Last Updated on December 4, 2024 by Kari
I’ve been craving a wrap with falafel, and Sweet Pea Cafe in Edmonton makes a really good one. I looked them up last night thinking we would go this week to get a wrap and a drink and saw their newest post that claimed they’ve decided to start serving dairy. Actually they wrote DAIRY in all caps as if this is the most exciting thing that’s happened to them since starting this business.
Sweet Pea Cafe has been open for years as a vegan cafe. In fact, when we first went vegan, it was one of the few places in Edmonton that were completely vegan. New owners have come in and decided that serving dairy will be good for their place for one reason or the other.
This made me extremely upset. Outraged would be a better description. And I had to sit down and really think about why I was so upset about this. I do go to other places to eat that serve dairy, so it wasn’t about that, but there are a few major reasons that I will never go to this place again.
1. I’ve Lost Trust In Their Food
If you are vegan, you know that it’s a pain in the ass to try to figure out whether things have dairy in them or not, especially at restaurants. And this doesn’t just happen at fast food joints or restaurants. I wrote about my recent cruise experience where nobody seemed to even understand what dairy-free meant.
So when you go to a completely vegan place, you can relax. It’s an awesome feeling. You know that everything on the menu is vegan and there’s no risk of them using dairy milk instead of oat milk in your coffee or of making their desserts with dairy milk instead of soy milk.
The last time my vegan friend came for a visit from a very non-vegan place, I took her to Sweet Pea Cafe. She kept asking me if it was for sure all vegan. She was shocked because it’s so rare to look at a menu and order anything knowing it’s going to be vegan.
But, now, at Sweet Pea Cafe, I would constantly be wondering if they used dairy in something I thought was dairy-free. If an all-vegan place adds dairy to their menu thinking it’s OK, then what else will they do that they think is OK. That’s what my brain is thinking.
So I would go in and automatically start asking if they’ve used dairy in something because, as a vegan out in the world where dairy is served, this is what you do.
And even if they say no and confirm that their food menu is dairy free, I would still wonder.
2. I Lost Respect For The Owners Who I Feel Don’t Respect Me
Yes, I’m taking this personally.
These are new owners who bought the place knowing it was a vegan place to eat. I just assumed they were vegan too. It had a vegan menu with vegan drinks and a vegan customer base.
It is actually quite a health concious place where you go to eat healthier vegan food as opposed to Odd Burger, for instance.
And that’s the draw of it. Sweet Pea Cafe is supposed to be a place where you can get some healthy vegan comfort food. As a vegan, you feel important and worthy there.
Adding dairy to the menu feels like a slap in the face to me. It’s like they are saying, “We don’t care about you and the reasons you’ve been coming here. We care about the people who want dairy, even though they can get dairy anywhere else they go.”
They even accentuated how exciting it is for them to have added dairy to the menu.
When I go somewhere with only dairy, I bring my own non-dairy creamer. That’s how it is. For the people who go to a vegan cafe wanting dairy, they can bring their own creamer. That’s how I feel.
3. We’re Going Backwards In The Fight To Promote Veganism
It’s so hard to get real vegan options out there, let alone a fully vegan place. When we went vegan, there were two fully vegan places near us, and now there are six by my count, not including Sweet Pea Cafe anymore.
We want more options, not less. We want more people to realize how good veganism is for them and the planet.
But if a fully vegan place stops being fully vegan, it just feels like we are going backwards. We’re losing the game and, to be honest, why even try if it’s all about money?
That’s why dairy is in almost every single thing out there when it doesn’t need to be. It’s all about wanting to make money. The more they can get dairy into your food, the better for them.
So, they win again. They got into a plant-based cafe. A vegan cafe. For money.
It’s similar to when big vegan influencers stop being vegan. It just sets back veganism again, and it’s frustrating.
