They traded their village pub life to follow their vegan dream.
Husband and wife team Andrew and Joanna Riddell will open the doors of Blaeberry House, Ardross Street, the first weekend in April.
Joanna practices mindfulness and will be offering women’s well-being weekends with meditation, wild swimming and forest bathing.
The couple pride themselves on limiting their carbon footprint wherever possible.
This means the use of eco friendly bath towels and keeping unnecessary packaging to an absolute minimum. Everything is cooked from scratch wherever possible.
Vegan shampoo, conditioner and body wash is provided in reusable bottles – which customers are encouraged not to take away.
‘A really good vegan breakfast menu’
Joanna said: “Myself and my husband are both vegan and thought it would be nice for people that are vegan to be able to sit in a breakfast room that doesn’t smell of eggs, bacon and sausages.
“We will concentrate on doing a really good vegan breakfast menu and people can be confident all of our pans are only used to prepare plant based food.”
She added: “It seems to be the up and coming thing. Especially with all the vegan-friendly restaurants in Inverness, it’s really good.”
Blaeberry House is offering a three-course breakfast with tea and coffee.
Breakfast menu: Traditional Scottish fridge oats with accompaniments.
Pan con Tomate with oven baked crackers.
Hot cooked vegan breakfast including: Polenta, tomato, special beans, mushrooms, sausage, bubble and squeak.
Toast is served with butter and homemade marmalade.
Joanna said the all-vegan business is a “spiritual journey.”
She explained: “It’s about wanting to be better in the world and do as little damage as possible.
“We have so many things we can have as vegans now. There is no missing out. It’s a really nice time to make the change.
“Everyone wants to leave the world a better place for our children and I don’t feel like we are going to be doing that.
All containers are re-useable
“Nowadays we just waste so much. So our bottles for shampoo and conditioner are all reusable. I will certainly be asking that nobody takes them away.
“The jam, butter, everything is taken out of the main container and served in a cup.
“Even our towels are made from material that is quick to dry so that we are not using as much energy.
“That’s why we are not open in the winter. We only heat the room that we are sitting in. As a business, people would expect the entire place to be warm.”
Andrew, 58, became a vegan about seven years ago after trying it for a month in January. After realizing how easy he found it to join Joanna, 51, in veganism, he decided to keep it up.
The pair are opening Blaeberry House after running a successful bar in Dalwhinnie.
Back then, they served non-vegan food as part of their home-made menu at The Lodge.
Joanna said: “It was what was needed for the bar. Now we are excited to provide an all-vegan menu.
How they fell in love with Blaeberry House
“Dalwhinnie was very quiet in the winter. We used to get the train to Inverness on our days off. Inverness has been lovely.”
The Lodge was such a successful business that it sold within weeks of going on the market.
They looked at a lot of places in Inverness and fell in love with Blaeberry House as soon as they saw it.
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