Couple launch mobile vegetarian and vegan pizza business

A new mobile Neapolitan vegetarian and vegan pizza company launched in Lincoln this summer.

Lewis Pheby, 26, and his girlfriend and business partner Rosie Mawer, 25, who have both been vegetarian for around three years, set up Slow Rise in July 2019.

Rosie runs an Instagram account called Lincoln Food Reviews, which has over 2,600 followers and this helped sparked the idea of the couple’s mobile catering business.

A new mobile Neapolitan vegetarian and vegan pizza company launched in Lincoln this summer. Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

After two private functions they attended their first corporate event at Your Print Partner LTD in Lincoln on Friday, August 16.

Slow Rise initially started giving out services for free to gain experience, with businesses and customers just needing to pay for the ingredients.

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Lewis told The Lincolnite: “We had an overwhelming amount of responses to our Instagram advert, hundreds of people messaged us and we really hit the ground running.

“We are happy with how it’s going so far, everyone’s loved it. The vegetarian and vegan element hasn’t put people off at all and nullified any concern and we’re excited to bring more flavours to people.

“There is a bit of theatre involved. We make the dough ourselves, it is hand-stretched on site and our oven can cook a pizza in 60 seconds. People get to see how it is made and how quickly it can be done.

“Pizza is quite flexible and doesn’t call for people to have meat on it and it is all working really well. We have had positive reviews so far.”

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Stuart Maclaren, CEO at YPP, said: “The reason for doing it was to thank the staff after the busiest July we’ve ever had as a company with over 11,500 orders.

“This is a great way to build team morale and reward them and it has gone down really well. It is great to support a local start-up business and the team really enjoyed it.”

Slow Rise Co-owner Rosie Mawer in action making pizza. Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

The pizzas

Lewis and Rosie are still experimenting with interesting combinations, but two pizzas in particular are proving popular.

A Mexican style pizza with spicy cauliflower, charred sweetcorn, spring onion, coriander and sriracha mayonnaise is proving a big hit. Another favourite is a truffle mushroom and garlic fried potato pizza.

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Lewis added: “We are open to private event hires and flexible with the corporate side and food festivals is another avenue we are looking into.

“There is a bit of a hole in the market in Lincoln for an independent, dedicated vegan and vegetarian pizza restaurant, which is something for the future.”

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Slow Rise will be attending a charity event at Selenity on August 30 to raise money for the Macmillan Cancer Support charity.

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