"All my friends are going vegan" (A review of Pogo Cafe)
The great thing about the London veg scene is that due to numbers and support you can have all those quirky little niche things that you wouldn't get elsewhere. So there is a lesbian vegetarian cafe, a vegan restaurant on a bus, a big rocking festival, pubs that serve vegan society approved beer on tap, a veg cyclist group (that has been meeting for over a century), heaps of niche social groups and so on... Last night I went to the vegan anarchist cafe.
Pogo Cafe is a volunteer run workers co-operative located in Hackney. A small cafe that could seat maybe 30 people it is warm and inviting. They have art on the walls, music on the speakers, a vast range of alternative books, buttons with funny slogans and a welcoming vibe. The art changes regularly and the current exhibition is of some fantastic photographs by Guy Smallman focusing on the anti-war movement since 9/11. Aside from the beautiful photographs the walls are covered in murals, including one above the counter that I particularly liked of giant chicks running around the London skyline.
The menu varies daily. I had a mushroom tofu potato pie with salad that was huge. The problem with the huge serving was that Pogo is well renowned for their cakes and by filling up on pie there would be less cake space. Whilst nothing fancy the pie tasted great and had flakey puff pastry and lovely mushroom gravy inside. The menu also had salads, wraps and nibbles such as nachos. The burgers also have a great reputation and they do Sunday breakfast.
Being a co-operative, lefty, vegan place the food is fairtrade and organic and there is a great range of teas, smoothies and juices. I had a banana and peanut butter smoothie which was delicious, not too thick or frothy. The coffee is also supposed to be fantastic and is from a small organic co-op in the Chiapas, Mexico.
As we all know I do have a slight penchant for vegan desserty things and Pogo Cafe has a reputation for doing amazing cheesecake. I had many discussions on how to bake amazing vegan cheesecake in Brazil with one of the chefs at the time and also picked up a slice of it at the vegan festival. Last night there were tahini chocolate cupcake sized cheesecakes on the menu. The main part of the cake was slightly sesame flavoured and slightly sweet and it was topped with amazing chocolate ganache. Absolutely delightful. They also had a variety of gluten free cakes and also icecreams. The banana split was huge and was topped with raspberry ice cream, chocolate pudding, whipped cream, dried fruit and nuts.
Pogo Cafe is just the place to plot the downfall of society over a vegan, fair trade, organic coffee with your slice of to-die for tofu cheesecake. And let's face it, we need more places in the world where we can do that...
Pogo Cafe is a volunteer run workers co-operative located in Hackney. A small cafe that could seat maybe 30 people it is warm and inviting. They have art on the walls, music on the speakers, a vast range of alternative books, buttons with funny slogans and a welcoming vibe. The art changes regularly and the current exhibition is of some fantastic photographs by Guy Smallman focusing on the anti-war movement since 9/11. Aside from the beautiful photographs the walls are covered in murals, including one above the counter that I particularly liked of giant chicks running around the London skyline.
The menu varies daily. I had a mushroom tofu potato pie with salad that was huge. The problem with the huge serving was that Pogo is well renowned for their cakes and by filling up on pie there would be less cake space. Whilst nothing fancy the pie tasted great and had flakey puff pastry and lovely mushroom gravy inside. The menu also had salads, wraps and nibbles such as nachos. The burgers also have a great reputation and they do Sunday breakfast.
Being a co-operative, lefty, vegan place the food is fairtrade and organic and there is a great range of teas, smoothies and juices. I had a banana and peanut butter smoothie which was delicious, not too thick or frothy. The coffee is also supposed to be fantastic and is from a small organic co-op in the Chiapas, Mexico.
As we all know I do have a slight penchant for vegan desserty things and Pogo Cafe has a reputation for doing amazing cheesecake. I had many discussions on how to bake amazing vegan cheesecake in Brazil with one of the chefs at the time and also picked up a slice of it at the vegan festival. Last night there were tahini chocolate cupcake sized cheesecakes on the menu. The main part of the cake was slightly sesame flavoured and slightly sweet and it was topped with amazing chocolate ganache. Absolutely delightful. They also had a variety of gluten free cakes and also icecreams. The banana split was huge and was topped with raspberry ice cream, chocolate pudding, whipped cream, dried fruit and nuts.
Pogo Cafe is just the place to plot the downfall of society over a vegan, fair trade, organic coffee with your slice of to-die for tofu cheesecake. And let's face it, we need more places in the world where we can do that...