One of the joys of going to a ‘proper city’ is that you can
be fairly confident that there will be one or more vegan restaurants. In Bristol, home of the south-west’s VegFest
festival, this is certainly true. It’s a
mission to find a place that has a vegan option, it takes pre-planning to find
a place that serves only vegan food and so has a wide range. Pepe Nero somehow manages to be a bit of
both. The number of vegan options is
equal to or greater than the number of meat counterparts, and the vegan
selection is varied and exciting!
Pepe Nero is the place you see in your belly-rumbling
dreams. There’s a lot of vegan food
about these days, but much of it is, dare I say it, healthy. We human beings naturally crave a bit of junk
food now and then, and Pepe Nero has this covered (though I hasten to add their
food is far from the greasy processed muck that is usually what we call ‘fast
food’). Situated by Bristol’s ‘Bear Pit’
for the last 2 years, Pepe Nero offers a range of Italian food, with an
extensive range of vegan pizza. It will
take you at least one hour to decide; I suggest you check their website before
you go, be amazed in advance, and plan your choice ahead!
Salvatore, the founder/manager, came to speak to us after
hearing about this blog. He is a
traditional Italian cook, and uses recipes from his home town (not too much
yeast and a long rise time) which makes the dough lighter and less heavy on the
stomach. All of his staff are from the
same area of Italy, “the heel of the boot”, which gives it a really nice family
vibe.
The decision to provide vegan alternatives was in response
to market research and demand, and he said that while the ingredients are more
expensive for him, this isn’t reflected in the sale price and he gets a lot of
vegan customers. They offer a choice of
base (plain or wholemeal), and they use organic ingredients.
So let’s cut to the chase; could it be that the food was as
fantastic as it sounded? There is a very
simple answer, and it isn’t ‘No’. Enjoy
that double negative and then book yourself a table. I started with a huge bowl of unpitted
olives, . They were big, salted, spiced
with chilli, and lovely as expected. The
only thing stopping me demolishing the entire bowl was the fear of not having
space for my pizza de resistance! My
partner enjoyed a bruschetta which I’m told was also very nice.
Finally, it was time for pizza! Pepe Nero makes vegan pizza an art form with their
combination of different ‘cheeses’, all perfectly melted and indistinguishable
from their dairy counterparts, both in looks and taste; something I have seldom
achieved at home! I chose a vegan ‘Salmone’
pizza, and the other half chose a vegan spicy chorizo topping for his.
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| Vegan Salmone pizza |
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| Vegan Diavola |
Not having ever eaten real salmon, I don’t know whether it was
realistic, but that is neither relevant or necessary for us to know (though the
other half confirmed there was little difference). The pizza was perfectly cooked, very tasty,
and I ate all of it (almost) without feeling like I needed to be either rolled
home or spend the winter months holed up in a gym. My dining buddy (currently transitioning from
carnivore to herbivore) summed it up in some beautiful words, whilst he
absorbed the aroma and appearance: “Nothing was hurt to make this?”.
As I’m sure you have gathered, Pepe Nero is a fantastic
place to eat, and one of a kind in this country. I wholeheartedly hope that it continues to
prosper, and that we see franchises popping up all over Britain. If not, this is possibly a restaurant worth
upping sticks and moving to Bristol for. Incredible!
