F1 champion Lewis Hamilton is the latest sports star to venture into the restaurant business, launching plant-based burger chain Neat Burger.
Hamilton is partnering with hospitality organisation The Cream Group and investors including such as Royal Yacht Brokers founder Tommaso Chiabra to “revolutionise fast food” by opening what they claim is the “first international, plant-based burger chain.”
The menu will consist of three, core burgers – ‘The Neat,’ ‘The Cheese’ and ‘The Chick’n’, as well as ‘The Hot Dog,’ with sides including skinny fries, sweet potato fries and tater tots.
Neat Burger will serve unique patties, specially created by their team of chefs in collaboration with Beyond Meat, a company which makes a plant-based meat alternative, which forms the basis for the burgers.
One of the concept’s backers, Thommaso Chiabra, became an investor in Beyond Meat last year.
On the drinks menu, Neat Burger will stock Just Water, launched by Jaden Smith in 2018, as well as Lemonaid sodas, dairy-free, soft serve, coconut and soya-based milkshakes, and beers from London-based sustainable brewer Toast Ale.
All of Toast Ale’s beers are brewed with surplus fresh bread from bakeries, delis and other sandwich makers.
In the UK, Toast contracts its brewing out to World Top Brewery in Yorkshire, touted as one of the most sustainable in the UK. Internationally, Toast Ale works with local breweries rather than exporting to ensure the beers are as fresh as they can be for each consumer market.
The first branch will open in Regent Street, London, on 2 September, but the group hope to expand the concept globally, with 14 franchises scheduled over the next two years.
The race-car driver said he is “very passionate about being kinder to our world and also really respect Neat Burger’s commitment to more ethical practices and supporting small businesses, so this is something I’m also really proud to support.”
“But it is also about the product,” he added.
“As someone who follows a plant-based diet, I believe we need a healthier high street option that tastes amazing but also offers something exciting to those who want to be meat-free every now and again.
