Homemade, 4 Nether Edge Road, Nether Edge, Sheffield, S7 1RU.
ONE of the nicest things is to all go out as a family for a burger but there's a sizeable number of people who have to miss out: the veggies and vegans among us.
There are such things as veggie burgers but they tend to be dull, pallid things. Not so at Homemade, a delightful little seven-table cafe in Nether Edge, Sheffield.
Every Wednesday, owner-chefs Trudi Colman and Justine Twigge hold a burgers and shakes night which is getting to be a big hit with all types, whether or not they've got kids.
There is a choice of four veggieburgers, which in turn fulfil requirements of being veggie, vegan or gluten-free, as well as a good old-fashioned beefburger for those carnivores who can't go without a meat hit for just one night.
You may know the place as the Green Edge veggie cafe which friends Trudi and Justine took over last September. Neither are veggies themselves but saw no need to change the lunchtime orientation.
At night – on burger Wednesdays or Friday bistro nights – they can be a bit more relaxed about meat.
Homemade is very clean and bright and neat and should conversation drop there is always the wall to read. It's been pasted with copies from Good Housekeeping, circa 1930.
"We got the idea when on holiday in New Zealand, only there the cafe had walls covered in knitting patterns," says Trudi. Like Justine, she is a former teacher, and they met through a love of food.
Cooking is in their blood. Trudi's grandfather Percy Gunter was an RAF chef and famed cake maker and it is his sponge recipe that Trudi still makes every day. Justine can also claim a culinary grandparent, Grandma Lily Gallagher, a Liverpool hotel chef.
Still on holiday but on a different continent, they found a speciality burger cafe in Cape Town. "We thought that would be a good idea but the rents are so high in Sheffield. Then we came across the Green Edge and it's taken us until now to get established and start burger and shakes nights," says Trudi.
We decided to take two of our grand daughters for the night but it is not easy to explain the concepts of vegetarianism and veganism to the under-10s.
"No eggs?" says the oldest in horror. The other had the face on and refused to order, so we did it for her.
A burger of whatever ilk costs 6.95 with the choice of two salads or wedges. "What no chips?" they frowned, not at all convinced that potato wedges were in fact chips, albeit with the skin left healthily on. In the confusion we ordered wedges all round, rather than salads, but burgers go with chips like bacon goes with eggs.
Veggie burgers do have a texture problem and Trudi and Justine met this head on. They held two-nightly tasting panels for 40 people with various types and what you see on the menu came up the winners.
My Mr Bean is a mix of kidney beans, red pepper and chilli, which is vegan, with a little salad between two slices of ciabatta.
Ah, what about the bread? I hear you cry. That's vegan, too – no animal fats.
My wife was and is a Hot Chick, a vegan and gluten-free burger, made with chick peas, nicely spicy with an Indian lilt.
One grandchild decides to stay a carnivore and scoffed an Uncle Sam's, a good, solid, hearty beef pattie with fresh coriander, which would have put several beefburgers in the city to shame. A slice of Emmenthal made it a cheeseburger.
The other youngster has a veggie frankfurter (3.75), decided she didn't like the onions, left the bread and, coming round, ate everybody else's wedges.
The milkshakes, one of which is vegan, are very good, made with fresh fruit. We had strawberry and banana.
Of course they wanted cakes. Uncle Percy turned up trumps with Trudi's take on his sponge, a raspberry jam and cream cheese butter icing sponge, and Homemade does an ultra light vegan cupcake, all 1.50 each.
They find that some nights they get more orders for veggie burgers then it goes the other way around. Overall it's 50-50 and a lot of satisfied customers.
Our bill for four came to 36.40.
Review:
4 Nether Edge Road, Nether Edge, Sheffield, S7 1RU.
Telephone: 07774 013 438.
Open Tues-Sat 9.30am-4pm; Wed 5-9pm, Friday bistro nights (BYO) 7-10.30pm. Cash only. Street parking.
My star ratings (out of five):
Food HHHH
Atmosphere HHHH
Service HHHH
Value HHHH
Cafe category. Do not compare ratings between places of different style or price.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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