Since launching in 2020, Pastan has been serving up delicious plates of fresh, plant-based pasta to eager diners. Two pop-ups and a few years later, Pastan Co-Founders Jerome Ibanez and Dean Fawcett now have four vibrant restaurant venues under their belts – with their newest in Spain!
In its latest New Food Hub interview, ProVeg International caught up with Co-founder Jérôme to learn more about the exciting chain, and to learn the secret to success.
What’s the secret to attracting flexitarian and non-vegan eaters to plant-based restaurants like Pastan?
Jérôme: Before we talk about things like marketing strategy, I think there is a key aspect for Pastan, which is pasta.
So, pasta itself remains something very important – who doesn’t like pasta? The demographic goes from two years old – we have toddlers coming in with parents who are very happy for them to have a pasta dish – to 99 years old or more. So the fact that it’s pasta is quite attractive. It’s comfort, it’s easy, it’s not novel; you know pretty much what you’re going to get.
Despite the fact that it’s pasta, our menu also has some more creative dishes. But it’s quite a safe choice. And then I would say, the second aspect is that we benefit from what I call the ‘collateral customers’ or the ‘collateral demographic’. So we have a lot of ‘first visits’.
But then, because these diners like it, they start bringing their friends and family and hosting parties there. So you have the parents, the sister, the brother, etc, and this is how the momentum has grown with us – with co-vegan eaters and also collateral diners or people that simply enjoy good pasta – plant-based or not!
We also have conscious consumers – curious and conscious people that come in – often couples, between like 50 and 70 eating in our restaurant because they hear about the planet, the cruelty to animals, and the planet’s carbon footprint. And they understand that we are part of this journey to build a better planet and to create a more sustainable food offering and environment for everyone.
In terms of marketing strategy, maybe Sophie (our Marketing Manager) can say a word about that?
Sophie: We have definitely made a conscious effort to emphasise the flavour and taste of these dishes and inject excitement. We also offer familiar favourites, but we put our spin on them. And we’ve tried to collaborate with other brands in the food space who already have that awareness – Omni, for example. So that’s been a really good way for us to get the word out about our brand and our unique dishes, and through apps as well, like HappyCow.
What would you recommend to mainstream omnivorous chains that don’t have a big plant-based menu? What can they learn from plant-based eateries?
Jérôme: Let me go back 10 years ago. If we look at menus in most places, even five years ago, we would find it quite difficult to find a vegan dish. Even today, in most restaurants, the most prevalent plant-based dish on most menus is a burger. So many mainstream chains that do have plant-based dishes still don’t put much effort or research behind them.
But it’s about the level of effort that you put into your menu engineering, as well as why you do it and what you want to gain from it. If you put a vegan burger on the menu just because you need to be politically viable or to match what the market is asking you to do, then it’s not going to make a difference to your menu.
My advice would be to create a menu, which will make plant-based eaters feel more welcomed. Change this menu on a monthly basis and communicate more about it. If you have the resources, employ a vegan chef – that will potentially also raise the awareness in your kitchen team and make it more attractive.
Watch the full interview on ProVeg’s New Food Hub, and get in touch with ProVeg at [email protected] for support on your plant-based food service strategy.
