Out with the old…
Old Town vegan favourite evolves, with a new name and menu that includes vegetarian options. Steven Short talks to Dan Wiltshire of A Taste of Vitality.
Dan Wiltshire knows a thing or two about rolling with the punches. He opened The Hempist, a vegan restaurant-cum-specialist CBD hemp shop, 11 days before the first lockdown. “I had to switch pretty quickly from a restaurant to takeaways,” says Dan. These proved a hit with locals, who could often be seen queuing outside, and the restaurant stayed open throughout the pandemic. “I was suddenly an essential worker!” laughs Dan.
Before The Hempist Dan ran a couple of bars in South London and for 15 years organised the One Love festival. At One Love Dan says he had to cater for lots of Rastafarian festival goers, which is how he learned about the concept of ‘Ital’, a vegetarian diet with a focus on natural, pure foods, which also avoids cross contamination with non-vegetarian foods. It was this that spurred him on to open a food outlet. The word ‘Ital’ comes from the English for Vital, more of which later.
Once it was open again full time, The Hempist proved popular not just with vegans and vegetarians but people curious about plant-based ‘junk food’ like burgers and kebabs, as well as those interested in hemp in cooking (and the teas, oils and other products the restaurant stocked).
But Dan found that the food he was making required lots of trips to the wholesaler, and he was buying more and more frozen stuff “with loads of packaging”. And while it was “fun and interesting what we were doing, I felt like we needed to change things up.” That change was precipitated a few weeks ago when The Hempist was broken into and much of its CBD stock was stolen. “It wasn’t just us – about 20 shops got done on the same night, including Judges bakery.”
Rather than repaint the smashed-up door and bring back The Hempist, Dan saw the perfect opportunity to roll out the changes he’d been mulling over – renaming the restaurant and introducing more wholefood-style dishes with a touch of spice, what he calls “Indian vegan and vegetarian cuisine with an Indian twist.” The new name – A Taste of Vitality, nods back to his cooking experience at One Love.
Another big change is the introduction of vegetarian options rather than offering a purely vegan menu. “It’s hard to be 100% vegan in a limited market,” Dan admits. While some of the new menu will be vegetarian, with some cheese, including paneer, and eggs in some dishes, the focus will still be on vegan cooking.
Food at A Taste of Vitality comes courtesy of “Lakshmi and Raj, two amazing chefs who used to run a restaurant in St Leonards”. Starters on the new menu include vegan chicken satay skewers, aubergine bhaji with coconut chutney, and Jamaican vegetable patty, with mains such as garlic curry, aubergine curry, egg curry, vegetable dosa and a thali of four curries and plain rice. Fans will also be glad to see vegan fish and chips (served with mushy peas and tartar sauce) are still on the menu, “Our biggest seller!” along with vegan doner kebab, chilli con carne, and Sunday roasts.
• A Taste of Vitality, 3 Marine Parade, Hastings, TN34 3AH, 01424 425608 www.thevitalitykitchen.com
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply