We have noticed a strong trend away from cow’s milk as people discover the shortcomings of the dairy industry and try to live healthier, better lives,” Pagliaro said. “We wanted to make the best blend we could find that would replicate a dairy milk. Most people love it. They say ‘I’ll give it a try’ and they’re surprised.” The two successful nascent businesses join the ranks of a number of veg Australian companies, including an astronaut-themed ice cream shop, an award-winning Neapolitan pizzeria, and a fish and chips restaurant.