When Charlie Watson and Verity Foss first decided to open a burger restaurant, they never envisaged that one day it would lead to them running a vegan fast-food brand. Their original concept, called Oowee Diner, launched out of a small takeaway premises in Bristol’s Montpelier neighbourhood back in 2016 and was known for its generous portions of dirty fries and stacked range of beef and fried chicken burgers. Think double smash patties oozing with American cheese, burger sauce and fried onions; chips loaded with cheese sauce and jalapeños; and fried chicken burgers topped with blue cheese mayonnaise and bacon.
It was popular. So much so that when Watson and Foss launched a second, much bigger restaurant some six months later in the city’s Bedminster district, it led to queues along the street so vast that the police had to step in to help hand out burgers.
How, then, did a brand that built so much early success on its carnivorous sensibilities ever end up pivoting to a wholly plant based approach?
“Oh, it was a complete and utter punt,” says Foss, frankly. “At the time vegan food wasn’t that big. I would say more than 90% of places didn’t even have a vegan option on their menus. You couldn’t even get things like vegan mayonnaise in the supermarkets.”
Watson describes the group’s early development of its own seitan as being a game-changing moment. “From the beginning we always wanted to have a strong vegan offer on the menu, and developing our own fried chicken substitute really gave us the space to explore that further.”
So enthused were they with the possibilities of the vegan fast-food space that when they eventually decided to open their next restaurant, in 2018, the decision was taken to make it entirely plant based. “The more we looked at the potential of plant-based foods, the more we thought it would be future of what we wanted to do,” adds Watson. “When it came to us opening our next site, it was vegan only. And we haven’t looked back since.”
Ditching the meat
The gamble to go plant based has certainly paid off. Earlier this month the duo launched their fifth Oowee Vegan restaurant, in Brighton, which sits alongside two sites in Bristol and another two in London (Dalston and Brixton). At least one more opening is already in the works, with Oowee set to make its Welsh debut in Cardiff in the coming months.
Curiously, while the pair have decided to focus on opening vegan restaurants going forwards, they still retain the Oowee Diner site in Bedminster, with no plans to either grow the concept or bring it in line with the rest of the brand.
“The more we looked at the potential of plant-based foods,
the more we thought it would be future of what we wanted to do”
“A lot of people assume that as we’re now a vegan brand that the Diner is like our dirty little secret,” says Lina Blythe, Oowee’s operations director. “But that’s not the case at all. We’re very proud of it. We’re constantly evolving the menu and looking to develop new dishes.
“The reason we’re not interested in growing it is because we know we’re not doing anything new there. Instead, we can push the boundaries of what vegan fast food can be with Oowee Vegan.”
Watson believes that having the Diner has given the group’s decision to ditch the beef greater cache with its customers. “It almost added credibility,” he says. “We’d already built good brand recognition with Oowee Diner, and people saw the vegan restaurant as just us offering new Oowee food. People didn’t seem to really worry that it was vegan.”
The name Oowee was originally a play on a lyric from Dr. Dre’s classic Still D.R.E, although Watson and Foss later discovered that the word is defined by Urban Dictionary as meaning ‘an exclamation of intense satisfaction’. “The naming and branding have been absolutely key to Oowee’s success so far,” says Foss, noting that the group quickly dropped the ‘Vegan’ from the restaurant name as it expanded beyond the Bristol borders and into London in 2021.
Watson describes himself as a branding obsessive and has worked hard as the group has expanded to ensure it isn’t pigeonholed as being solely targeted at vegans. The focus, he insists, has always been on making sure the food is good enough for meat eaters as well.
In Watson’s eyes, one of Oowee’s biggest barriers to growth is convincing diners to try the food in the first place. “I’m confident that what we offer is really delicious, and right now it’s about trying to show that to as many people as we can. At the moment, when [meat eaters] hear that something is vegan, they often don’t fancy it. We want to tackle that perception.”
Early learnings
In the early days, trying to create a vegan menu that successfully mimicked that of the Oowee Diner was difficult. There pair were faced with the challenge of making sure the product as just as good if not better than the meat alternative. When they first opened Oowee Vegan, plant-based burger options were effectively limited to bean burgers or falafel wraps, but now the products are moving to a place where they are almost comparable in both taste and texture to real meat.
Using vegan cheese proved a headache in the early too, with Foss almost shuddering at the memory. “Six years ago, vegan cheese was rancid,” she says, pulling no punches. “It was so disgusting, to the point where we questioned offering customers the option of adding it to their burger. Thankfully, it’s really good now.”
“At the moment, when [meat eaters] hear that something is vegan, they often don’t fancy it. We want to tackle that perception”
Oowee Vegan has always taken its cues from the original Diner to the point where both menus are now almost identical. Indeed, as Blythe points out, the only real difference between the two restaurants is that the burger patties at Oowee Diner are made with meat; all other products served there including the sauces, the brioche-style buns and, yes, the cheese, have all been gradually swapped out in favour of the vegan alternatives used across the wider Oowee estate.
The menu includes a range of plant-based beef and fried chick’n burger options, as well as a special selection of burgers made using Neil Rankin’s Symplicity patties. There’s also a range of dirty fries; popcorn chick’n and chick’n tenders; sides including mac n’ cheese and a vegan gravy pot; and loaded churros for dessert. Drinks primarily range between soft drinks and vegan milkshakes, but also includes a beer option.
One overarching issue that does remain is the cost. Plant-based ‘meats’ can cost more than double the price of premium beef, which is hard to square with consumers that often expect to pay less for vegan food.
“When we launched, we were charging around £10 for a burger,” remembers Foss. “And we were always accused of ripping off customers. But that was the minimum we had to charge to cover our overheads.”
One of the big things Oowee has been working on in the past year or so is lowering menu prices so that they’re comparable to the likes of Burger King and KFC. “In a market where everything is going up, we’ve managed to cut our prices by 25% to 30%,” says Blythe, proudly. “These are tough times for restaurant businesses. We’re getting nailed from every direction, and it was a case of either banging our heads against a brick wall or trying to get ahead of the problem.”
Burgers now start from as little as £5.50 for a single smashed cheeseburger; and top out at £8.95 for larger options including the signature Big Oovee burger with a quarter pound plant-based patty, Oowee dirty sauce, American cheese, hash brown, gherkins, and lettuce.
Using the Blythe spirit
Watson and Foss are open about the fact that they don’t come from a hospitality background, and both praise Blythe, who previously spent eight years working on the operations side at Giraffe, as being a voice of reason that’s helped guide the business as it has expanded into London and beyond.
“You couldn’t get three different people in terms of backgrounds, in terms of passion, in terms of interests outside of work, and I think that’s where the magic is,” says Blythe. “We all have very different perceptions that are all so focused on making this business successful. That is our common goal, but we have completely different perspectives.
“What’s important is that when we thrash out ideas, we take the time debate them. And we listen to each other.”
Oowee’s design, which sticks to a fresh colour palette of green and white interspersed with bold, neon signage, was developed primarily by Watson, who took elements from the fast food QSR brands in the US including Popeyes and Chick-fil-A.
The decision to open in Brighton was a natural choice. “What we do know is that we perform better when we’re a big fish in a small pond,” says Blythe. The group originally tested demand in the city through the use of delivery-only dark kitchens, and recently completed a similar trial in Manchester, where it is now in the throes of looking for a permanent site.
Delivery has provided the perfect way for the brand to test out markets but with much less risk and has always been a fundamental arm of the business. When it launched Oowee Vegan in Bristol, delivery sales were up 100% on Oowee Diner; the following year it was named Restaurant of the Year at Deliveroo’s first Restaurant Awards.
A changing market
When Oowee Vegan launched in 2018 the vegan fast-food space was still nascent, but in the intervening years much has changed. Chief among the major players is the Lewis Hamilton-backed Neat Burger, which laid out plans earlier this year to have a global estate of 1,000 sites by 2030.
Other operators include the Milan-based chain Flower Burger, which arrived in London last year with plans to open more than 40 sites in 'key UK cities' over the next decade; The Vurger Co, which made its Northern debut earlier this year in Manchester, having secured a £1.4m investment back in 2020 to help expand its brand; and Ready Burger, which has its eyes on taking on the likes of McDonald’s with its value-based vegan fast food menu that includes what it says is the ‘world’s first 99p plant-based burger’.
“What we do know is that we perform better when we’re a big fish in a small pond”
Yet, despite the flurry of activity in the space in recent years, it has, of late, begun to feel like the market is undergoing something of a reset with all of the above brands arguably still yet to make the strides required to hit their ambitious expansion plans. Meanwhile, national restaurant chain Honest Burgers was forced to close its much-publicised first dedicated vegan restaurant in London’s Leicester Square after just six months, with its founders noting that the demand just wasn’t there.
Oowee, by contrast, has never set out any sort of wider expansion plan. “I’m not a fan of becoming one of those brands that comes out and says ‘we’re going to open 400 sites in three years’ because it never happens,” says Watson. “I’ve always been of the belief that you should do something and then tell everyone how great you are rather than telling everyone why you’re going to be so great.”
Foss adds that the market is currently way too volatile to be planning such full-throated expansion. “You don’t want to dilute the brand by building too quickly,” she says. “Slow and steady is definitely the right approach to have. There are so many brands out there that think success is only measured on how many sites you have, and not how successful they are.
“The simple fact is you are not successful if you’re then having to close sites nine months later. A successful brand is one that grows at its own pace, has a good following and is actually making money.”
The next generation
Right now, the business’ focus is on looking to the future and getting the attention of younger diners. It notes that the biggest emerging plant-based eaters are in the 16-24 year-old category and if it can capture loyalty at that stage, the knock-on effect stretches across different demographics.
“We’re trying to be the future of fast food, and they’re the future consumers,” says Blythe.
Despite the expansion of many of Oowee’s contemporaries appearing to stall, neither of the trio believes the market is slowing down. In fact, they suggest the opposite.
“I’ve always been of the belief that you should do something and then tell everyone how great you are rather than telling everyone why you’re going to be so great”
“There are more people turning vegan, which makes it more competitive,” says Foss. “There are players taking on investment and trying to grow as quickly as they can and changing the concept every day.”
The question of investment is one that’s quickly dismissed, for now at least. “What we don’t want to do is bring in loads of investment who come and change everything about the brand we’ve built and love,” says Foss.
If investment was needed then they would, of course, consider it, but it would have to be with the right partner.
“I don’t want to lose any authenticity of the brand. Generally, investment makes it more money focused. Win quick or fail quicker,” says Watson.
“Certainly, the next three or four openings will be handled by us. Once we’re at a stage when we agree that it is rollout-ready, then there would have to be a serious conversation about cost and whether we want to grow at a faster pace. But the idea is not to grow and sell. I just want to keep doing this; I just want to keep building.”
Quorn® delivers mouth-watering meat-free menus
New vegan range ChiQin has been created by one of the biggest names in plant-based eating
Flexitarian eating is an ever-increasing consumer behaviour and diners are demanding more mouth-watering meat-free and plant-based options across all sectors. Quorn® recently commissioned an in-depth report for its hospitality customers, in partnership with the Sustainable Restaurant Association.
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