Right at the time when corona started, Irene was looking for a place to start her own vegan caterer business. She had to abandon the original plans, but by chance got the opportunity to start out from an already existing kitchen. The beginning of Peach Plantbased Kitchen, operating since November 2020 out of the kitchen of Robin Food. She’s running it with two others.

Before this she was working in disability care and part-time studying, which she gave up to pursue her dream of setting up her own kitchen.
Irene grew up as a vegetarian but was eating practically vegan already. The meals she creates for Peach are fully vegan, as well as whole foods, meaning she avoids using processed foods. “I always start from vegetables,” she tells. Using seasonal vegetables, preferably local, and sometimes even picked in the wild! Read more

Vegan Fresco opened February 2021 after a successful crowdfunding campaign. With according to them 4% of the Dutch eating vegan/plant-based and 55% being flexitarian, owner James Fresco suggested it was about time for a specialised vegan supermarket.

Being the first vegan supermarket in the Netherlands/Amsterdam got them quite some attention, from the world of retail (veganism is hot) and obviously from vegans as well. Read more

SUE started 6 years ago when Kim Palm (middle name Sue) was experimenting with making sweets but without refined sugar. At a housewarming she brought some of those. One of the attendees had a lunchroom and liked it so much that he asked if she could make it also for his place. And that’s really how it all started! From then on she sold her sweets, which she called ‘bites’, to more and more lunchrooms nationwide. Eventually she and her partner opened up two of their own places in Rotterdam, a bakery store and a lunchroom/restaurant.

At the Amsterdam location they sell of course their signature ‘Bites’: square shaped pastry, in about 20 different flavours like Banoffee and Tiramisu! Then they have huge cookies in flavours such as Lemon Almond and Maple Pecan. Also bananabread, chocolate-date truffle balls, granola bars and more! All in all a huge choice. Read more

 

After finishing an education in biodynamic agriculture, Derrick Neleman began working at a Spanish vineyard. With this experience he started his own wine import business in the Netherlands in 2001. Then in 2014 he established his own organic vineyard close to Valencia, Spain: Bodegas Neleman. Enabling him to both produce and distribute the wine.

Brandstore

The store in Amsterdam opened August 2020. Here you can find the full assortment of Neleman wines, like the Just Fucking Good Wine, their Bike Wines and their Signature series. Naturally, all their wines are Spanish, they offer white, red, rosé as well as sparkling wine. All of them are vegan. Read more

Many Surinamese restaurants in Amsterdam are vegan-friendly, you can find dishes like vegan roti, petjil, bara, bakabana, broodje tempeh and more. But newly opened take-away restaurant Mixed Flavour really has a significant amount of it, half of their menu is vegan! They were already doing some take-away and delivery for a while, but last month they opened at shopping centre Amsterdamse Poort (Zuid-Oost). They will be there until spring as this is a temporary location. Read more

There are a lot of places in Amsterdam these days where you can find some vegan pastry (even in the supermarket) but not too many with plenty choice! Petit by Sam is a small pastry shop where not everything is vegan but still a lot! And what makes this place unique is that they choose for healthier ingredients instead of your white sugar / white flour cakes. Read more

One of my favourite streets in town, Javastraat in Amsterdam Oost. The people in the street reflect the cultural diversity of Amsterdam and the bars, restaurants and shops are of an equally pleasantly diverse mix. One of the interesting shops worth a visit is Tigris & Eufraat. It’s a store with all kinds of Middle Eastern food and also houses a modest take-away, with some seating available.

Here they offer Middle Eastern streetfood, including outstanding falafel! At Tigris & Eufraat they roll it in a Syrian flatbread, which is the preferred way for me compared to a pita bread. Besides falafel they add to it pickled vegetables, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, mint, tahin sauce and hot sauce. Just tell them no yogurt sauce. Read more

The menu at Het Ketelhuis was not always fully vegetarian, but they always had a lot of vegetarian options. But in their quest to become more sustainable they realised that meat is putting too much pressure on the environment, organic meat included. And from all the dishes ordered at the restaurant, most people were going for vegetarian options anyways. So, early 2020 they made the switch to a fully vegetarian menu! Read more

Food store Klein The Grocer recently opened at Haarlemmerdijk, and stands out by it’s strong visual appearance and aesthetics. Which you will note when cycling past in the street and even more so when you enter the shop. No wonder that owner Neil has a background in graphic design! He is originally from South Africa and has his own design agency there. But he always liked Amsterdam and was ready for a change.

Four years ago Neil went vegetarian. He always preferred the vegetarian option, but it was after watching documentary What The Health and eating amazing vegetarian food during a trip to Thailand that he made the switch: “I decided, that was it.” Now by opening his own food store he has the opportunity to devote his time to another passion in his life: good food. Read more