Closing down frequently asked questions

The Cheeky Vegan is now permanently closed and a new plant-based cafe will sprout up in its place this summer.

Why did you close?

The short answer: this isn’t about The Cheeky Vegan closing, it’s about something more exciting and enticing opening in its place, which we think will suit our wonderful city centre location much better.

The long answer:

The Cheeky Vegan set-up and branding severely restricted the menu that could be offered, and we didn’t want to be a place that just buys food in from elsewhere to defrost, microwave or fry before serving. Refitting the cafe will allow us to make and prepare food in-house so we can offer fresh flavours that are healthier and less processed, even the cakes and bakes! We also want to be offering food that is more about following the seasons rather than trends, alongside evergreen classics.

We’ve been planning this glow-up for several months now but even if we weren’t, it’s clear the market for vegan junk food in Exeter is not big enough to sustain a viable vegan junk-food business run full-time out of a city centre location. And judging by the closure of vegan burger places in many parts of the UK, even in what we would consider to be vegan-friendly cities, it feels like the vegan junk food trend is well past its peak. The problem with your whole business, brand and vibe being all about chasing a trend is that your business lasts only as long as the trend. But by definition, the trend is not going to be long-lasting. We’d be happy to be proved wrong by someone else opening up a vegan junk food joint (we will miss our Mexican chick’n burger big style!) but our analytics tells us it’s not a market we should be in, even if we wanted to stay in it. We’ve had a lot of people tell us we’re always busy when they visit but if you think about it logically, it’s like saying the beach is always busy when you only ever go when it’s hot and sunny, just like everyone else.

Why can’t you carry on doing junk food or at least have it as an option?

Firstly, we don’t want to. Secondly, we really don’t want to. Thirdly, we really, really don’t want to.

But seriously, even if we wanted to (which we really, really, really don’t), the fryers and burger grill took up way too much room in our tiny kitchen and keeping them wouldn’t leave us with enough space to install the equipment needed to do the good stuff. There are also many obvious-to-us operational, business, marketing and financial reasons not to, but we’re not going into detail on those.

Finally, while not ideal, it’s really not that difficult to find vegan burger options if you don’t mind visiting places that also serve meat. (One review last year said the Burger King vegan burger is better than ours anyway.) Also, with so many options in the supermarkets nowadays, making vegan burgers yourself at home is easy. They won’t be as good as ours, granted, but it’s relatively easy nowadays to eat ‘badly’ as a vegan.

Can I have The Cheeky Vegan name/social media handles/website?

There’s the tiniest of chances The Cheeky Vegan and its junk food will live on in the form of pop-up stalls at markets and festivals*, which is probably the best format for it, so we’re going to hang onto the name, social media accounts and website for a good while yet, unless someone wants to make us a ridiculously high offer. 

*Market and festival organisers: you are lovely people but please don’t contact us about setting up a stall.

Have you considered x, y, z?

This has been months in the planning. (We actually wanted to close at the start of the year.) We promise you we’ve considered every single angle and, without wishing to patronise, with considerably more market research and analytics than you probably have. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our long experience working in and running businesses, it’s to listen to the data and not to confuse your own personal biases or experience (‘anecdata’) for the whole truth.

When will the new café open?

It should open in mid-July depending on how smoothly the refurbishment and refit goes but don’t hold us to that.

What’s the new café going to be like?

We don’t want to say too much but there’ll be no more fake meat and the food will be made and prepared on the premises. We think the new café – food, drink, interior design, vibe – will appeal to vastly more people regardless of whether they’re vegans or not. Helping more people discover delicious plant-based food and drink can only be a good thing. We want this to be a place that non-vegans will happily come to for what it is, instead of coming under sufferance because they’re with someone who’s already vegan.

I’ve got a gift voucher. What options do I have?

Keep hold of it. It will be valid at the new café as long as it hasn’t expired.

Squid loyalty scheme

The Squid loyalty scheme for The Cheeky Vegan closed down on 30 April. It won’t carry over to the new café.