Owners of Chesterfield’s first vegan takeaway open new restaurant

Natalie Hobson and Alistair Johnson have opened Vegged, a restaurant offering plant-based dishes, on Sheffield Road.

Ms Hobson said vegan food is becoming increasingly popular in Chesterfield, with many new customers coming to sample the offering at Vegged on their opening morning.

“Vegan food is definitely growing, more and more people are taking an interest.

Because we’ve been open as a takeaway, we anticipated that the people who walked through the door today would be our regular customers, but they’re not. We’ve probably had a 50/50 split of old customers and people who probably wouldn’t be looking specifically for a vegan outlet.”

Ms Hobson said the opening of the restaurant had been delayed, but the response was positive from those who came through the doors earlier today.

“To be fair, this opening has been coming for about six months. Due to one thing or another, it kept getting delayed, so our customers have been dying for us to get to this point, but it’s been really well received so far.”

The team at Vegged are looking to build upon the success they had with their takeaway, which was the first of its kind in Chesterfield. Ms Hobson said she had made some alterations to their menu, and was offering breakfasts for the first time, but would be sticking with many of their customer favourites.

"We’ve changed the menu slightly. We’ve kept our popular items but have added more restaurant-type items, things that will plate up nicely- we’ve only been used to putting things in takeaway boxes up until this point.”

The restaurant will seat up to 24 people, and opens from Wednesday to Sunday. Although their takeaway unit at Birdholme will no longer be running, Vegged will be offering a takeaway service from their new premises for those who still want to enjoy their food from the comfort of their home.

More information can be found at the Vegged Facebook page. Reservations can also be made by messaging Vegged on Facebook.