veganz

Veganz is a wordplay from the German words vegan and ganz (entirely, completely). It's the name of a supermarket where all products are entirely vegan. The business started in Berlin's alternative district Prenzlauer Berg in 2011, and I had the pleasure to visit their second branch in Frankfurt last weekend, which was opened last month in the district of Bornheim - ironically right behind a little square which prominently features a bratwurst hut, so that I had to take the following picture from an angle. After the vegan Edelkiosk, a creative little coffee shop with delicious homemade vegan pies, cakes, and sandwiches that opened in March 2012, this is the second 100% vegan business to open in Frankfurt in less than a year - a fact which gives a promising outlook on the future of the food sector in the city that is more famous for its cooked ribs, beef sausages and sourmilk cheese.

Veganz - with bistro Sesame in the front on the left 

Fresh organic veggies

Upon entering the location, I was welcomed by the smell of pizza and pita bread from Sesamo, a little bakery/ bistro section, operated by Carmelo und Vincenzo-Arturo Panzarella. I visited around 1pm (lunch time), and there was a lively gathering of clients munching on vegan pizza, bagels, and salads.

But the shopping area wasn't empty either: I had to wait for people to clear the aisles a number of times so that I could take photos of the store and its products. I heard that during the opening on 18 January, the store was so packed with people that a friend of mine who went to see it had to turn around again because he couldn't get in anymore.

Fresh organic fruit

Right by the entrance you find a good variety of fresh organic fruits and vegetables, as well as seeds, nuts, and spices. This doesn't deviate much from the regular offering of any downtown organic food store in Germany or in the Netherlands. What really makes a difference though is the rest of the product range: While your average organic food store offers a large variety of animal-based products (milk, cheese, meats, fish, honey, or processed foods containing animal ingredients - and believe me, once you're beyond 45, it sucks having to decipher the small print on the labels, particularly in Dutch!), everything you can buy in here is animal-free and not tested on animals either.

Nuts by the bulk

I had the opportunity to talk to the manager and co-owner, Olivera Miloradovic, who told me that it was her initiative to open this store in the rooms of a former drugstore branch. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, she got in touch with Jan Bredack, the founder of the Berlin headquarter, and tried to talk him into opening another location in Frankfurt. At first he was hesitant in spite of the huge success of his initial operation, but she insisted, and so they teamed up to open this place, drawing on the same successful concept of a one-stop shopping venue for vegans and the same supplier base.

A conventional organic store has no more than a handful of suppliers from who they buy most of their products. On their 200 square meters (approximately 2,150 sqft) in Frankfurt, Veganz offers 6,000 entirely plant-based products from all over the world which they procure via more than 100 different producers or intermediaries. A lot of the products come from organic sources, and all of them are GMO-free, according to EU law.

Being a former cheese addict, I was particularly stunned by the large variety of high-quality non-dairy cheeses. Here in the Netherlands, we know only a few: The US brands Tofutti and Sheese, UK-based Cheezly, but with a limited product range (usually only 2-3 varieties at most, and those are rather bland and not very alluring), and if you're lucky, you can get your hands on the Swiss Vegusto No-Muh Chäs. The German Wilmersburger, available as slices or grated and hugely successful in its home country because it comes incredibly close to dairy cheese in terms of taste, texture, and behavior, has just lately been swapping across the border, but there are only a handful of outlets yet, such as de Vegetarische Slager (the vegetarian butcher) and the recently opened veggie4u in Den Haag, or the online seller Veggiedeli. Here, I found products and brands I had never heard of before, including a non-dairy cheese called Jeezini by Vegourmet, an Austrian producer, which I instantly fell in love with.

The non-dairy dairy section

Like Wilmersburger, it comes incredibly close to dairy cheese, and their variety with Herbs de Provence is just heavenly! At €1.65 per 100g, it's even slightly cheaper than Wilmersburger which costs €1.99 for the same quantity. I hope that one of the Dutch vendors in the region will pick it up soon. This is too good to only have it every few months when I go to Germany!

Spreads, preserves, and instant products

I also couldn't resist to try an alternative whipping cream from Soyatoo, another German venture which I know from the versatile and tasty soy whip they have already been offering in the Netherlands for a while; here at Veganz, they also have rice whip and coconut whip. I haven't tried it yet, but if their soy whip is anything to go by, it will be delicious.

Mock fish and meats

The huge wall cooler that offers mock meat and mock fish is equally impressive: Soy tuna, mock fish steaks, and I even found a pack of vegan scampis which don't only behave like scampis when grilling or frying them and have the same texture to the bite, but even taste like them!

Supplements

Vantastic Foods

Cook books and pet food

Another fridge sports all the product range from Vantastic Foods, one of Germany's leading producers of mock fish and mock meat products.

And, of course, I was allured by the large variety of vegan chocolate bars: When I was still eating dairy, one of my favorites was the white chocolate with strawberries from Divine, but during the past year-and-a-half, I had to resort to dark chocolates, because that's almost all you can get as a vegan in the Netherlands. Not so here: I found a super-delicious bar of white Schakalode with sour cherries, also made by the German producer Vantastic Foods (who I mentioned above in the section about the vegan fish replacements).

Apart from a jealousy-inducing variety of meat and dairy replacers and vegan snacks, Veganz also offers 100% plant-based care products, household cleaners, vegan pet food, baby food, and a section with frozen products, such as baked convenience foods and, of course, non-dairy ice cream.

Frozen goods, spices, sauces, and dips

Furthermore, you can buy a whole range of vegan supplements, including the famous VEG 1 pills from the UK vegan society which Joey and I have been eating for a while already and which give us the necessary amount of vitamin B12, but also some extra vitamin D (from plant sources), selenium, zinc, folic acid, B2, B6, and iodine. The store even has printed literature about veganism, as well as cook books with delicious recipes.

Household cleaners and personal care

Here's my catch of the day (some of the products in the back are from the drugstore chain DM, another great German outlet for vegans):



What Olivera likes most about her new shop? All the happy people! "When I see the smiling faces of vegans coming here for the first time who are swept off their feet by the range of products and telling my staff and me how grateful they are to have found a place like this, that is the best reward you can hope for."

Veganz is located at the following address:
Spessartstraße 2
60385 Frankfurt am Main
Fon: +49 69 23807792
Fax: +49 69 90437449
Opening hours: Mon - Sat 8:00 - 20:00 Uhr

Veganz is a wordplay from the German words vegan and ganz (entirely, completely). It's the name of a supermarket where all products are entirely vegan. The business started in Berlin's alternative district Prenzlauer Berg in 2011, and I had the pleasure to visit their second branch in Frankfurt last weekend, which was opened last month in the district of Bornheim - ironically right behind a little square which prominently features a bratwurst hut, so that I had to take the following picture from an angle. After the vegan Edelkiosk, a creative little coffee shop with delicious homemade vegan pies, cakes, and sandwiches that opened in March 2012, this is the second 100% vegan business to open in Frankfurt in less than a year - a fact which gives a promising outlook on the future of the food sector in the city that is more famous for its cooked ribs, beef sausages and sourmilk cheese.

Veganz - with bistro Sesame in the front on the left 

Fresh organic veggies

Upon entering the location, I was welcomed by the smell of pizza and pita bread from Sesamo, a little bakery/ bistro section, operated by Carmelo und Vincenzo-Arturo Panzarella. I visited around 1pm (lunch time), and there was a lively gathering of clients munching on vegan pizza, bagels, and salads.

But the shopping area wasn't empty either: I had to wait for people to clear the aisles a number of times so that I could take photos of the store and its products. I heard that during the opening on 18 January, the store was so packed with people that a friend of mine who went to see it had to turn around again because he couldn't get in anymore.

Fresh organic fruit

Right by the entrance you find a good variety of fresh organic fruits and vegetables, as well as seeds, nuts, and spices. This doesn't deviate much from the regular offering of any downtown organic food store in Germany or in the Netherlands. What really makes a difference though is the rest of the product range: While your average organic food store offers a large variety of animal-based products (milk, cheese, meats, fish, honey, or processed foods containing animal ingredients - and believe me, once you're beyond 45, it sucks having to decipher the small print on the labels, particularly in Dutch!), everything you can buy in here is animal-free and not tested on animals either.

Nuts by the bulk

I had the opportunity to talk to the manager and co-owner, Olivera Miloradovic, who told me that it was her initiative to open this store in the rooms of a former drugstore branch. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, she got in touch with Jan Bredack, the founder of the Berlin headquarter, and tried to talk him into opening another location in Frankfurt. At first he was hesitant in spite of the huge success of his initial operation, but she insisted, and so they teamed up to open this place, drawing on the same successful concept of a one-stop shopping venue for vegans and the same supplier base.

A conventional organic store has no more than a handful of suppliers from who they buy most of their products. On their 200 square meters (approximately 2,150 sqft) in Frankfurt, Veganz offers 6,000 entirely plant-based products from all over the world which they procure via more than 100 different producers or intermediaries. A lot of the products come from organic sources, and all of them are GMO-free, according to EU law.

Being a former cheese addict, I was particularly stunned by the large variety of high-quality non-dairy cheeses. Here in the Netherlands, we know only a few: The US brands Tofutti and Sheese, UK-based Cheezly, but with a limited product range (usually only 2-3 varieties at most, and those are rather bland and not very alluring), and if you're lucky, you can get your hands on the Swiss Vegusto No-Muh Chäs. The German Wilmersburger, available as slices or grated and hugely successful in its home country because it comes incredibly close to dairy cheese in terms of taste, texture, and behavior, has just lately been swapping across the border, but there are only a handful of outlets yet, such as de Vegetarische Slager (the vegetarian butcher) and the recently opened veggie4u in Den Haag, or the online seller Veggiedeli. Here, I found products and brands I had never heard of before, including a non-dairy cheese called Jeezini by Vegourmet, an Austrian producer, which I instantly fell in love with.

The non-dairy dairy section

Like Wilmersburger, it comes incredibly close to dairy cheese, and their variety with Herbs de Provence is just heavenly! At €1.65 per 100g, it's even slightly cheaper than Wilmersburger which costs €1.99 for the same quantity. I hope that one of the Dutch vendors in the region will pick it up soon. This is too good to only have it every few months when I go to Germany!

Spreads, preserves, and instant products

I also couldn't resist to try an alternative whipping cream from Soyatoo, another German venture which I know from the versatile and tasty soy whip they have already been offering in the Netherlands for a while; here at Veganz, they also have rice whip and coconut whip. I haven't tried it yet, but if their soy whip is anything to go by, it will be delicious.

Mock fish and meats

The huge wall cooler that offers mock meat and mock fish is equally impressive: Soy tuna, mock fish steaks, and I even found a pack of vegan scampis which don't only behave like scampis when grilling or frying them and have the same texture to the bite, but even taste like them!

Supplements

Vantastic Foods

Cook books and pet food

Another fridge sports all the product range from Vantastic Foods, one of Germany's leading producers of mock fish and mock meat products.

And, of course, I was allured by the large variety of vegan chocolate bars: When I was still eating dairy, one of my favorites was the white chocolate with strawberries from Divine, but during the past year-and-a-half, I had to resort to dark chocolates, because that's almost all you can get as a vegan in the Netherlands. Not so here: I found a super-delicious bar of white Schakalode with sour cherries, also made by the German producer Vantastic Foods (who I mentioned above in the section about the vegan fish replacements).

Apart from a jealousy-inducing variety of meat and dairy replacers and vegan snacks, Veganz also offers 100% plant-based care products, household cleaners, vegan pet food, baby food, and a section with frozen products, such as baked convenience foods and, of course, non-dairy ice cream.

Frozen goods, spices, sauces, and dips

Furthermore, you can buy a whole range of vegan supplements, including the famous VEG 1 pills from the UK vegan society which Joey and I have been eating for a while already and which give us the necessary amount of vitamin B12, but also some extra vitamin D (from plant sources), selenium, zinc, folic acid, B2, B6, and iodine. The store even has printed literature about veganism, as well as cook books with delicious recipes.

Household cleaners and personal care

Here's my catch of the day (some of the products in the back are from the drugstore chain DM, another great German outlet for vegans):



What Olivera likes most about her new shop? All the happy people! "When I see the smiling faces of vegans coming here for the first time who are swept off their feet by the range of products and telling my staff and me how grateful they are to have found a place like this, that is the best reward you can hope for."

Veganz is located at the following address:
Spessartstraße 2
60385 Frankfurt am Main
Fon: +49 69 23807792
Fax: +49 69 90437449
Opening hours: Mon - Sat 8:00 - 20:00 Uhr

veganz