Third happiness teabag in a row. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the universe is trying to tell us something.
Last night I went and had dinner with my friend, Chloe. We went to a eatery in Newtown called “Lentil as Anything”. It was my first time there, and the whole enterprise is frigging fabulous.
Basically, everyone who works there is a volunteer except for a couple of the chefs and the manager. You order off a tight, set menu and at the end of your meal, you pay what you think it was worth and/or what you can afford. This means that they have regulars who are in a really hard place and they often can’t afford to pay for their food. In that way, the business relies on the wealthier to hopefully dig a little deeper and balance the deficit so that the food fair can continue into the future. The energy in the joint is so happy and vibrant. Everyone is connected with each other; it’s bustling, bright and overflowing with people. There is generous spirit everywhere, there are delightful quirky types spilling out onto the street, and of course, it being in Newtown, everyone is just so wonderfully off-beat and open.
They only serve vegetarian food, but it’s delicious and flavourful- really, you’d be hard-pressed to complain about either the quality or the loveliness of the service.
I had a chat with the front-man who greets everyone as you arrive. He’s from the Netherlands and his name is Dave. He had these big, blue earnest eyes and a huge smile and he talked about how he’d arrived in Australia 8 months before, and tripped upon Lentil as Anything.
He explained how it all worked and as the place started shutting shop at 9 pm, every single person who came wandering out the door between Chloe and I on one side and Dave on the opposite side, was literally shining with the simple contentment that comes from eating food made with love, dished out with unconditional kindness and shared with friends: “See ya, thanks mate!” they all grinned and waved.
Support amazing businesses like these, everybuddy, and pay up generously if you can: http://lentilasanything.com/sydney/ They’re brilliant, unique and bring magical happiness 🙂
