A new cafe in South Shields is hoping to attract business by being the first vegan and vegetarian cafe in the area.
Roots Cafe, which is situated on Westoe Road in South Shields, opened its doors to customers in April, and it sells only vegan and vegetarian foods which are not processed.
Owner Chay Hobson opened the cafe with the intention of offering customers healthy alternatives to the fast food that is currently available.
He said: “The idea is to have somewhere people can come where they know exactly what’s gone into their food. I can tell them every last ingredient that’s gone into their food.”
“It was just by chance really. My wife is vegetarian and I’m dairy free, so most of the cooking that we do becomes vegan.
As well as making and selling nutritious meals such as vegetarian burgers and vegan pizzas, customers can also treat themselves to healthy vegan cookies and coffee.
Chay hopes that selling more healthy and unprocessed foods will give people the chance to make healthier choices regarding their food.
He added: “I will hopefully try and convert what I’ve been told are called the pasty faithful.”
Despite only being open a few weeks, the cafe is already proving to be very popular with Southtynesiders, and the cafe’s Facebook page has already accumulated over 1000 likes.
Chay is very happy with the success: “It’s been busy, we’ve only been open two weeks. I guess we’ll see how things take off.”
His ideas about extending the cafe’s opening hours and offering a takeaway service as the popularity continues to grow.