Lewis Hamilton launches World’s first global vegan burger chain

[BigTom]

So he's supporting the economy of the Isle of Man by purchasing their creative accountancy services.
The whole of the UK will end up as a global tax haven and dodgy banking after Brexit. Just you watch.
We'll all become complicit to tax dodging thanks to allowing Brexit to happen.

I doubt IoM actaully sees much, if any of that money. The creative accountants will be based in canary wharf or somewhere like that. Given the number of UK dependencies and overseas territories (or whatever the official terms are for places like Jersey, Guernsey, IoM, British Virgin Islands and other places like that is) that are tax havens, we're all already as complicit in this as we would be if the UK mainland became a tax haven like Luxembourg, Switzerland or Ireland.

 

[ricbake]

Honest Burgers use Chiabra's "Beyond Meat" as the basis for their vegan burger and Tesco's have them as well

 

[Gromit]

To be honest I'd love for vegans to have a MacDonald's level of restaurant.

I suspect this won't be it.

It's going to be a cash in on a current trend restaurant with some celeb glitz as the hook.
A Planet Hollywood type affair.

 

[Brainaddict]

I recommend some great vegan burgers at the non-global-chain Full Nelson in Deptford if you're round that way.

 

[klang]

Whilst I have no evidence to back this up I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest you are maybe not their target market.

No I'm not, I'm sick of the whole yet-another-burger-and-fries-eatery culture. Vegan or not.

And I'm sick of the whole celebrity breaking into business ventures culture.

And I hopefully don't have to point out the hypocrisy behind a celeb furthering their career by
a) selling food products that are more sustainable, healthier and ethical off the Regent's St, and by
b) representing one of the greediest and ethically most dubious car manufacturers.

 

[joustmaster]

To be honest I'd love for vegans to have a MacDonald's level of restaurant.

I suspect this won't be it.

It's going to be a cash in on a current trend restaurant with some celeb glitz as the hook.
A Planet Hollywood type affair.

£8.95 a cheese burger I'd bet.

Which would be a shame.

If they could knock out £1.50 double cheeseburgers then they would be competing with McD's

 

[Brainaddict]

An aside: I am amazed at the brass neck of Five Guys. Other posh burger chains justify their prices partly on the fact that they are proper sit-down restaurants with table service. Five Guys went back to fast food with no service but kept the posh burger restaurant prices. I think people are mugs to pay that.

Edited to add: let's face it, even most 'posh' burgers are still fundamentally cheap crap food that costs nothing to produce and that's why burger chains proliferate.

 

[editor]

To be honest I'd love for vegans to have a MacDonald's level of restaurant.

I suspect this won't be it.

It's going to be a cash in on a current trend restaurant with some celeb glitz as the hook.
A Planet Hollywood type affair.

There's a growing amount of mainstream fast food chains now serving vegan burgers in the US.

 

[editor]

£8.95 a cheese burger I'd bet.

Which would be a shame.

If they could knock out £1.50 double cheeseburgers then they would be competing with McD's

Vegan alternatives seem to be doing incredibly well in traditional fast food restaurants even when they're priced higher than the cheap meaty slush.

KFC's plant-based chicken is so popular this city sold out 'within hours'

 

[SpineyNorman]

Maybe we could eat Lewis Hamilton instead?

 

[binka]

They should be cheaper than beef burgers then yes?

Seeing as how agri resource intense beef farming is to veg farming. As we are so often told.

It might be eventually but right now McDonald's and their meat beef burgers have an enormous advantage in terms of economies of scale which will probably make it very difficult to compete with, for example, the 99p cheeseburger on price. I think people will be willing to pay a premium though - look at how many of those five guys and gbk style places there are. If they provide a quality product I expect people will be happy to pay more

 

[Pickman's model]

Maybe we could eat Lewis Hamilton instead?

he's unfit for human consumption

 

[Flavour]

greenwashing. fuck Lewis Hamilton. fuck corporate food, vegan or not.

 

[Gromit]

It's got five 5 stars reviews already and it's not even open yet.
Be honest. Just cause your vegan and it's going to be vegan you too rate it without even trying it!!!!

 

[editor]

It's got five 5 stars reviews already and it's not even open yet.
Be honest. Just cause your vegan and it's going to be vegan you too rate it without even trying it!!!!

It's the same story for just about every single social media-savvy restaurant that opens.

 

[TomUS]

Now available nation wide in the US....
Impossible WHOPPER

 

[Gromit]

It's the same story for just about every single social media-savvy restaurant that opens.

They can all fuck off too.

 

[andysays]

Whilst I have no evidence to back this up I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest you are maybe not their target market.

I'm struggling to see what the target market for this is, TBH.

I would imagine the 'vegans who are into formula one racing' niche is a pretty small one, though Hamilton clearly has access to the best lawyers, accountants and business planners that money can buy, so who knows...

 

[klang]

I'm struggling to see what the target market for this is, TBH.

Westend people who see themselves above McD etc and in need for solid justification for fancying and eating a burger. Spending lots of money on one and feeling ethnically superior being two of them.

 

[editor]

Westend people who see themselves above McD etc and in need for solid justification for fancying and eating a burger. Spending lots of money on one and feeling ethnically superior being two of them.

Or just people who prefer not to eat meat.

 

[andysays]

Westend people who see themselves above McD etc and in need for solid justification for fancying and eating a burger. Spending lots of money on one and feeling ethnically superior being two of them.

I suspect that's a typo

 

[discokermit]

I'm struggling to see what the target market for this is, TBH.

Wankers.

 

[andysays]

Or just people who prefer not to eat meat.

It's not just not eating meat though, is it?

There are lots of options for people who don't want to eat meat* which don't involve further lining the pockets of a celebrity tax evader who has made his money and fame in an activity which is not, by any stretch of the imagination, environmentally friendly.

* I think this is a good thing, in case there's any doubt

 

[klang]

Or just people who prefer not to eat meat.

yes, them as well. And yes, I do agree that meat production and consumption and food distribution are a very big subject that urgently needs looking at. And the more normal and socially accepted veg/vegan food becomes the better imo.
But I feel that somebody like LH is not the right person to campaign for more ethics and sustainability, him being the poster boy of Merc, a highly dubious and damaging company that plays a big part in destroying our planet and has literally created and walked over dead bodies to maximise profit.
Ultimately, that's LH's aim as well, maximising profit.

 

[souljacker]

Another elaborate tax break by Lewis. Great driver, possibly even the greatest ever, but a fucking tight arse cunt IMO.

 

[andysays]

 

[JimW]

I usually just get chips and mushy peas.

 

[Flavour]

an activity which is not, by any stretch of the imagination, environmentally friendly.

yeah, that too. fuck f1. and anyone domiciled in switzerland for tax reasons. i think the negative outweight what slim positives there may be in this one. doesn't help erode the idea of veganism as a poncy middle-class lifestyle choice either.

 

[editor]

It's not just not eating meat though, is it?

There are lots of options for people who don't want to eat meat* which don't involve further lining the pockets of a celebrity tax evader who has made his money and fame in an activity which is not, by any stretch of the imagination, environmentally friendly.

* I think this is a good thing, in case there's any doubt

Most of our food is created by monster conglomerates who are well versed in avoiding tax. I know little about Lewis Hamilton - and care even less - but as far as I'm concerned, anything that puts more vegan choices into the mainstream and perhaps persuades people to eat less meat is a good thing overall.

But obviously I'd prefer it food came from more ethical sources but Hamilton seems nowhere near as bad as some. At least he's not advocating killing even more animals for his brand.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I'm sick of the whole yet-another-burger-and-fries-eatery culture.

It is really boring now and it's been going on forever. When is it going to end?

Tbh a vegan burger might be the only one I'd pay money for, just for the novelty, but these just look like ordinary burgers. I did have a burger made out of seitan recently as I've never eaten it before, which was pretty decent and also the first burger I've bought for several years now. (It was in Brewdog I'm afraid.) Seitan has quite a unique texture though.