These new vegans really don’t know they’re born.
Back in the dark old days (read: three years ago), us herbivores were forced to bring a bag of crisps wherever we went for fear of starvation. There were no vegan pubs. No vegan restaurants within a ten-mile radius and the possibility that someday we’d have plant-based pastries was nothing more than a pipe dream.
Today – thanks largely to Veganuary – we’ve got more cruelty-free options than ever. And it’s not just food that’s had the green makeover.
Hilton Bankside has just created a fully ‘vegan’ hotel suite. When I first heard about it, I thought it sounded suspiciously like a gimmick to cash in on Veganuary. But when I turned up on a Friday night after work, I mellowed immediately.
Interior matters
The room is everything you’d hope for in terms of a standard Hilton room, but there’s no leather or wool in the fabrics. The pillows aren’t stuffed with feathers. All the products in the bathroom are cruelty-free and vegan – as are the products used to clean the room.
One wonders why any hotel worth its salt would bother using detergents and sprays that had been tested on animals when there are so many alternatives.
I guess the point is that there’s very little transparency about this kind of upkeep when you book into a room; how many of us bother to ask about the bleach the housekeeping uses? But here, at least you can be sure that your stay hasn’t actively come at the cost of any small, furry or feathered critters.
The suite is like an homage to the mindful millennial. The walls are bedecked with frames of ferns and plants and the massive sofa is strewn with pineapple leather pillows. Yes, you read that correctly – pineapple leather. From the headboard of the bed to the room key’s case, Piñatex is the go-to material. All the carpets are made from responsibly sourced organic cotton.
Again, those are interesting touches; they could have gone with just using basic cotton pillowcases or paper/plastic key covers but you’d be hard-pressed to find a more eco-friendly material than Piñatex (pineapple leather). It gives farmers extra income for what is essentially a waste product, and it’s biodegradable. And, obviously, it looks cool.
But again, I just kept thinking – if the Hilton has gone to the effort to source these cool touches, why not roll them out across their rooms?
Someone might not go to book a vegan-specific room but by sticking these sorts of things in normal rooms, they could inspire a conversation. Few people stop to think about where their cotton comes from or the environmental and humane-cost of leather; perhaps staying in a room with pineapple leather cushions along with a card explaining the eco-benefits might inspire someone to adapt their own consumer habits.
The most important part of any hotel stay, I think you’ll agree, is definitely the minibar. This minibar is healthier than your bog-standard ‘whisky miniatures and bags of pork scratchings’ offerings.
Booze has been swapped for bottles of fancy lemonade, salted nuts for fruit crisps and chocolate bars for Kind bars, cacao energy balls and fruit tubes. So if you were worried about overindulging during your stay, don’t – you could end up leaving healthier than you arrived…that is unless you decide to pop into the resident bar for a bottle of vegan wine or brunch the next day.
Booze with a conscious
The Distillery Bankside has launched a vegan menu, complete with delicious wines (free from fining agents like isinglass – fish bladder protein), beers and cocktails. Choose from egg-less passion fruit sours, spit-roasted pineapple gin coladas and old fashioneds, or go for a mocktail.
I went for a rather large glass of red and was relieved to discover after my second that there was also a vegan food menu so ordered a healthy plate of bread and butter to help soak up the booze.
Now, bread and butter is something most of us take for granted. It’s the stuff our grandmas were brought up on, the kind of simple table starter that you eat so much of that you struggle to eat the rest of your meal. But if you’re vegan, chances are you’ve not had bread and butter for a while. Bread and oil, sure, but not butter.
This butter was so buttery that I started to panic that the waiter had got our order mixed up and just brought us a regular plate of the stuff. It was incredible. Honestly, that hot bread and creamy, salty butter were probably one of the best things I’ve eaten in months. It’s the simple things that can really get you, you know?
Brunch like a plant-based prince
Just because the minibar is a mecca to healthy eating, that doesn’t mean that you have to totally forgo a waist belt-loosening feast during your trip. The brunch served at OBOX is something else.
Not only is bottomless prosecco on offer, but brunch is also a buffet which means that you really can stuff your gills with a ridiculous array of plant-based foods. We’re talking dips and salads, breads, vegan ceviche, pancakes.
For the main course, they offer a trio of dishes – only one of which is vegan (a jackfruit curry) – so we asked for them to leave the other two meaty options. However, given that we’d had about four servings of starters, there was no way we’d have been able to eat any more than half a curry each anyway. For pudding, plant-based options included champagne jellies, a fruity blancmange and fresh fruit.
Suffice to say, the rest of the day was a struggle because I was so full.
Worth it?
Veganism is growing. Whether brands adopt it for commercial purposes or seriously ethical ones, the end game is the same: more people engaging with a cruelty-free lifestyle and vegans having more options.
If I had the option to only stay in vegan hotel suites, I definitely would take it – but I don’t really understand why practices used in these rooms can’t be rolled out across the entire property.
Here’s to 2020 – a year of more pineapple leather and vegan butter.
The details
Prices at Hilton London Bankside start from around £127 a night.
Nights in the vegan suite begin at around £405 and include access to the Hilton’s executive lounge with complimentary breakfast, drinks and snacks.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/31/stayed-uks-first-vegan-hotel-suite-now-wish-rooms-cruelty-free-12140808/
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