Farnham Loch Fyne in vegan ‘graffiti war’
The Farnham branch of Loch Fyne has been caught up in the middle of a “graffiti war” in the town between vegan and anti-vegan activists.
The sign at Loch Fyne has been vandalised with the phrase ‘fish feel pain’ and a sticker saying ‘veganism is not a diet’. Employee Charlie Kirk told Catering Today he had “noticed quite a few vegan stickers and pieces of graffiti around the town”.
When asked if the graffiti at the restaurant had affected business in a negative way he replied: “Not at all, I put it on a Facebook page and everyone thought it washilarious,” and said he thought it had instead attracted more customers.
In what appeared to be direct retaliation, Kirk said he had seen a message scrawled on an electricity box in the town that read: “Dear vegans, stop destroyin’ things to prove your’e [sic] point. It makes you appear more idiotic than me.”
However, Kirk doesn’t believe the electricity box graffiti is a retaliation. He said: “I think people are probably generally quite sick of hearing about vegan this, vegan that, just get on with it and stop trying to force vegan or meat eating down people’s throats, no pun intended.”
When Kirk was asked if he knew why Loch Fyne in particular was targeted, he said it was a “war of words really, whoever can get the best of each other, whoever can get the graffiti in the best place”.
The town’s vegan vandalism battle comes just a week before Loch Fyne is due to introduce a new vegan menu in the Farnham branch. When Kirk was asked if the new menu was a reaction to the graffiti he replied: “No, no it’s not at all”.
The graffiti has led to the restaurant requiring a new sign with Loch Fyne Farnham general manager, Claire Cheeseman saying: “I believe the graffiti is still there. It’s been done in permanent marker so we now need to replace the sign. It has been there for a couple of weeks. It was probably just someone having a bit of fun or making a point. Obviously they shouldn’t be vandalising our signs.”
