A quiet winter night in the suburban normality of Perth’s north in 2023 saw an atmospheric anticipation, as weeks of online noise against Fyre Restaurant in Connolly resulted in vegan activists storming the restaurant. The conversations by vegan netizens and community forums had escalated to an organised physical standoff between head chef and owner John Mountain and animal rights protestors.

The protestors included vegan activist Tash Peterson who has made headlines for her disruptive protests, including protesting in the cattle section of the Perth Royal Show in 2022 and covering herself in blood at a Louis Vuitton store in Perth’s CBD in 2021.

John Mountain says he predicted the situation.

“I pre-warned staff,” he says.

“I said I’ve got a feeling this f**king idiot [Tash Peterson] is going to come in and sure enough she did.”

John Mountain

“All hell broke loose and so I just gradually threw them out.”

Tash Peterson maintains a large social media following. Peterson currently has 84,000 followers on Instagram and over 59,000 on TikTok. Mountain applied for a Violence Restraining Order against Peterson, but the judge denied it due to insufficient grounds. “I put a VRO out against her because of all the sh*t she puts online,” he says. “The lunatics that follow her were sending me death threats.”

Before June 2023, he had not given vegans much thought. Mountain says a vegan diner coordinated a Google review boycott after receiving poor service. “I got just over 300 one-star reviews every hour,” he says. “My Google rating went from a sensible 4.5 to a 2.8 within an hour it was horrific. I wrote on Facebook and Instagram: “Hey from now on all vegans are now banned (for mental health reasons), all my love Johnnie Mountain”.

The ban on vegans from Fyre brought media attention from national and international media such as Piers Morgan Uncensored and The New York Post.

“Little did I know that nobody had banned a group of people before,” says Mountain.

“Over the years there’s been racism and all sorts of prejudice, but nobody had ever banned vegans before.”

John Mountain

Mountain recalls one moment which captured the public’s reaction. “We were out having lunch and this older lady came up to me and was like f**k vegans then ran off,” he says. “The majority of the public were on my side. We were just going mental. Business was packed. We were f**king solid.”

This support from the public has allowed Mountain to shape his brand around his anti-vegan stance. Mountain posts on social media frequently and uses the hashtag “f**k vegans” in every post to drive engagement with his business. Fyre is an independent family-owned business run by John Mountain and his wife Rita Mountain.

“With Rita’s help on the socials business is going great,” Mountain says.

Inside the restaurant, the atmosphere is calm with soft cocktail jazz music, ambient candlelight and garden fairy lights. Mountain underwent triple bypass open-heart surgery in July. Recovering from his procedure, he has taken a step back and allowed himself to reminisce on his beginnings in the industry.

From a London Calling to Western Australia

Mountain’s culinary journey started at the age of 18 in the United Kingdom working between floor and kitchen roles in restaurants. “I fell in love with the kitchen because they were the rockstars,” he says. “I then realised that cooking was my true love. So, I moved from the north of England down to London because that’s where all the bright sparkly lights were.”

He worked alongside acclaimed British restaurateurs, such as celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson and author Alastair Little. Mountain says the culinary knowledge he gained lead him to critical acclaim and a starring role in the BBC Television Program Great British Menu. “I took a huge drop in salary, but the knowledge was phenomenal,” he says.

The journey led him to eventually immigrate to Western Australia with his family, working through various restaurant institutions, such as Hamptons in City Beach and Fraser’s Restaurant in Kings Park, under executive chef Chris Taylor. “The owners were a bit difficult to work with but then I realised that it’s not the owners that are difficult. It’s me that’s difficult,” says Mountain.

Recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic gave Mountain the opportunity for a fresh start and he opened Fyre in 2022. He says his restaurants are personal to him. “I build my restaurants. I physically built that bar. I physically cut out these walls. I do it because it’s a part of me then,” he says.

With all love and veganism

While Peterson declined to comment on Fyre’s thriving brand, Vegan Australia director Greg McFarlane says that animal rights protesters are inevitably going to be criticised. “People campaigning against injustice have often been regarded as troublesome, extreme or unreasonable when they challenge society’s entrenched beliefs and practices,” he says.

A 2024 report by the Australian Institute of Criminology found respondents surveyed were significantly more likely to oppose violent or disruptive protests than peaceful protests regardless of the issue or movement in question. The recognition that followers of veganism are reduced to a stereotype of being overbearing can be seen in contemporary society.

Local vegan Emilia Wild says there is a misrepresentation of vegans in society.

“On social media vegans get a bad rep of being quite reactionary and pushing their views onto other people,” she says. “People try to categorise us and put us in a box that we are all hardcore.”

Wild says assumptions about all vegans imposing their lifestyles onto others are incorrect.

“It’s quite silly that people assume all vegans are going to push our beliefs onto others,” she says. “I just kind of get on with what works for me and what works for my life.”

Australian Bureau of Statistics data from 2023 shows one in 20 Australians are vegetarian or vegan which is 5.3 per cent of the Australian population. The idea of a ban on vegans prompts questions about inclusivity in the culinary world and the need for alternatives that align with peoples’ beliefs and practices.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Australia spokesperson Emily Rice says chef’s who don’t offer vegan alternatives are overlooking valuable growth in their skills.

“A good chef has an open mind and values creativity,” she says.

“Chefs that don’t embrace animal-free food are missing out, so if a chef doesn’t embrace plants, is a real shame.”

Mountain says the reaction from the public and media attention have been beneficial for his business’s growth.

While the 2023 confrontation was not planned, Mountain is keen to keep the impact on his brand going.

He has new line of merch coming out with the slogan “f**k vegans.”

After his conflicts with the vegan community, John Mountain says the next steps are sticking to his businesses’ ethos with his wife Rita.

“I am happy with Fyre, it’s a good venue,” he says.

“It’s building a good reputation, of course we don’t please all the people all the time.”

Despite his promotional merch against vegans, John Mountain argues he respects people’s personal beliefs but believes they should not be imposed on others.

“It’s good that people have strong beliefs in whatever they want to believe in, but don’t force it upon others.”

John Mountain

“You’re not telling me what to say, what to do, what to feel and what not to feel.”