Vegan eatery Boon Burger to close

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This article was published 19/12/2019 (2112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Boon Burger, a Winnipeg vegan restaurant that served plant-based burgers long before they appeared at national fast-food chains, will close next month.

The Sherbrook Street restaurant opened in 2010, when owners and spouses Tomas Sohlberg and Anneen DuPlessis burst onto the vegan scene just as the no-animal-byproduct diet began growing from a niche market to a lifestyle trend.

Soon, the business expanded. A second restaurant opened in the Exchange District; they partnered with Vita Health markets to sell their products in stores, and ventured into franchising with outlets in Ontario cities such as Hamilton, Burlington and Oakville.

Over time, the trailblazing eatery that served “cheez” and “bacun” struggled to make profits in Winnipeg; it closed the Exchange location and pondered shutting down its Sherbrook spot.

“We created this business from our hearts, and being animal-free and environmentally friendly is something we felt really passionate about,” Sohlberg said. “But you also have to make money,” and for various reasons, Boon’s Winnipeg operations weren’t making as much as needed in recent years.

Sohlberg said they’ve been dealing with increasing food costs, high demand for delivery services, and an increase in vegan and vegan-friendly options, which hurt sales.

Sylvain Charlebois, the scientific director of Dalhousie University’s agri-food analytics lab, said all small restaurtants, such as Boon, face the same pressures.

A recent survey conducted by the lab and the Angus Reid Institute found that food-delivery apps, which charge a commission as high as 35 per cent, are being used by nearly one-third of Canadians. In Manitoba, where the country’s most popular food-delivery app, Skip The Dishes, is headquartered, 45 per cent of residents have ordered food over an app, the highest usage rate of any province.

“Obviously, these apps are both an opportunity and a threat, depending on how the technology is embraced,” Charlebois said.

While some restaurant owners hesitate to incur costs associated with apps, it can be costly to forgo them altogether. Not offering app-based delivery can eliminate an entire consumer base that prefers to eat restaurant food at home, Charlebois said.

Boon Burger is available on a delivery app, and that has eaten up its profits.

“The delivery companies became sort of a ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’ for our business model,” said Sohlberg. His restaurant used eco-friendly compostable takeout containers, which cost more than Styrofoam, and expensive specialty ingredients, which made spending more on delivery particularly untenable.

At the same time, Sohlberg said business taxes, insurance, banking fees and purchasing costs went up, so Boon raised prices, “not to make more money, but to continue on.” Fewer customers went to the restaurant.

Sohlberg also cited increasing competition as a reason for the restaurant’s impending closure. In 2010, vegan options in the city were few and far between, but chains such as McDonald’s, A&W, and Tim Hortons began taking a bite out of vegans’ wallets at a cost independent restaurants such as Boon couldn’t compete against.

Currently, 534,000 Canadians identify as vegan, Charlebois’ lab has found. It’s a marginal segment, but one that’s growing fast: the number of Canadians who call themselves vegan increased by nearly 20 per cent during the last year, Charlebois said. Consumers 35 and younger are three times more likely than those older than 49 to consider themselves vegan or vegetarian.

“I would argue that 10 years ago, most people didn’t even know what a vegan was,” Charlebois said.

Somewhat counterintuitively, Sohlberg and Charlebois said, a more rampant appetite for vegan options doesn’t necessarily equal better business for independent vegan restaurants, even as Canadians spend more than ever on dining out.

Sohlberg and DuPlessis, who opened the city’s first Stella’s Cafe years ago, have worked in restaurants their entire careers, Sohlberg said.

“We’ve had great successes and some failures, but we will always look back on the restaurant industry fondly,” he said.

As for what’s next for the duo, Sohlberg said he isn’t sure, but true to their vegan roots, he said, “We’re looking for a fresh start.”

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca