Bondi couple launch vegan cafes: Coffee and Zeitgeist Mylk Bar

Rebecca Sullivan
APRIL 13, 2016
news.com.au
A barista at Coffee in Bondi Beach makes a coffee with a house-made blend of almond and macadamia milk. Picture: Boston Parker.
THE vegan trend has well and truly arrived in Australia.
According to Google Trends data, Australia ranks number one in the world for vegan-related searches on Google, toppling last year’s champion Germany.
The most popular vegan-related search terms between 2004 and 2016 were “vegan recipes”, “vegan recipe”, “vegan diet” and “vegan food”.
During that period, searches for the terms “vegan protein” and “raw vegan” increased by 500 per cent and 400 per cent respectively.
Bondi couple Grace Watson, 22, and Joseph Pagliaro, 29, are capitalising on this trend with the arrival of their two new vegan cafes.
Coffee Bondi Beach, which opened last month, only serves coffees made with a house-made blend of almond macadamia milk. They don’t serve any dairy milks.
“We have noticed a strong trend away from cow’s milk as people discover the shortcomings of the dairy industry and try to live healthier, better lives,” Mr Pagliaro told news.com.au
“We wanted to make the best blend we could find that would replicate a dairy milk. Most people love it. They say ‘I’ll give it a try’ and they’re surprised,” he said.
Just around the corner sits Zeitgeist Mylk Bar, a cafe serving sweet vegan treats. The menu items include cookies, cupcakes, doughnuts (all $4), raw cakes ($5) and milkshakes ($8), all made with paleo, vegan ingredients.
“For example, we have a Snickers milkshake and that contains raw cacao, peanut butter made from 100 per cent peanuts, ice cream made from coconut milk and milk that’s a mix of almond and macadamia milk,” Ms Watson said.
“We make all the milk on site and we make all the ice creams from scratch using coconut cream.”
Zeitgeist Mylk Bar, which is only open on weekends, opened for the first time last Saturday. Ms Watson says they are already seeing significant queues.
“A lot of our customers aren’t even vegan,” she said. “But they just enjoy drinking a milkshake when they can see exactly where everything’s been made. It’s not coming from a factory.
“It’s all wholefoods that have been prepared from scratch, right in front of them. It’s nice to have something that is creamy and indulgent, but vegan.”
Bondi was an obvious location to open the store, which will change its menu every week.
“Bondi is a really welcoming, supportive community and everyone’s really open to new ideas and ways of eating. It’s really cool that it’s becoming a bit of a vegan hub,” Ms Watson said.