On a frosty night in Newcastle city centre the streets were eerily quiet following the New Year's Eve revels of the night before.
A few workmen were around at Monument, dismantling the Christmas market, with town -and its warm doorways- only becoming busier towards McDonalds on Grainger Street.
But at Greggs, a little further on, the joint was jumping. A huge queue tailed back - nightclub style - behind royal blue ropes outside the obscured windows of the bakery cum cafe. Two bouncers were on duty at the entrance to the store where the first 200 of the much-heralded Vegan Steak Bakes were to be revealed.
First in the queue was meat eater Danni Delonco, 23, of Durham , a Greggs superfan, who has a on his right calf. He arrived, with fold-up chair, at 6pm to be sure to be at the front of the queue, the likes of which are usually to be found further up Grainger Street for designer trainers at End .
Just before the doors opened at 10pm he beamed: "I just love Greggs and love to try anything new they do. I'm really excited." A group of friends had joined him to lend support - and get a bake, of course.
As the razor-sharp and innovative Greggs marketing machine went into overdrive, a man wrapped in a sleeping bag asked someone in the queue if there was free food, and was urged to join the line. But he wandered away.
Greggs new offering follows the huge success of the company's vegan sausage rolls last year - influenced by a general move towards more meat-free eating and perhaps also by the vegan diet favoured by Greggs chief executive Roger Whiteside.
Danni is not vegan but a few places down the queue were James, who eats mainly plant-based food, and vegan Louise, both of Gateshead, both big fans of the vegan sausage rolls, who came into Newcastle specifically for the event.
Alex Barratt, 22, and Owen Johnstone, 23, of Jesmond Vale, Newcastle, were also there just for the event and queued for 90 minutes to get their gift-bagged bake. The pair write a vegan blog called Intolerant B*sterds. Owen said: "I'm just here for the food and interested in trying new foods. I really like their sausage rolls."
However, as the doors opened, there was a bit more than a free pasty on offer. Inside, the cafe was transformed with nightclub-style lighting, a DJ on the decks, and huge event-style lightbulb letters spelling out VSB - for Vegan Steak Bake.
Staff handed out trainer-sized boxes in a black, cord-handled gift bags topped with black tissue paper. Inside each was a sealed yellow box marked Greggs X Vegan and specially fitted out to contain the pasty next to the message: "The greatest vegan creation ever? You decide." Each was marked with a limited edition number. And Danni was delighted to get box 001/200.
He posed in front of the giant selfie wall, next to glass display cases containing slowly rotating pasties, like so many displays at a top-class jewellers.
After 30 minutes the queue was no shorter and delighted customers filtered out across the city centre swinging their bags like designer shoppers, with a warm, flaky secret hidden inside. Only a few ate their prized pasties - and yes, they liked them!
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