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Speaker 1: All right, a vegan cafe in Auckland has had to

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Speaker 1: start serving meat dishes. This is due to rising cost pressures.

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Speaker 1: The mostly plant based eatery Kind Cafe at Morning Side

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Speaker 1: said that the business was forced to make the decision.

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Speaker 1: Why just to stay afloat? Now, remember the Restaurant Association's

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Speaker 1: annual report out this morning showed that sales were up

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Speaker 1: five point eight percent, but businesses are still struggling due

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Speaker 1: to high running costs. And so Kathy Cottle is the

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Speaker 1: owner of the Kind Cafe and joins me.

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Speaker 2: Now, hallo, Kathy, Sorry Andrew, how are you doing good?

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Speaker 1: But this has to be a black day for a

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Speaker 1: vegan cafe because you're selling meat.

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Speaker 2: Is a very dark day for me personally. Just elev

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Speaker 2: interest when we don't call ourselfs a vegan cafa. We

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Speaker 2: never have. We've been vegetarians, but mostly vegans. Okay, yeap,

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Speaker 2: Just a point of interest there. But it is a

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Speaker 2: really it's a sad day.

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Speaker 1: It is a sad day. Do you hope it's a

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Speaker 1: temporary move.

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Speaker 2: I do hope it's a temporary move, I really do.

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Speaker 2: I hope that we can get back to the principles

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Speaker 2: that we start. We eventually one of the things that

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Speaker 2: we have had to do this for. It is of

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Speaker 2: course a financial cause and call, but we have a

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Speaker 2: lot of our customers who have said to us over

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Speaker 2: the last couple of months, they've got friends, they've got

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Speaker 2: family who will just not set restaurant. And when we

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Speaker 2: opened six years ago, part of our mantra was that

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Speaker 2: we wanted to make a space that vegetarian food was

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Speaker 2: more accessible to people, but also to help people go

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Speaker 2: on a journey, a traveling travel on a journey towards

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Speaker 2: a more plant based diet.

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Speaker 1: Very cool, But here's a question for you out Here's

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Speaker 1: a question for you. Is it more expensive to run

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Speaker 1: a vegan restaurant, which is why you've had to resort

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Speaker 1: back to meat or is that just you know, a

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Speaker 1: myth legend.

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Speaker 2: I think it is more expensive. Our chefs had to

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Speaker 2: go to a lot of efforts to make our own sources.

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Speaker 2: There's a whole whole lot of things that cannot just

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Speaker 2: be bought as easily. You think it's just a simple burger.

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Speaker 2: We now have a fried chicken burger on our menu,

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Speaker 2: or a Korean chicken burger. You can also replace that

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Speaker 2: with a tofu patty but a lot more effort and

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Speaker 2: work goes into making the vegetarian patsies, the vegetarian sources,

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Speaker 2: the vegetarian flavors that we need to make that food

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Speaker 2: really tasty, have lots of texture and color.

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Speaker 1: And we know all restaurants, it's rented staff, it's food,

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Speaker 1: it's just about every part of the cafe business has

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Speaker 1: gone up, and you need to raise revenue by fifty

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Speaker 1: percent so that you've got meat. Can I ask a

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Speaker 1: very hard and horrible question, are there enough vegetarians who

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Speaker 1: support a vegetarian only restaurant or do you need some

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Speaker 1: of us carnivals too?

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Speaker 2: No, we do need the carnivals, and I think over

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Speaker 2: probably the last year, I've seen more and more people

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Speaker 2: walking out of our cafe once they've recognized that we

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Speaker 2: are a vegetarian cafe.

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Speaker 1: Okay, but here's another question. Here's another question on that.

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Speaker 1: Now that you've had meat come through your door and served,

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Speaker 1: and are you afraid that some vegetarians, in a politically

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Speaker 1: correct move, well, but boycott you in the future after

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Speaker 1: the cost crisis passes.

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Speaker 2: That is a very real fear. But that is just

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Speaker 2: something that we will have to face wheneness that happens

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Speaker 2: through a lot of my conversations with my vegetarian and

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Speaker 2: vegan friends. For a lot of them that rather have

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Speaker 2: the restaurant open than closed and have no options at all,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of them do eat at other restaurants

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Speaker 2: that do serve mostly meant and actually, to be honest,

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Speaker 2: eaten a lot of other restaurants. It can be quite

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Speaker 2: difficult to have a menu made for a vegan or

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Speaker 2: have a dish made for a vegan on premise. So

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Speaker 2: a lot of them love coming and having lots of options,

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Speaker 2: and we will still have lots of options.

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Speaker 1: Kathy, you know we only wish you all the very

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Speaker 1: best of luck. This is a terrible decision to have

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Speaker 1: to take. You just hang in there, survive until twenty five.

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Speaker 1: I think that's what everyone says.

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Speaker 2: Well, we all have to yes, very good.

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Speaker 1: Five twenty three. By the way, what meat is acceptable?

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Speaker 1: Lime cort fish and free rate organic chicken. And yes,

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Speaker 1: as it says, we are not carnivores, we are omnivores

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Speaker 1: and that's true as well.

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