Business of the week: VX, the King’s Cross vegan deli proud to sell ‘junk food’

In a weekly feature, we profile a fascinating company doing business here in Islington. This week, we visit VX in Caledonian Road, the deli “trying to make veganism fun”.

Rudy Penando set up VX near King’s Cross after spotting something missing from London’s food offerings – vegan friendly junk food.

“I couldn’t find any shops doing this sort of thing,” he said. “So I had to do it myself.”

Opened in February 2010, the shop in Caledonian Road – short for “Vegan Cross” – sells a feast of vegetable-based treats.

Serving up cheese, chocolate, cake and coffee to name but a few, it has all the usual favourites you’d expect in a north London foodie’s paradise. The only difference is that they’re all free from animal products.

“I didn’t want to produce what the UK usually has,” said Rudy, 43. “I wanted to do things a bit differently and break the mould by selling junk food – for vegans.”

There’s a bit of politics behind it. The VX website states: “For us, the best way to ensure the masses adopt a cruelty-free way of life that eliminates the abuse and exploitation of our animal chums is to offer people a seriously delicious alternative.”

That’s a mission statement Rudy and his two staff surely share with Cookies and Scream, the vegan ice cream parlour in Holloway Road that featured in our “start-up of the week” column last year after branching out from its famed Camden base.

But Rudy told the Gazette: “It’s not the 1970s any more – we don’t have to be militant.”

He added: “We are trying to make veganism fun.”

The shop also sells clothes and accessories – again, of course, animal-free.