GARY STEEL: VEG FRIENDLY
Fast food with a conscience Vegan fast food is coming to Ponsonby’s main drag. Bruce Craig is an architect by trade. However, the Grey Lynn resident has ended up not just designing houses, but with a completely new career as a master and a lord. Master franchisee and Lord Of The Fries, that is. And it was all because of an exploding volcano, diverted flights and an unexpected stop-off in Melbourne. Bruce and his family were on holiday in Bali three years ago when Mt Ruang blew its top, and tourists were evacuated. “We got stranded in Melbourne in our summer-weight clothing in the middle of winter and my friend Matt heard about Lord Of The Fries,” says Craig. “We loved the concept and the food and I ended up talking to them about having the master franchise for New Zealand.” Impressed with the food as well as the ethics and entrepreneurial zeal of the family owned fast food chain, Bruce - who had no previous experience in the food or hospitality industry - soon had a pop-up container Lord Of The Fries at Commercial Bay, which has now been replaced by a permanent site in the new Snickel Lane development. There’s also a K’Road outlet at the entrance to the revamped St Kevin’s Arcade, and with a Queenstown LOTF about to open, plans are underway for LOTF to get underway in all populous New Zealand towns. And Ponsonby News readers will be delighted with the news that the vegan chain is soon to add a flagship outlet on Ponsonby Road that, unlike most of the current outlets, will be fully seated - although
Bruce is cagey about the exact location, because negotiations are still underway. It’s exciting news for those of us who find reliable vegan options diminish markedly as night comes on, and a key part of LOTF’s strategy is to provide a source of protein-rich sustenance for vegans any time of the day or night, with stores open until 3am. Who hasn’t been out late and found themselves with a hunger after a night’s clubbing or carousing, only to find that the only vegan munchies available are chips cooked in oil poisoned by a busy night of frying fish and meat products? “We get a lot of late-night patronage,” says Bruce. “A lot of them are not necessarily vegan, but they love our food. A lot of people like our food because it’s a bit lighter... a big beef burger will slow you down if you are clubbing!” Bruce is owner-director of the New Zealand franchise of Lord Of The Fries with his wife Baksho, although the plan is to make franchises available across New Zealand, all of them run to LOTF’s strict quality control and methodologies. The chain is both halal and kosher certified, which means that the food is not only strictly vegan but that all carrots are slaughtered facing the holy city of Mecca. I jest, but it does mean that there is no meat on the premises at any time, and that sauces or foods containing alcohol are banned. What this means for the common or garden vegan is that they can safely eat at LOTF anytime knowing that there’s absolutely no chance of crosscontamination from meat. “It’s really tough when you go into a place and they tell you that what you’re ordering is vegan, but how much do the people behind the counter care, or have the time or the energy to make sure it’s protected and made on separate grills and whatever?”
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PONSONBY NEWS
In next month’s Veg Friendly, I quiz Bruce about the origin and content of LOTF’s mock meats, the efficacy of fast foods in a health-obsessed world, the environmental and ethical object of plant-based eating, and PN the very ‘meaty’ Beyond Burger. (GARY STEEL) F Gary Steel is an Auckland-based journalist who runs online vegetarian resource www.doctorfeelgood.co.nz. He can be contacted via beautmusic@gmail.com
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