Fish and Chip Shop Turns into Vegan Baking Company to Save the Ocean

Leicester, England-based restaurant The Fish & The Chip recently closed with the intent of transforming into a fully vegan business. Shortly after opening in August 2017, the owners Helen and Aatin Anadkat removed all meat, excluding fish, from its menu. In June 2018, the pescatarian restaurant welcomed a “takeover” by vegan brand Plant & Bean where it served only vegan dishes for a limited time. After the takeover—which proved wildly popular with customers—The Fish & The Chip permanently added a Plant & Bean vegan menu, featuring cauliflower nachos, burgers, bowls, and desserts. During a fishing trip in May, the shop owners had a change of heart about the animal-based products on their menu. “There’s not plenty more fish in the sea,” the restaurant announced on its website. “After our trip away, we saw the impact pollution is having on the oceans and fish stocks and we are not comfortable running a restaurant that has such an impact on our environment. As a result, we realized our passion is not The Fish & The Chip and we have decided to close the restaurant.” While the Anadkats originally planned to reopen the restaurant with a fully vegan menu, Helen Anadkat told VegNews that they wanted to create a bigger impact. “We want to create positive change within the food industry and don’t think we will have the impact we want from a single restaurant site,” Helen Anadkat said. To that end, the duo recently launched vegan baking company Positive Kitchen & Co. and are supplying vegan baked goods under their new Positive Bakes brand to the food service industry—and directly to consumers—in an effort to make plant-based foods more widely accessible.