There's a new vegan store in Melbourne and it's the Cruelty Free Shop - located at 385 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy - in one of the vegan hubs of Melbourne, right next to Lord of the Fries and opposite Vegie Bar.

This new Melbourne store opened to the public over the weekend.

The Cruelty Free Shop has been run by Jessica Bailey since 2001 - it was Australia's first all-vegan online store! In 2012 Jess decided to open a shopfront in the Sydney suburb, Glebe. This year she is adding Melbourne to her cruelty-free empire.

I was excited to venture to Melbourne for the opening night on Thursday, seeing a lot of my interstate friends - most of whom I haven't seen for 2 years as I've been overseas - and meeting some other great people.

Here's some photos of the opening.

This is one of the staff members, Kat with the front window display she designed and created:

Kat & V - photo by Noah Hannibal

Mr Nice Guy made the food for the night consisting of cinnamon scrolls, cupcakes, pretzel dogs, cheese and spinach scrolls and bagels. Sparkling water plus white and red vegan wine from Yalumba was also served.

the Tahlias - photo by Noah Hannibal

photo by Noah Hannibal

Sundara de Silva took most of the following photos on the night - other photos by Noah Hannibal noted.

It was definitely a collection of the who's who of the vegan Melbourne scene!

photo by Noah Hannibal

Pam Ahern from Edgar's Mission was meant to officially open the store. Her and Kyle's car broke down so they unfortunately couldn't make it in time for the event. I gave a bit of an intro for one of my close friend's new store:

must be saying something good! - photo by Noah Hannibal

Here's the Melbourne team L-R: Kat, Tahlia, Tahlia (yes, there's two!), Jess and manager Paul:

Posing with my gal pals:

Jess & Leigh-Chantelle Sasha & Leigh-Chantelle

Paul, Ward, Georgie & Jess Jesse, Paul, Karen & Jess

More photos of the opening night crowd:

Felicity from OMV Bakery made the cake below:

Paul, Jess & Felicity with cake - photo by Noah Hannibal

See the FaceBook photo album here.

Make sure you check out the store the next time you're in Melbourne at 385 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Also, if you're in Sydney (where I now am) visit the Sydney shopfront at 83 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Anywhere else? There's always online!